Canada takes delivery of second interim icebreaker from Davie

Davie Shipyard workers and members of the Canadian Coast Guard at the delivery of CCGS Jean Goodwill in Lévis, Quebec. [Image: Canadian Coast Guard]

The Canadian Coast Guard has taken the delivery of the CCGS Jean Goodwill, the second of three medium interim icebreakers created by Davie Shipbuilding in Lévis, Quebec, through the conversion of a former icebreaking AHTS,

Davie acquired the three former offshore industry ships — Viking II, Balder Viking and Vidar Viking —for the interim icebreaker program from Viking Supply Ships AB in 2018. All three Norwegian-built vessels were originally delivered in 2011.

The conversion work at Davie was completed under the third pillar of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy which covers vessel repair, refit, and maintenance.

The CCGS Jean Goodwill is named in honor of the late Jean Goodwill, an Officer of the Order of Canada. Goodwill was a Cree nurse from the community of Little Pine Nation in Saskatchewan who in 1954, became Saskatchewan’s first Indigenous woman to finish a nursing program. Goodwill is also a founding member of the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada and a contemporary pioneer of public health services for Indigenous peoples.

The conversion work and refit completed on the CCGS Jean Goodwill included enhancing icebreaking capabilities and endurance, upgrading the propulsion control system, navigation and communication electronics, improvements to the galley and increased crew accommodation capacity.