Month: October 2021

The Last of a Great Fleet of Ships Part 2: HMCS Cape Breton

20 years after her sinking, we feature unique views of HMCS Cape Breton, the Royal Canadian Navy’s Cape class maintenance ship, and the second last of the whole group of 320 wartime Park/Fort class merchant ships built in Canada.

For a history of Park/Fort ships, which are Canadian-built ships designed along the similar lines as the famous US Liberty ships, please see part 1, which profiled the last of these wartime ships in existence, HMS Rame Head, scrapped in 2009. The Shipsearcher staff historian was excited to tell the story of HMS Rame Head, but he was thrilled when Shipsearcher Identification Section (SIS) staff stumbled across views of the 2nd last ship, the former HMCS Cape Breton (ARE-100), before it was sunk as an artificial reef.

HMCSCapeBretonCN6406_Crowsnest14-3_JAN1962insidecover
HMCS Cape Breton ARE-100 DND CN-6406 image taken from Crowsnest 14/3 Jan.1962 inside cover.

HMCS Cape Breton North Vancouver 2000-12

HMCS Cape Breton was a sister-ship to HMS Rame Head, and 19 other similar Depot, Repair and Maintenance ships built for the Royal Navy. This batch of ships were a variation on the basic Fort or Park merchant ship design, that had been built in many yards in Canada as a vital wartime emergency program. HMS Flamborough Head was completed at North Vancouver’s Burrard shipyards and commissioned on 2 May 1945, a few days before Victory in Europe. The ship was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1952, along with HMS Beachy Head, another Burrard-built sister, that had served a stint in the Dutch Navy.

Cape Breton CROWSNEST 15-8 AUG1963P9
HMCS Cape Breton, showing the large stern flight deck. DND photo E-66886. Image taken from Crowsnest 15/8 Aug. 1963 P.9.

HMCS Cape Breton, and the ship that would later be commissioned as HMCS Cape Scott, were both used alongside at the RCN dockyard, Halifax, providing classroom and repair facilities.

hmcs_cape_scott_1964
HMCS Cape Breton’s sister ship, and the other unit of the Cape class, was HMCS Cape Scott, ARE-101, which was formerly HMS Beachy Head. This ca. 1964 photograph shows the large landing pad being used by a Sikorsky Horse helicopter. Royal Canadian Navy, HS-59754 Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1959, Cape Breton was transferred to the West Coast, home-ported at Esquimalt, BC, and was reconfigured to an escort maintenance ship. Both ships by this time had a large flight deck on the stern, which could accommodate a Sikorsky helicopter.

CFB Esquimalt ships HMCS Provider Preserver Cape Scott e010752588-v6
RCN West Coast fleet, CFB Esquimalt, July 1992. Cape Breton or “Building 100” as it was known, is the ship with the large stern flight deck at extreme right. Other ships include CFAV Endeavour, at the far left, HMCS Provider, HMCS Protecteur, and two destroyer escorts. Forward of Cape Breton is a Bay class minesweeper/training ship, with a Porte class gate vessel outboard. Credit: Library and Archives Canada / Department of National Defence ETC93-1111

HMCS Cape Breton North Vancouver 2000

Decommissioned in 1963, to reduce RCN expenditures, from 1964-1993, she served as an alongside maintenance facility. By the early 2000s the ship was being prepared for sinking, docked on the site of Burrard shipyards in North Vancouver, back where she had been built 65 years before. Thirty feet of the stern of the ship was removed. This section, along with one of the ship’s reciprocating engines, was intended to have become part of a maritime museum. A truncated transom was fastened to the now 410′ long hulk, which also had many access holes cut into the hull for divers to use. HMCS Cape Breton North Vancouver 2001The old ship was towed out to Snake Island near Nanaimo, BC, and sunk on 20 Oct. 2001. The wreck remains a popular dive site, close to the resting place of HMCS Saskatchewan. The monument, meanwhile, was first moved near an old shipbuilding shed slightly North of the Burrard pier.  hmcs-cape-breton-stern-remains-north-vancouver-2004hmcs-cape-breton-stern-remains-north-vancouver-2009

The maritime center never materialized, and eventually the unsightly and exposed stern was dismantled in early 2014, when the cradle it was resting on was judged to be reaching the end of its design life. So went the last of the remaining Fort or Park ships located in Canada.

hmcs-cape-breton-stern-remains-north-vancouver-2014

*The title of both posts was inspired by S.C. Heal’s book A great fleet of ships: The Canadian forts & parks

Oh those Fantastical Warships! Our favorite Google Earth splice errors

Enjoy our favourite warship google earth splice errors!

Wunderschiff! We’ve seen enough views of ships, 3,000 and counting, in our many pages, to know when we have encountered a truly excellent google splice error, or other oddity in the space/time continuum! This quick post shares a few of our favourite multi-phasic, time-shifting, perspective-smashing, supership-creating views.

The MV Ocean Trader is a highly classified US naval asset, at least from about midships towards the stern. This vessel has been fitted with some type of redaction weapon that removes sensitive spaces from overhead imagery. For the classified/redacted portion, you can visit our USN auxiliaries and other ships page. But be warned, you can’t unsee the stern half.
The Bouvet, D-624 shows the French design propensity for taking the “the cult of the offensive” too far…a ship with only a bow, that can only ever advance. It was headed for scrapping near Ghent, Belgium, when some of it got captured. This 1/3rd of the T-47 class destroyer is the sharpest view we have. Her sistership Maillé-Brézé D-627 survives as a museum ship at Nantes, so visit our French destroyers page to see the whole package.
The new Indian Navy aircraft carrier, according to this view, is a 1,130′ foot behemoth, with two islands, and more elevators! For other views of the (270’ shorter) Vikrant under construction, see our Indian Navy carriers page.
We explored INS Viraat / HMS Hermes’ illustrious career in a post, but this 2015 view of her ”fading away” prefigured the sad Alang dismantlement, fully complete by July, 2021.
The Greek naval ports, including Souda Bay, are some of the most effectively pixelated (censored) naval areas in the World. it is difficult to find any recent views of the Hellenic Navy, and they even built some type of sub-pen to protect the Salamis, an active Trireme, from Persian aerial reconnaissance. The above view shows an added layer of protection fitted to their Meko class frigates in about 2015: a cloaking device.
You have heard of the flying Dutchman, well this is the ghost pentekonter! The 50-oared reconstruction of a Greek classical war galley usually calls Volos home, but occasionally it appears as a kind of afterimage on views of Volos, like in the above view. Oddly, this is also the best view of it, with the most detail of the single mast and many thwarts for the rowers.
Ghost Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer or destroyer escort arriving at Kure Harbor with assistance from phantom tugs, June 2017. The spectral ship seems to be aiming to go alongside JS Inazuma DD-105.