CCGS Hudson heads to wreckers yard for $1.6M dismantling and disposal

The federal government has awarded a $1.6-million contract to dismantle and dispose of Canada's storied oceanographic research vessel Hudson.

CCGS Hudson will make one final trip next spring to a wreckers yard in Sheet Harbour, N.S., where it will be taken apart by Antigonish-based RJ MacIsaac Construction. The job is expected to be completed by the fall.

"Today is a bittersweet day as the Canadian Coast Guard responsibly disposes of the CCGS Hudson, a trailblazing vessel that has served Canadians and Canadian scientists for nearly 60 years," Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murrary said in a news release issued Wednesday.

The coast guard has already removed a number of items from CCGS Hudson, including the ship's bell, the wheel, chronometer, anchors and photographs.

The historic items will be archived or donated to maritime museums or installed on other coast guard ships, including Hudson's replacement — the future offshore oceanographic science vessel currently under construction at Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyard.

Care and custody of the ship will be signed over to MJ MacIssac in coming weeks. Hudson will be moved from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth to a temporary storage site in Halifax Harbour for a few months.

In Sheet Harbour, it will be taken out of the water and the hull and superstructure taken apart. Steel, stainless steel and aluminum will be recycled and hazardous materials safely removed, the coast guard said.

The propeller and transducer — or underwater antennae — will be salvaged and returned to the coast guard.

Since 2017, the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has spent over $25 million on "life extension" refits for the Hudson to keep the workhorse at sea.

'Beyond economic repair'

It has been collecting scientific data on the East Coast since it was built in Saint John and launched in 1963.

This January, the coast guard had deemed the ship "beyond economical repair" following a catastrophic mechanical failure in the fall of 2021.

The coast guard is trying to find other vessels to carry out missions usually performed by Hudson, including the decades-old Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program which measures ocean conditions.