Following 59 years of dedicated service, the Canadian Coast Guard’s oldest serving vessel, the CCGS Hudson is being decommissioned. In November 2021, a failure of the starboard propulsion motor placed the CCGS Hudson out of service. Due to the scale of the problem and the time and cost to repair it, combined with the costs associated with an upcoming period of regulatory compliance work, it has been determined that the ship is beyond economical repair and further investment would not allow it to return to reliable service.
The CCGS Hudson is a key platform for Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s oceanographic science program. While there are no science missions planned for the CCGS Hudson over the winter months, the vessel’s permanent replacement, the yet to be named Offshore Oceanographic and Science Vessel, isn’t expected to be delivered until 2025. The Canadian Coast Guard is working closely with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to evaluate the near and long terms impacts on programming and developing a plan to mitigate these impacts. Discussions are focused on which parts of the science program can be completed by other Canadian Coast Guard vessels, by chartered vessels, or through the use of other technology.
The decommissioning of the CCGS Hudson marks the end of an era for the Canadian Coast Guard. In the coming months, plans for a celebration of the ship and the crews’ accomplishments over the past 59 years will be developed and Canadians will have the opportunity to share memories and experiences of their own interactions with the ship and all of its past crews.