An impending hurricane has chased ships participating in an international exercise out of Halifax Harbour.
“Unfortunately given the approach of hurricane Dorian, Maritimes Forces Atlantic has taken the difficult decision to sortie the ships to get them out of the path of the hurricane,” Capt. Matt Bowen told reporters Friday morning at the HMCS Scotian training site in the Navy dockyard.
“That’s as a means of both safeguarding the assets themselves and the people on board, as well as making sure they’re available to respond should there be a need for assistance either here or elsewhere (in Atlantic Canada) that’s in the hurricane’s path."
The 15 ships involved in Exercise Cutlass Fury now berthed in the harbour will move out starting at about 1 p.m., said Bowen, who is exercise director and commander of the navy’s sea training group.
“We want to get them into sheltered waters where there isn’t going to be large waves, which have equal potential to damage the ships as much as they would sitting alongside during a full-strength hurricane.”
"This morning’s forecast was a little less optimistic and based on that the (navy) commander felt we couldn’t accept that risk."
- Capt. Matt Bowen
The ships will gather in a location “fairly close to Halifax” (the precise location wasn’t disclosed) in case they’re needed for assistance during the storm.
Bowen noted that a few Canadian Navy ships will remain in the habour because they’re undergoing maintenance and can’t be moved out to sea.
“But we are going to be taking extra precautions for them obviously, moving them to more sheltered berths,” he said. “We’ll have extra crews on board, they’ll have their own electrical power, all those other precautions (will be) in place.”
Ships and aircraft from eight NATO nations are participating in Exercise Cutlass Fury from Sept. 9 to Sept. 20 off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The exercise is held every two years in various NATO countries.
The ships were in Halifax early for tours and other public events that were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, which obviously had to be cancelled.
A public display featuring aspects of the Canadian navy such as its diving team operation remained open Friday afternoon at the HMCS Scotian site at 2111 Lower Water St.
More public events are planned for next week, including a fleet review of warships as they sail past the Second World War corvette HMCS Sackville en route to the exercise offshore.
Aircraft, including several from the Royal Canadian Air Force such as CF-18s, will fly over the ships as they depart the harbour.
It’s not known whether the hurricane will affect that schedule.
“It’s disappointing,” Bowen said, but the decision to move the ships was made Friday morning after an updated forecast raised the possibility of a more intense Dorian landfall.
“We tried to delay that decision as long as we possibly could based on the forecast. Certainly as late as last night the forecast had the hurricane passing further offshore with less impact to this region. This morning’s forecast was a little less optimistic and based on that the (navy) commander felt we couldn’t accept that risk."
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