CCGS Amundsen

CCGS Amundsen is a T1200 Class Medium Arctic icebreaker and Arctic research vessel operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.

CCGS Sir John Franklin
The vessel was built at Burrard Dry Dock, North Vancouver and commissioned into the Canadian Coast Guard as CCGS Sir John Franklin in 1979, in honour of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.

A 1200-class Arctic icebreaker, she worked out of CCG Base Dartmouth and CCG Base Quebec City for most of the 1980s and 1990s, being tasked to winter icebreaking operations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River and off Newfoundland.

During the summer season, Sir John Franklin was often tasked to support the annual Arctic Summer Sealift operation for escorting cargo ships to remote port communities in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Decommissioning
Following the 1995 transfer of the Canadian Coast Guard from the Department of Transport to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, CCGS Sir John Franklin was deemed surplus to the fleet in 1996.

That summer, she was contracted to Newfoundland-based shipping company Canship for use as an accommodations vessel during exploration work at a coastal nickel deposit at Voisey's Bay in northern Labrador.

She was subsequently decommissioned from the CCG in 2000 and placed in non-operational reserve.

CCGS Amundsen was christened CCGS Franklin in 1979 and renamed CCGS Sir John Franklin in 1981.

CCGS Amundsen
CCGS Sir John Franklin was given new life in August 2003 after a consortium of Canadian universities and research centres, in partnership with the federal government, received funding for a dedicated Arctic Ocean research vessel.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation funded the conversion of the Sir John Franklin at a shipyard in Les Mechins, Quebec which saw part of the vessel's storage holds transformed into laboratory space. The refit also included the addition of a moon pool, which enables scientists to lower scientific instruments from inside the hull without cutting a hole in the ice.

The vessel was recommissioned into the Canadian Coast Guard as CCGS Amundsen in honour of Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen.

As part of the agreement with the educational and research institutions, the vessel is crewed by the Canadian Coast Guard which uses the ship in icebreaking service in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the winter months, after which she is free for research assignments led by ArcticNet from May–December.

The vessel is on the back of the new Canadian 50 Dollar polymer banknote.

In December 2011 a routine maintenance inspection discovered dangerous cracking in four of her six engines. The engines required immediate replacement, and she was unavailable throughout 2012. The Amundsen left on her most recent mission on 26 July 2013.

The helicopter attached to the CCGS Amundsen crashed in the Arctic on 9 September 2013, with a loss of three lives, including the commander, the helicopter pilot and an academic from the University of Manitoba.