The Alexander Henry was safely inside the dry dock by 7:00 am Friday June 15th 2007. A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped out on this historic voyage.

COAST GUARD VESSEL ALEXANDER HENRY TO EMBARK ON FINAL VOYAGE

Thanks to the swift reaction of the City of Kingston and Public Works and Government Services Canada, the retired Coast Guard vessel Alexander Henry, will be resting safe and secure in the former dry-dock at the Kingston Shipyards within the next week.

The Alexander Henry, which has served as the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes largest artifact since the vessel’s retirement from active service in 1985, will move 65 meters from its temporary berth alongside the Mississaugua Point wharf into the dry-dock basin, when wind and water allow. 

The on-going safety of the ship at its current berth, has been the subject of serious concern on the part of the Marine Museum and local officials for some time.  The Mississaugua Wharf and is currently owned by Public Works and Government Services Canada, has outlived its useable service life and is showing signs of advancing deterioration.  Twenty years of observation of the ship’s action at its berth, particularly during the winds and storms of the past two winters, caused Marine Museum staff and volunteers to question the ship’s safety at its current mooring through another winter.

The prudent and most cost effective course of action, to preclude a disaster should the ship break free and founder, is to move the ship into the dry-dock basin, where, still afloat, it would, however, be shielded from wind and wave action.  The move can only be accomplished when lake levels are at their annual spring time high, permitting the keel of the ship to clear the sill of the dry-dock.  With lake levels dropping faster than anticipated this spring, the Alexander Henry’s continued presence on Kingston’s waterfront was growing less likely as the days passed.

Final permission was granted late on Friday, 8 June and preparations for the ship’s last voyage are well underway.  Marine Museum Board of Trustees Chair, Mark Siemons, commented that he is “delighted at how quickly Public Works and the City of Kingston have worked together on this issue.”

The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston is the sole museum in Canada which focuses exclusively on the maritime history of the Lakes.  The Alexander Henry was acquired by the Museum in 1985 thanks to the intervention of the Honorable Flora MacDonald and two of her Cabinet colleagues.

Built at Port Arthur Shipyards and launched in 1958, the ship had virtually spent its entire working career on the Great Lakes in its role as a light icebreaker and buoy tender.  The Alexander Henry is probably one of the best-documented museum ships in North America, is a fine example of Canadian shipbuilding at its peak, and a rare artifact from the cold war era.