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Three naval ships coming to Prince Rupert for Canada Day

There will be something new at this year’s Canada Day celebrations in Prince Rupert.
12171princerupertHMCSWhitehorse
HMCS Whitehorse is one of three naval ships coming to Prince Rupert for Canada Day.

There will be something new at this year’s Canada Day celebrations in Prince Rupert.

Three different Kingston-class naval ships will be docked at the Atlin Terminal down in Cow Bay for public viewing and they will be hosting an open house at Northland Terminal for the public from nine a.m. to three p.m. on July 1.

According to the Prince Rupert Special Events Society, those who come down to see the ships will be given onboard tours.

“They’ll show you all their logistics equipment, surveillance equipment, what they do when they’re on their missions, their operations, their exercises, things like that,” says Joy Sundin from the Special Events Society.

The three ships that are coming are the HMCS Whitehorse, HMCS Nanaimo, and the HMCS Brandon. The ships are commonly used costal surveillance and patrol, which involves things like search and rescue operations and support for law enforcement, resource protection and pollution control.

All of the ships have a crew of 37 sailors most of which are typically reservists with a small number of regular force personnel.

All three ships are also equipped with “state-of-the-art” sonar equipment for surveying the bottom of the ocean. The equipment creates geo-coded sonar images of the sea floor, which can be used for the mapping of new sea routes, and also for detecting mines.