North Vancouverites may have noticed an out-of-the-ordinary vessel floating in local waters over the last few days.
Royal Canadian Navy submarine HMCS Corner Brook pulled up to North Vancouver's Burrard Dry Dock Pier on Thursday, April 3, causing quite a stir as people flocked to get a look at the unique vessel.
The diesel-electric vessel is ready for deployment after a 14-year hiatus following a strike to the seabed during a submarine officer training session near Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Now back in order, the submarine will “play a key role in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the Royal Canadian Navy said in a X (formerly Twitter) post last week.
Navy submarines help contribute to national security and defence due to undertaking long covert patrols in Canadian maritime areas and distant waters. Canada announced the decision to acquire HMCS Corner Brook along with three other submarines from the United Kingdom on April 6, 1998.
Repairs were needed to bring the 2,455 tonne submarine back to pristine condition following the strike on the seabed, with a price tag of $20 million. The glass dome in the submarine took the worst hit, shattering during the incident, said Cmdr. Eric Isabelle, Corner Brook’s commanding officer, during a media tour Sunday.
Upgrades to Corner Brook’s sonar and communications systems were also needed, costing roughly $690 million.
“Which is bread and butter for the submarine,” Isabelle said about the systems.
New systems and upgrades help address obsolescence, enhance the sub’s operational capabilities and improve communications from the vessel to shore.
“By having the upgrades, we want to remain relevant," he said, "enable the crew to remain at sea, keep proficiency.”
Corner Brook and other submarines are intended to remain in service until the 2030s, Isabelle said, making the current upgrades vital.
Long waits for a submarine to return to full operation is not uncommon, Isabelle said, as there are a lot of checks done to make sure a vessel is in perfect condition before returning to sea.
“Though the submarine was in refit for 14 years give or take, we have three other submarines that were operating at the same time,” he said. “Without the upgrades, [it] would have been much shorter, but the investment is there to get those upgrades so we can maintain applicability.”
Inside HMCS Corner Brook
Aside from technical upgrades and maintenance, Corner Brook can get real cozy. Up to 59 sailors can fit into the confined space, surrounded by equipment, pipes and gauges showing pressure and temperature.
No space is wasted in the submarine, as the Victoria class subs are designed to stay submerged for weeks at a time. A few rooms and hallways are dedicated to bed-bunk style beds for sailors to sleep in, with sleeping bags, pillows and uniforms. Other rooms are filled with control switches, monitors and engines.
The commanding officer’s room is a bit more spacious than the rest, having luxuries like a phone, a Coca-Cola mini fridge and of course, an espresso machine.
The most spacious rest area of the submarine, the "Junior Ranks Mess," is for general purposes – anything from crew watching TV and eating to playing board games and reading.
But the biggest space of the vessel is the weapons storage compartment, where torpedoes are stored when the ship is on an operational mission. When torpedoes are not there, the area is used to sleep trainees and also as a gym space.
Nearby is the kitchen, where three cooks make breakfast, lunch and dinner daily for the dozens of sailors on board.
On Corner Brook, sailors eat breakfast at 3 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.
“We get top notch food because we all know food really affects morale,” said Lt.-Cmdr Britany Bourgeois.
Sailors eat relatively normal food while at sea – eggs, fruit for breakfast, sandwiches with soup for lunch, and anything from steak to stir fries and curry with rice for dinner.
Petty Officer First Class Stephen Mahabir has been on Corner Brook before and after the grounding incident, and says it’s good to see the vessel finally returning to sea.
“I sailed on the East Coast submarine for the last year, and it’s nice too because I’m a West Coast sailor, to have a submarine on our coast now back in operation,” Mahabir said. “I can’t wait for the next deployment, can’t wait to do more sailing. It’s exciting.”
Mahabir joined the navy 16 years ago to challenge himself, but also for his love of the ocean and technology. He oversees the mechanical systems on board and keep the machinery working. The 36-year-old sailor carries the unofficial job title “the wrecker,” based on old British naval terminology.
“We kept all of our old British titles and sayings,” he said. “I love old naval traditions and stuff like that. It’s great to keep it going.”
Corner Brook will be at the Burrard Pier Dry Dock until Tuesday for people to view from the nearby dock before the vessel takes off to Howe Sound.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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