Titanic submersible tragedy has a link to Seaway
There is a St. Lawrence Seaway connection to the ill-fated submersible Titan, aboard which five men have been lost on an expeditionary dive to the Titanic. The vessel Polar Prince, which took Titan out to the site and was the attending vessel, is the ex-Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Humphrey Gilbert.
CCGS Sir Humphrey Gilbert entered service with the Department of Transport Marine Service in 1959, was transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962 and was active until 2001. The icebreaker was sold to private interests in Newfoundland and renamed Polar Prince, sitting mostly idle until resold in 2009 to GTX Technology Canada Limited for service in the Arctic Ocean as a commercial icebreaker.
The ship was taken out of service in 2001. In 2002, the icebreaker was sold to Puddister Trading Co. Ltd of St. John’s and renamed Polar Prince. In 2002, the vessel was acquired by Star Line Inc. In 2005, the vessel was laid up and put up for sale by Star Line on eBay. The vessel was later sold to GX Technologies, Calgary, Alberta, in 2009 and was modernized
In 2017, the vessel was temporarily rechristened Canada C3 and used for a high-profile voyage around Canada’s three maritime coasts as part of the nation’s 150th anniversary. During that voyage she made it as far west as Toronto.
In November 2021 the ship was purchased by Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Service Ltd, a joint venture between Horizon Maritime and the Miawpukek First Nation, a company that has trained Indigenous cadets as seafarers for offshore supply vessels.
In June 2023, Polar Prince was chartered by OceanGate Inc. for an OceanGate Titanic Expedition, the scientific and tourist mission to the wreck of the Titanic.
Graham Grattan, Ron Beaupre, Rene Beauchamp, William Lafferty, Wikipedia
Cleveland’s Anthony J. Celebrezze fire boat decommissioning set for next Wednesday
The decommissioning ceremony of the Cleveland Fire Department’s fire boat Anthony J. Celebrezze will be on Wednesday 6/28/23 at 11 AM- 2 PM at Collision Bend Brewing Co., 1520 Old River Road, Cleveland, Ohio. The new fire boat, the Garrett A. Morgan, will be officially placed in service at the same event that is open to the public. The brewery will also be releasing a summer brew named “Aft the Brezze” to commemorate the event.
The Celebrezze, built in 1961, has been used as base for the dive team, river firefighting operations and to supply water to companies operating on the shoreline. It also patrols the Cuyahoga in winter months to break ice in the river and harbor.
Anthony Joseph Celebrezze Sr. was an American politician of the Democratic party, who served as the 49th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, as a cabinet member in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
