CCGS ''N.B. McLean''CCGS stands for Canadian Coast Guard Ship was a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker. Constructed in 1930 at

Halifax Shipyards The Halifax Shipyard Limited is a Canadian shipbuilding company located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded in 1889, it is today a wholly owned subsidiary of Irving Shipbuilding Inc. and is that company's largest ship construction and repair facili ...

, she entered service as CGS ''N.B. MacLean'' and served in the Department of Transport's Marine Service, using the prefix "Canadian Government Ship". The ship was transferred into the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962. She served in the St. Lawrence River and

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

until she was decommissioned in 1979, and taken to Taiwan to be scrapped in 1989. She was replaced by .

Design and description

The design of the vessel was an evolution of previous Canadian icebreakers ''Montcalm'' and ''J.D. Hazen''. The icebreaker was

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of . The ship had a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 3,254. ''N.B. McLean'' was powered by four Babcock & Wilcox boilers providing steam to two

triple expansion engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

s each driving one screw, creating . This gave the ship a maximum speed of .

Service history

The icebreaker was constructed by

Halifax Shipyard The Halifax Shipyard Limited is a Canadian shipbuilding company located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded in 1889, it is today a wholly owned subsidiary of Irving Shipbuilding Inc. and is that company's largest ship construction and repair facili ...

at Halifax, Nova Scotia with the yard number 5. The vessel was completed in August 1930 and named for Nathan B. McLean, a government official who led an expedition to

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

in 1927. ''N.B. McLean'' entered service with the Department of Transport's Marine Service and made annual trips to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean from 1930 to 1970. Due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, no major icebreakers were added to the government fleet and ''N.B. McLean'' remained the most powerful icebreaker in Canada's fleet until 1950. In 1962, all Marine Service icebreakers were transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard. In the 1960s a flight deck and hangar were added to the stern of the ship. ''N.B. McLean'' made her final voyage to the Arctic in 1970 and was used on the St. Lawrence River and in the

until being taken out of service in 1979. Following her decommissioning, efforts to turn the vessel into a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

at Quebec City, Quebec failed and the vessel was sold for scrap in 1988. The vessel was taken to Kaoshiung, Taiwan and arrived on 20 February 1989 to be Ship breaking, broken up. The vessel was replaced by .

References

Notes

Citations

Sources