Navy investigating breakdown on brand-new Arctic patrol vessel

OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Navy is investigating an unexplained breakdown on its brand-new, $400-million Arctic patrol ship.

The problem first emerged last week as HMCS Harry DeWolf’s crew were training off the coast of Halifax, 2 1/2 months after Irving Shipbuilding delivered the vessel to the Navy.

Commodore Richard Feltham, Commander of Canadian Fleet Atlantic, says the ship was forced to return to port after its freshwater generator and communications systems didn’t work.

It was while the ship was docked that the crew found the cooling pumps on two of the ship’s four diesel generators had broken.

The problems with the freshwater generator and communications system have been resolved, according to Feltham, who said the navy is confident about the causes and solutions.

Though the cooling pumps were also fixed and the Harry DeWolf is back at sea for training, Feltham said the navy is investigating why to ensure there isn’t a systemic problem.

“This pump issue that we’re facing now, we will figure out if it’s just an anomaly of a certain pump or something else,” he said in an interview from Halifax on Thursday.

“Right now I don’t know if I need to replace all the pumps or not. Perhaps it was just organic material on the pump. I don’t know yet. It’d be premature to say. So we’ll do an investigation.” Despite the uncertainty, Feltham expressed confidence in the Harry DeWolf, which was finally delivered to the navy at the end of July.