Coast Guard secures idled ship Cormorant

A Canadian Coast Guard team spent the past week stabilizing the former navy dive vessel Cormorant, which has been sitting idle at the Port of Bridgewater.

“We had been monitoring the vessel and concerned with the deteriorating status of the vessel and any potential pollution threat it may pose,” David Yard, coast guard superintendent of environmental response, told a tech briefing on Monday.

A pollution risk assessment conducted by the Canadian Coast Guard this summer on the privately owned, 74.7-metrelong ship found mooring lines in poor shape, a deteriorating dock without fenders and water getting into the vessel.

The risk assessment stated that the Cormorant “posed an imminent and immediate threat of pollution to the marine environment.” Built in 1963, the Cormorant was a Canadian navy dive ship that has had many owners since being decommissioned decades ago. According to the most recent court cases involving the vessel, the ship is currently owned by the Port of Bridgewater and a numbered company.

Both the port and the numbered company are registered to Rick Welsford, president of Lunenburg County company Think Sail Inc.

On Dec. 1, the coast guard's environmental response team began work on the vessel.

They replaced mooring lines, added fenders to the wharf, righted the vessel (which had been listing), drained carbon dioxide tanks and did repairs to prevent water from getting in the ship.

Yard told the technical briefing that his staff are now beginning Phase 2 of the Cormorant project, which is to find a permanent solution for the ship.

FILE The Canadian Coast Guard did repairs on the former navy ship Cormorant, seen in March 2016. The ship is tied up at Bridgewater.