Maritime Engineering Journal 64 Since 1982 CANADA’S NAVAL TECHNICAL FORUM Spring 2009

The Nine Minute Writing Challenge (Part II)

The Challenge Moves East

CNTHA News Inside! Also in this Issue: • First Frigate Rollout of the MASIS “Deployed Solution” • Forum: The Requirement for Requirements • A Measure of Seaworthiness West Coast“whale”watching— Upper Harbour. for repairs atthePointHopeMaritimeLimitedshipyardin Victoria’s in thisOctober 2008photo,butthepatrol trainingvesselwassimplyin HMCS Orca (PCT-55) maylooklikeakiller backyardbuildingproject

Photo: Brian McCullough Maritime Engineering (Established 1982) Edition No. 64 Journal SPRING 2009

DEPARTMENTS Commodore’s Corner Engineering Knowledge — Understanding the requirement is fundamental in the search for solutions by Commodore Richard Greenwood ...... 2 Letters An Engineer’s Tale — Diving in the Engine Room by Commodore (Ret.) Ed Murray ...... 3 Forum The Requirement for Requirements (or how to get what you want) Director General by LCdr (ret.) Gordon Forbes ...... 4 Maritime Equipment Program Management Commodore Richard W. Greenwood, OMM, CD FEATURES The East Coast’s “Short Answer” to the Nine Minute Writing Challenge Senior Editor We asked participants at the 2008 MARLANT Naval Technical Capt(N) Mike Wood DGMEPM Chief of Staff Seminar to write about their biggest technical challenge in the navy. You should read what they wrote. Project Director by 71 Worthy Contributors ...... 7 Maritime Engineering Journal Lt(N) Patrick Fortin Materiel Acquisition and Support Information System — First Frigate Rollout of the MASIS “Deployed Solution” Production Editor / Enquiries Brian McCullough by LCdr Simon Paré, CP02 Chris Tucker and Janelle Mansfield ...... 21 [email protected] Scrimshaw or scroll saw — Tel. (613) 831-4932 Is this YOUR ship? Associate Production Editor by CPO2 (ret.) Grant Heddon ...... 24 Bridget Madill A Measure of Seaworthiness Production Editing Services by by Michael Dervin ...... 26 Brightstar Communications, Kanata, Ontario (613) 831-4932 BOOK REVIEW [email protected] Betrayed Print Management Services by reviewed by Capt(N) Hugues Létourneau ...... 28 Assistant Deputy Minister (Public Affairs) DPAPS / Creative Services CNTHA NEWS Newsletter of the Canadian Naval Technical Translation Services by History Association ...... Insert Public Works and Government Services Translation Bureau ADM(Mat) Translation Co-ordinator The Maritime Engineering Journal (ISSN 0713-0058) is an unofficial publication of the Mari- M. Clément Lachance time Engineers of the Canadian Forces, produced three times a year by the Director General Mari- time Equipment Program Management. Views expressed are those of the writers and do not nec- essarily reflect official opinion or policy. Mail can be sent to: The Editor, Maritime Engin- The Journal is available on the DGMEPM eering Journal, DMSS (6 LSTL), NDHQ, 101 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario website located on the DND DIN intranet Canada K1A 0K2. The editor reserves the right to reject or edit any editorial material. While at http://admmat.dwan.dnd.ca/dgmepm/ every effort is made to return artwork and photos in good condition, the Journal assumes no re- dgmepm/publications sponsibility for this. Unless otherwise stated, Journal articles may be reprinted with proper credit. A courtesy copy of the reprinted article would be appreciated.

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 1 Commodore’s Corner Engineering Knowledge — Understanding the requirement is fundamental in the search for solutions

By Commodore R.W. Greenwood, OMM, CD Director General Maritime Equipment Program Management

ne of the benefits of my po- I believe we have always known As we embark on what promises Osition as DGMEPM is that I this. Engineering knowledge is dif- to be the busiest, most sustained pe- get to enjoy the Journal articles ferent from the sciences, princi- riod of fleet renewal activity since the ahead of the general readership. And pally in that it is objective-specific. steamers were built in the 1950s and “enjoy” is the operative word. I am As Walter Vincenti notes, “engi- 60s, it is important that we under- continually impressed with the scope neering knowledge reflects the stand the special nature of our engi- and quality of the articles, ranging as fact that design does not take place neering and technical knowledge, they do from the deck-plates engi- for its own sake and in isolation... and how best to apply it. The genera- neering immediacy of the “Is this (but) is a social activity directed at a tion and sustainment of naval capa- YOUR ship?” feature, to a more practical set of goals intended to bility at sea is our primary objective, philosophical perspective such as serve human beings in some way. As and it is also the performance meas- you’ll find in this issue’s Forum of- such, it is intimately bound up with ure by which all of our work today fering from Gordon Forbes on “The economic, military, social, personal, and in the months and years ahead Requirement for Requirements.” and environmental needs and con- will be judged. The onus therefore straints.” rests with each one of us to evalu- This ongoing juxtaposition of the ate, every single day, the effective- practical and the philosophical serves Where have we seen this before? ness of our activities and efforts in to highlight the reality of life in the A number of readers may recall me contributing to the technical capabil- naval engineering and technical sup- saying in a naval architectural con- ity and readiness of Canada’s current port community. Naval engineering text that the hardest thing about and future naval fleets. (or engineering in general) is not so ship design is designing the require- much about the steady accumulation ment. If the requirement is feasi- of a growing body of increasingly ble, coherent, internally consistent sophisticated and arcane factual in- and affordable, then the rest is formation, as it is about developing “just” engineering; but if the re- knowledge and applying it to our quirement is not all of these things, work. In his interesting book, “What then no amount of engineering bril- [*“What Engineers Know and Engineers Know and How They liance can solve the problem. In our How They Know It: Analytical Know It,”* Walter G. Vincenti uses search for solutions, which is after all Studies from Aeronautical History examples from aeronautical design the essence of engineering in the (Johns Hopkins Studies in the history to make the point that engi- design sense, a comprehensive un- History of Technology),” by neering is not a mere subset of ap- derstanding of the mission require- Walter G. Vincenti, The Johns plied science. Much as it may employ ment is fundamental to the develop- the same products, Vincenti maintains ment of new capabilities. Gordon Hopkins University Press, 1990.] that engineering is a distinct and Forbes’ excellent Forum article takes unique intellectual endeavour in its this idea a step farther by illustrating own right, developing knowledge of how our understanding of the mission a fundamentally different nature requirement is best translated into a from the raw facts of physical sci- suitable specification of the material ence. requirement.

2 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Letters

Dear (Editor): I’d like to thank you for recently received copies of the Maritime Engi- neering Journal. We at BC Ferries read each edition with considerable interest and a more than occasional application to our fleet here on the west coast. Yours aye, Jeff Smith Director Fleet Planning & Projects — B.C. Ferry Services Inc. 12800 Rice Mill Road, Richmond BC V6W 1A1

Subject: An Engineer’s Tale I found the Nine Minute Writing Challenge tales (MEJ: Issue 63) very [Thank you, sir. Great idea. We’d wel- entertaining, and thought you might find the following of interest. In fact, why come the opportunity to hear from any- not start collecting amusing tales from the naval engineering world? one with a naval story, amusing or oth- erwise. — Editor] — Commodore (Ret.) Ed Murray

Diving in the Engine Room* By Commodore (Ret.) Ed Murray ne day in 1962 while HMCS I went back to the engine room to OSaguenay was at anchor in report, I found the console sur- the Queen Charlotte Islands, I was rounded by an impressive group of shaken at 0530 by the chief petty very unhappy people — the captain, officer in charge of the flashup. He the XO, the engineer, the chief ERA told me the chief ERA needed to see and assorted others. As I had re- me as there was uncontrolled flood- cently completed my engine room ing in the engine room. When I ar- ticket, I decided to crawl into the rived in the engine room, water was bilge area in my wetsuit and face- pumping from the bilge back into spraying from somewhere in the star- mask so that I might more clearly the bilge. board bilge area so heavily it was appraise the situation. In less than a I must admit feeling very impossible to locate the source. The minute the source of the flooding was “chuffed” with myself. I was a mere level in the bilge was about two feet, found. Crawling out of the bilge, I sub-lieutenant, and everyone (except but holding steady as the main circs quietly told the CERA that if he shut the CERA) thought I had performed (circulation pumps) had been a certain valve the flooding would some sort of magic. The high point switched to bilge suction. All hull stop. He did so and, looking amazed, occurred later in the day when daily valves had been checked shut except observed peace return. orders included an announcement for the main circ outlets. An ex- The problem arose when the that there would be swimming dur- tremely agitated chief ERA wanted chief in charge of the engine room ing the first dogwatch in the engine me, the ship’s diving officer, to dive flashup sent an apprentice below room, and that I would be the life- under the hull and check whether one to clean a salt water strainer. Un- guard! of the hull openings was jammed fortunately the apprentice was in- open with a broom handle or like experienced and opened the lid on object. That there might be a hole in the main circ discharge to the lube the hull was not mentioned. oil cooler by mistake…which [*Bylined by the Journal for in- Another diver and I went over the meant the starboard main circ was dexing purposes] side but found nothing amiss. When now discharging the water it was

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 3 Forum The Requirement for Requirements (or how to get what you want)*

Article by LCdr (ret.) Gordon Forbes [*Adapted for the Journal from a presentation delivered by the author to a joint DND/Project Management Institute symposium in Ottawa in 2005.]

et’s face it. Most people who scriptions and test requirements. This certainly seems like a worth- Lwrite requirements have a pic- (This is the part that gets engineers while thing to be able to do, but could ture in their mind of what they think excited.); and you design or select a product based they need. You need an airplane, I on this alone? • Requirements are what you need a ship. It seems simple enough, verify against to ensure you receive “...at a range of 10 km...” but the reality is that many custom- what you asked for. They are the ers end up not getting what they think Ah, this is better. At least we now only way of knowing exactly what they asked for. And so they get an- have a performance goal — but is it it is you got — or, often, what you did gry and frustrated, and they blame enough? Well, we know that most not get. the project manager and lose faith sensors have certain limitations de- in the process. And why? Because There are requirements, and there pending on the environmental condi- they didn’t actually ask for what they are requirements. The ones that de- tions they are working in, so... want. scribe the product are contained in a “...under ideal conditions...” Statement of Requirements (SOR). I first started writing requirements Requirements that describe the re- ...we define some conditions, but in the Directorate of Maritime Re- lated work or services are contained we also know that no sensor is per- quirements more than 30 years ago. in a Statement of Work (SOW). fect. So how about some perform- Since then, I have worked with re- Every project director and operations ance tolerance? quirements as an interpreter, as a requirements manager knows about vendor in industry, as part of a team “...with a probability of at SORs, which the engineers translate reviewing DND capital projects, and least 95%.” into specifications for the contract. most recently as a project manager Something of a back-and-forth proc- There. You can quibble over the in industry on a DND project. You ess goes on between the operators details, but at least it is now a com- could say that requirements are in and the engineers regarding the plete requirement. I once had a con- my blood. This present article is my SOR, but eventually a document is tract in industry to examine the con- somewhat light-hearted take on what hammered out that is accepted by tract requirements for the end prod- makes good and bad requirements, a both arms. How do you know what uct of a DND major Crown project. few “do’s and don’ts” for the require- belongs in the SOR and what goes What we found was that only one- ments writer to consider when it into the SOW? One easy way is to third of the requirements contained comes time to ask the question, How remember that the project manager all the elements of a complete re- do I get what I want? or, more im- owns the SOW; the system engineer- quirement. To put it another way, portantly, How do I get what I need? ing manager is responsible for fulfill- two-thirds of the requirements we The Importance of ing the SOR. looked at were untestable and there- Requirements fore unenforceable. Explain that one Horror Stories When you get right down to the to the minister. Ah, yes — the dreaded horror sto- heart of it, written requirements serve ries. All of the examples that follow Oh, horror — three important purposes: represent things I have actually seen The Too Precise Requirement • Requirements are how you de- in SORs, so never say, “It can’t hap- “The system shall measure fine what you need. (Obvious, isn’t pen here.” distance with an accuracy of it?); Oh, horror — 30.48 cm.” • Requirements are where you be- The Incomplete Requirement It is probable that someone did a gin to track the evolution of de- “The system shall detect hard conversion to metric of one foot sign to specifications, product de- airborne targets...” to end up with this kind of accuracy.

4 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Forum

Is the .08 cm really significant, or be a problem when you have the into SORs more often than you might even the .48? time and money to develop the prod- think. They can become monsters uct you want, but it won’t serve you unto themselves, obscuring what it is “The maximum speed of the well if you are trying to work within we are really trying to specify. This vehicle shall be 125 km/hour.” strict schedules and budgets. It is like SOR was for a computer, not a desk. What’s wrong with this? Of specifying a Ferrari with the charac- Some Useful Tips course we want it to go 125 km per teristics of a pickup truck. hour. But the way it is written, if it So how should we structure re- Oh, horror — quirements? The following is not an goes 126 km per hour it does not The Impossible Dream (Man of meet the requirement. exhaustive list of points to consider, La Mancha Requirement) but it should help: “The ship shall have “The system shall defeat all Tailoring Requirements three radars.” current and future threats with To tailor or not to tailor — that a 99.9 percent probability of This an example from a DND is every project’s conundrum. If success.” SOR which meant to specify that we tailor our requirements to meet there are three functions the ra- I may be dating myself with the what is available (or to ensure dar suite has to fulfill, but this stated reference to the musical, “Man of La enough bidders), do we lose the requirement would ability to later make rule out the possibility system improvements of acquiring a multi- or fill gaps in capabil- function radar unit ity? If we don’t tailor such as is found on requirements, can our board the U.S. Navy’s project succeed? Aegis cruisers. Why does it have to be With the modern re- three radars? From an alities of limited budg- operational point of ets and the desire to view, if the job can be buy COTS or MOTS done by one, two, or (commercial/military for that matter six ra- off-the-shelf) equip- dars, do we really ment, the temptation or care? Precision is a pressure to tailor re- good thing – but some- quirements is a fact of times you can have too much of it. Mancha,” but the hit song that came life. But in making that decision we Oh, horror — out of that show was “The Impossi- have to consider what it is we gain The “I want one of these and ble Dream.” The message here is, and lose. Can we live with the com- one of those” Requirement we all want the best we can get, es- promises? Will they still fill the defi- pecially the people who actually have ciency we are trying to close? Or will “The system shall have the to use the system (and possibly fight the lack of compromise jeopardize following capabilities: with it)...but we have to work within our project due to not enough money, • one of these characteristics the realm of possibility. or not enough time, or not enough (from system A), Oh, horror — personnel to manage a more com- • two of those characteristics The “We seem to have lost the plex project? There used to be a say- (from system B), and bubble” Requirement ing among requirement staffs that “One hundred percent is the enemy • six of those other character- In the middle of an SOR for a new of good enough,” meaning that it is istics (from system C).” computer you find the following: the last few requirements that usu- [But they wanted an off-the-shelf “The computer desk shall be ally cost the most. In other words, solution!] grey in colour and have two that final ten percent could add 50 bookshelves.” percent to the price. Ah, yes. The “brochure ap- proach” to requirements writing. We We don’t always realize we are Product vs. Work Requirements read all of the brochures, then pick doing it, and this is but a very simplis- Requirements can describe the and choose the features we want. tic example, yet requirements like product or the service (work). How- What could be simpler? This may not these have a way of finding their way ever, the product definition and the

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 5 Forum work definition should not be in the present the problem rather than your Understand the difference be- same place. That is why there are perceived solution, and let others (en- tween product and work require- SORs and SOWs. It is amazing how gineers, contractors, scientists) figure ments. Keep these two separate and often we get work and product out what you need to solve the prob- clear in your mind. mixed up in requirements documents. lem. Decide what is realistic. Realism A Statement of Requirement should Ways to Achieve Precision is what really counts. The unrealis- never specify how the product is tic will never get approval (nor would made or demand a deliverable. Simi- There can be too much preci- you be satisfied with it). larly, nothing that could be construed sion, but a certain level of precision as describing the product should be is essential in our requirements. Concentrate on the important found in a Statement of Work. Here are three things to keep in things. Think about the criteria your mind, and two questions to ask Ways to Achieve Performance end users will use to determine if your yourself in formulating a require- procurement was a success or not. Be realistic. Make the required ments statement. For the operators switching on the performance realistic to the scenario. Remember: system for the first time, the issues I recently saw a criticism of some of how much it cost and how long it military equipment because it would • use measurable quantities; took to put in service will be largely not operate at –50°C. Then I thought, • use quantities that make sense academic. What they want to know what soldier is going to be fighting in the real world; and is, did they get the right product. at 50 degrees below zero? At that temperature, soldiers on both sides • use measurable, precision state- If we did it right, I’ll get my ship of the battle are just trying to sur- ments. and you’ll get your airplane. Just like vive. Ask yourself: we pictured it. Think about how you will verify • Does the decimal place make the performance. Every require- sense or is it too precise? ments statement must be verifiable. • Will you refuse to accept the If you don’t think about this when product if it does not precisely meet you are writing the requirement, the requirements you have speci- chances are it will not get properly fied? verified. LCdr (ret.) Gord Forbes retired Some Good Requirements Make the performance require- from the Canadian navy in 1988 Good performance requirements ments consistent. Consistency is im- after 27 years’ service as a Mari- have the following four characteris- portant if you want an integrated and time Surface officer and, later, as tics: useable product. In the above anal- a Maritime Engineering combat ogy, it is no use specifying a –50° • a clear, unambiguous perform- systems engineer. He has worked requirement for one part of a system ance statement... in the defence industry as an en- gineer, consultant and project if you aren’t asking for it for the en- • against a measurable target... tire system. manager, and in June 2008 retired • with a defined and measurable from SNC-Lavalin Defence Pro- Make the performance state- precision... grams as the in-service support ments meaningful. Does the require- • under a defined set of conditions. project manager for minor war- ment really contribute to the overall ships (maritime coastal defence effectiveness of the product, or is it In Summary vessels) and auxiliary vessels. only in there as a filler or, more of- Requirements are fundamental to Gord is a certified Project Man- ten, to rule out one or more viable your project. In the classic project agement Professional (PMP). candidates? Trivial performance management triangle — cost, statements more often than not lead schedule, performance — per- to the most controversy, and are the formance, which is represented by ones you will spend the most time de- the requirements, must be known be- fending. fore an honest estimate of cost or And finally, make sure the re- time can even be thought about. quirement states what you need, not Poorly defined requirements en- what you think you want. There is a sure that you will not get what you difference. It may be better to want or need. I guarantee it.

6 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 2008 MARLANT Naval Technical Seminar — The East Coast’s “Short Answer” to the Nine Minute Writing Challenge

Introduction by Brian McCullough, Production Editor, Maritime Engineering Journal

f you happened to read the last Iissue of the Journal, you will be aware of the on-the-spot writing challenge that was put to attendees at the 2007 MARPAC naval engi- neering seminar in Victoria. In hon- our of the Journal’s 25th anniver- sary, I had asked people to write down their best memory of working with the navy...which they did in fine form.

Well it’s the East Coast’s turn this time. At the spring 2008 naval technical seminar in Halifax I asked people to write about their “most memorable naval technical challenge.” Not surprisingly, they too came through in style, espe- cially considering they had only (wait for it) eight-and-a-half min- utes in which to write their marvel- lous Nine Minute stories. (A case of regional one-upmanship? Bad time-management on my part? We’ll never know.)

My thanks to LCdr Helga Budden for sharing with me the delightful Essay winners LCdr Dan Riis and PO1 (ret.) Ken Berry with yours task in Halifax of reading these 71 truly on the front steps of the Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare fine stories over the lunch hour Centre in Halifax. and selecting three that stood out in their own special way. The two winners, LCdr Dan Riis and PO1 Back in Ottawa, Bridget Madill joyed the stories very much, and (ret.) Ken Berry, were on hand and I once again had our work cut sincerely hope you will as well. the next morning when the book out for us in the cipher room, divin- prizes were handed out, but we had ing some of the more runic glyphs to chuckle when SLt Emil being passed off as handwriting. In Schreiner, the author of the Hon- one case I actually thought some- ourable Mention essay he called one had slipped a vibration analy- “Simply Showing Up,” uhh...simply sis trace into the story pile, but did not show up for his own book no...on closer inspection this too Let the stories begin.... prize. Of course, he wasn’t aware turned out to be a “handwritten” he’d won anything, but you have to anecdote. Anyway, all this to say love it. we did the best we could. We en-

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 7 Most memorable naval technical challenge

The Winners...

WinnerWinner Hon. Mention

My Own Serious Error In Big Technical Challenge Engineering Judgement Simply Showing Up

as first and foremost y greatest technical chal- s an extremely junior NTO Wthe implementation of Mlenge resulted from my own Aundergoing Phase VI MORPS (Maritime Other Ranks serious error in engineering judge- Afloat training, the single most Production Study) in 1985. I went ment, followed by being bailed out by important contribution I have from being a radar tech to a tac- my exceptionally skilled engineering made is simply showing up. The tical tech overnight, complete department. Having authorized the importance of just being present with the challenges of Fire Con- repair of the constantly leaking has been reinforced in me count- trol and Electronic Warfare sys- CRPP (controllable reversible pitch less times. At the oddest times, I tems. Training was provided, but propellers) hydraulic system while in have learnt the most important experience was lacking. It was a work period in the Gulf in things. It is hard to “try and learn” a very steep learning curve for a Algonquin, I failed to provide ad- something, but is much less hard PO2. But this experience and equate oversight of the work being to learn when others around you challenge prepared myself and done by the foreign contractors. are learning as well. Being many others for the changing New hoses were installed which present at general shipboard technology of the CPF and were discovered to not nearly meet learning experiences, for myself, TRUMP programs – this chal- the pressure requirements of the sys- for the most junior stoker or for lenge has helped in many aspects tem. When one blew the first day at the EO himself has made me of my career, some examples be- sea, we lost a shaft line – and it was realize that the single most im- ing duty tech packages, working only then that we discovered all fit- portant thing I can do is simply at various positions within tings had been changed to metric so show up. For myself, and for CFNES and FMFCS. Although it the old leaky hoses/fittings that we others. — SLt Emil Schreiner was the greatest challenge, it had kept were useless. It was a very was positive and built experi- ashamed EO briefing the Capt(N) ence. — PO1(ret.) Ken Berry that day, and a very high priority re- quest sent ashore for the properly rated hoses. Faced with several days without the port shaft in the Gulf off Afghanistan, my engineers set about manufacturing a repair. Several hours on the lathe and in the machine shop resulted in high pressure fittings which adapted metric to standard threads and fittings and a repair was made that returned the shaft to full operation. Several nervous days later the correctly rated hoses were in- stalled. An important lesson in over- sight and configuration management learned the hard way – but it could have been worse. — LCdr Dan Riis

8 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Most memorable naval technical challenge

...and more Great Writing

Acquiring the necessary skills “Borrowing” New Technology ing at high speed. Therefore, it was My most memorable technical In 1991 Iraq invaded Kuwait. The decided to remove the prop under- challenge has been acquiring the rest as they say, is history. The Ca- water, where explosives had to be necessary skills to become an NTO. nadian Government’s response was used to remove it. This operation was Since I am at the start of my career, to deploy a task group consisting of all done in Haugesund, Norway in I have been in the training environ- HMCS Terra Nova, Protecteur and late November, early December ment. Although at times it can be HMCS Athabaskan. As the navy 1986. As the prop was removed and frustrating since all I want to do is my was in the midst of a rebuilding pro- in order to keep weight balance on job. On the other hand it has been a gram — the Canadian Patrol Frigate the ship, it was secured and welded challenge to complete an engineer- — a number of new weapon systems on the port side of the AX (quarter- ing degree and all the training on were being purchased as part of this deck) next to the mortar well covers. shore and at sea. This training al- program. At the time, two of the three The ship was now ready to come though challenging will give me the deployers lacked defensive and of- back to Halifax, but because of rough necessary skills to excel at my pro- fensive capabilities to allow them to seas, the CO decided to use a south fession and thus is my most memo- fight a “modern-day” war. It was de- route which took around 10 days to rable moment to date. —Anon. cided to “borrow” some of the new complete. — PO1 Laberge technology and “strap” it on. I was Troubleshooting the KH-1007 attached to HMCS Protecteur as Taking Ownership I remember troubleshooting the one of four CIWS maintainers — ...being involved in a BOI (Board KH-1007 on Charlottetown for newly trained with no experience. It of Inquiry) while deployed on the weeks in the North Atlantic trying to was our job in conjunction with FMG other coast and the procedure and find the reason for radar video shift- & SRU to install, test and operate this outcome and its effect on all in- ing. After many, many hours of “new” weapon system. volved. Also, the changes that were brainstorming with the entire team, — CPO1 Fewer made to ensure this event wouldn’t we found that a breakdown in the happen again. Taking ownership of cable shielding had allowed EMI Removal of Port Propeller an action that occurred even when leakage from the SPS-49. This leak- during HMCS Saguenay’s you’re not on scene when it hap- age affected the azimuth clock pulse NATO Deployment (1986) pened! — PO1 Luxton (ACP) which in turn affected the I was an OS when, during NATO, radar video. The radar pedestal and our ship was hit by a German sub- cabling were regrounded and the marine at sea while it was trying to problem repaired. surface. It damaged our #10 [fuel] (Keep going. There are more...) — CPO2 Lenihan tank and port prop. The ship was jerk-

Objectives of the Maritime Engineering Journal

• To promote professional- discussed, even if they might be • To provide announce- ism among maritime engineers controversial. ments of programs concerning and technicians. maritime engineering person- • To present practical maritime nel. • To provide an open forum engineering articles. where topics of interest to • To provide personnel news • To present historical perspec- the maritime engineering com- not covered by official publica- tives on current programs, situa- munity can be presented and tions. tions and events.

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 9 Most memorable naval technical challenge

HF System Repair • when ship went to a certain an- We Are Not Alone While working as a naval commu- gle of heel (below the max design) Undoubtedly when challenged to nications technician on board HMCS she blacked out electrically write on the most technically com- Iroquois I had the opportunity to re- • much investigation revealed die- plex issue I have faced during my 27 pair the ship’s HF system. This sel generator had ingested lube oil years in the navy, it would be too easy seems like a straightforward task but into the fuel system and essentially to revert to the gas turbine change the situation was very unique. burned out engine out in Toulon, France during my dog- watch stint as MSEO on board I was deployed on NATO ’99 and • final investigation revealed basic St. John’s. However, that was not as the Iroquois had been given an ex- design flaw — manufacturer had onerous as one might suspect due to tensive comm suite upgrade in order to redesign the drive, determination and like- to sail as the task group command • significant event for CPF program minded technical people who formed ship. In order to learn the systems • resulted in the “Canadian modifi- the repair team. Rather I would state that had been upgraded the master cation” that it [could] be any technical issue seaman in charge of me had pro- — Capt(N) Eric Bramwell thrust upon me: from the Terra Nova posed we split the systems. I would be the SHF guy and he would be the HF guy. Sounded like a good idea. So now here we are off the coast My most significant technical challenge of Denmark. My master seaman had gone home on leave and we were a Getting the Prairie/Masker system on HMCS week away from one of our two Annapolis: major exercises, when the HF suite crashes! The entire darn thing stops a. Finished – never finished. working! After briefing the chief, b. Working – never worked. CSE and the commander’s staff I set — Cdr M. Walker to work. If I couldn’t fix the system, staff had to disembark and sail on another ship. Not good. I narrowed the fault down to a circuit card and it had to be brought in from Halifax. After much sweat it worked! — SLt MacMullin C.D. (National Defence Photo) CPF Leadyard HMCS Halifax CPF-01 Conduct of the “heeling trial” dur- Gun Feed System dampers closing on my port boiler at ing builder’s trials: Most interesting technical 186 RPM, to faulty turboblower se- • aim of trial was to ensure equip- challenge was dealing with the 3"-70 quential valves, to a noisy rudder on ment would operate when ship was gun feed system on HMCS Fredericton, blah, blah, blah. It al- heeled over due to damage Gatineau. The system needed ways comes down to one thing – we • shipbuilder did not want to do – constant attention, and ammo feed are not alone. I don’t mean the aliens said it was unnecessary as all stoppages were common and are invading, but rather we have so equipment had been certified at frequent. Countless messy and much talent in and around the navy, factory frustrating hours were spent by the no problem is insurmountable if we only just talk to others and ASK FOR • was vigorous discussion on jetty NW Tech team fixing shear pins and HELP! — LCdr Roger Heimpel between senior shipyard officials sprags. But the rewards were incredible. Nothing was better than and naval mil and civ (a.k.a. “the Most Interesting: Scot”) personnel hearing the gun go “bang” and the smell of gunpowder/propellant after Bringing DCTF (Damage Control • finally senior shipyard official a long day on the range after Training Facility) Kootenay from cold agreed (reluctantly) countless hours of gun repairs the & dark to fully operational during • continued with trial night before. — Cdr Purcell posting as DC Div Cdr (Damage

10 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Control Division Commander). In- vestigated. Using experts from vari- as the USN overseer and then mov- volved factory acceptance, trials, ous fields, we conducted research in ing up to become the production of- training development and finally: open DC power generation; electrical in- ficer for the USN’s project on site. for business. sulation; smoke hazard; fire analysis; The technical aspect grew in and many other areas. — Randy Comeau complexity when Flight 2A ships I am proud of our results and the were announced that would incor- Wire Drawn Steam Leak detail we presented in the report; and porate the addition of helo hangars I’ve had a number of interesting our efforts to remember Chris to an existing Arleigh Burke. The technical challenges over the years. Saunders. first of class was built and inte- The one that sticks with me most grated during my watch. “USS — Pat Finn Capt(N) occurred when I was the MSEO of Roosevelt” (DDG-80) rendered HMCS Ottawa in 1985. A brand Cross Connect Gearbox numerous technical challenges of new CO, Cdr Kim Beardmore, had Inspection bringing a design to fruition in a just arrived on board as we were cost conscious environment. A real sailing from Halifax on a six month The most interesting event in my navy success story that was instru- NATO SNFL deployment. I recall illustrious career as an NTO with al- mental in my development and ex- telling the CO, unwisely as it turned most one year sea time would un- perience. doubtedly be the inspection of Hali- out, that the warranty expired at — Capt(N) Paul Catsburg, Chebucto Head. fax’s cross-connect gearbox. FMF gearing inspector Bob Steeb flew to D Mar Pers Sure enough as we were leaving Hamilton, Ontario to meet the ship on harbour the port main throttle valve a Great Lakes deployment. No great Preparation of Ships for developed a wire-drawn steam leak. discoveries were made, it was not an Deployment to Persian Gulf — This was a show stopper. There was event worth being captured in the Op Friction no way we could let it continue to MARE Journal. However, for me [it Responsible for installation of wire-draw. was] a chance to do a hands-on job deck cranes on 3 ships and RHIB and to learn. To learn from doing as boats. Foundations had to be de- So up to the CO, standing proudly opposed to studying and to learn from signed, fabricated and fitted to on the bridge, to tell him we had to years of experience. As mentioned, ships over several days. A mortar turn around and head for home. the engineering community learned well had to be closed in. Cranes My guys turned to with FMF and nothing from this inspection, but it were acquired, fitted and STW (set we changed the valve in only two taught me a lot. to work). We worked around the days, got back to sea and still made clock and took decisions as re- — SLt Phillip LeBlanc our SNFL rendezvous on time. quired — technical, financial, con- figuration, etc. Coordination of si- Talk about first impressions! Happy Times @ Sea multaneous work to fit CIWS, etc., — Capt(N) Jim Jollymore This story was already printed in to load ammunition (special dis- the Journal circa 2000 [Fall 2001 / pensation to do in dockyard), re- Fire in HMCS Chicoutimi Winter 2002 issue. – Ed.]. Then it stricted ability to do hot work. It detailed my personal experience as By far my most challenging prob- was a successful evolution that re- the exchange officer with the USN lem was the work on determining the mains a strong memory to this day as Supervisor of Shipbuilding cause of the fire in HMCS Chicou- in teamwork and intense coopera- Pascagoula, Mississippi. As a new timi that resulted in the death of tion by all, making this a particu- exchange post and first-time Cana- Lt(N) Saunders. Conducted under larly inspiring experience. dian integrating into a US Naval the spotlight of the media, and with Team, working in a very large US — Cdr Ken Holt intense political pressure to move civilian shipyard there were many quickly, the results of this work would lessons to be learned. A new coun- have significant ramifications: the try, a new culture and a sizeable dif- (Don’t stop yet. There are future of our submarine fleet. Many ference in navy size, scope, mission, plenty more mini-essays leapt to conclusions and wanted to resources, etc. ahead...) quickly lay blame; however, we worked very hard to complete a de- Major challenge was learning the tailed fault analysis and to ensure that AEGIS program management, being every aspect of the problem was in- responsible for the build of a warship

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 11 Most memorable naval technical challenge

What It Means To Wear Our paring for an unknown deployment. sailing on NATO operations in the fall Uniform In the end, strong leadership within of 2006, presented the most interest- Unfortunately, my most memora- both the technical and MARS com- ing technical challenge. ble technical challenge does not come munities led us through. The aforementioned was my first to mind at the present moment. I — LCdr R.T. Billard operational tour. Not only was it a think however it may be rewarding privilege to be a part of it but it was for many of us to ask ourselves what My most interesting technical also incredibly exciting. It was diffi- it means to be in the navy and what challenge in the navy cult at times to focus on work with it means to wear our uniform every I’ve had a number of these, some so much to experience; beautiful day. Do we really understand what on the macro scale and some on the ports around every corner, an inter- the values associated with represent- micro. I could write about my role in national fleet of ships sailing together, ing the most senior service are? Do the development and implementation and the fact that we were in the we appreciate what the navy has of “first-of-kind” tools in support of Mediterranean! done for us? The navy has enabled the materiel certification of subma- My CSEO kept me on my toes us to create relationships with peo- rines, or running battles on some of with pre-boards every other day ple from everywhere in this country. the evolution of this very fine mecha- which was a challenge in itself. A It has enabled us to feel passionate nism for assuring the safety of our specific day I remember was when about our work, our ships, our peo- submarines. Instead, I will focus on we were sailing off the coast of ple and even ourselves; it has ena- the micro...my time as a submarine Greece. My family being of Greek bled us to discover things about our- CSE — specifically while at sea in origin, I could not focus on work at selves that were completely un- the latter part of ’05 doing workups all, spending my time on the bridge known; it has taught us teamwork, and inshore ops with some other el- looking at the islands. I was offered leadership, friendship...and it has ements of our own navy and the a flight in a Sea King and before get- done so all over the world. USN off the eastern seaboard and ting suited up I went online and found — Cdr Simon Page southern N.S. [Nova Scotia] the GPS coordinates of the village in In submarines, there is one radar which my mom was born. The pilots Tech Challenge usually while dived — a KH-1007 were nice enough to fly me over The most memorable tech chal- with a telescoping mast. The those coordinates, open the rear lenge I have faced in my career was waveguide runs from the port aft cargo door, and take a few pictures preparation for the unknown. In the control room out to the scanner head from the air. Needless to say, I had summer of 2001 I was posted to atop the mast. After days of rough not studied at all and my CSE was HMCS Charlottetown as the CSEO weather, we started to notice anoma- expecting a board. When I explained, and was looking forward to my HoD lous operation of the mast — not that he smiled and offered a short exten- (Head of Department) tour. The ship we use radar much in a dived boat. sion. — SLt Raphael Liakas was just coming back from a 6-month After a few days, we started getting deployment so I was not expecting drips in the control room. From TRUMP to CPF any major issues or deployments in We surfaced to discover the scan- As a former Naval Weapons my tour, but that was OK, I was the ner head had been ripped off. The Technician, I was trained on the HoD! Much to everyone’s surprise repair proposed by CPO2 Cam equipment for the 280 TRUMP class and dismay, Sept. 11/01 happened MacDonald, our CERA, was to pack ships. Once I left the Iroquois to and we were given word that we the waveguide holes with liquid attend my NWT 6A course at were deploying in 30 days. The prob- metal — Belzona. We dived, tested CFNES I was confident I would re- lem was, although we knew when the repair and got on with business turn to the Iroquois or Athabaskan. and roughly where we were deploy- until the next planned port. (Once you go TRUMP, you die ing, we did not have any idea of what TRUMP, right?) To my surprise I — LCdr Keith Coffen the mission would be. was posted to HMCS Charlottetown upon completion of my course...a It was more of a leadership chal- Tour in HMCS Iroquois CPF! lenge than a technical one, but As a junior officer in the navy, I thanks to the GTO (Group Technical have had little opportunity to experi- My most significant technical Officer, then Cdr Smith) we were ence many technical challenges, let challenge was to familiarize myself able to work through it. Thirty days alone interesting ones. That being with an array of weapons systems can seem like an eternity for some said, my tour in HMCS Iroquois as for which I had no formal training, for things, it was light-speed when pre- a Phase VI CSE, specifically while example, the 57-mm gun, the CAN-

12 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Blackwater Treatment Plant Cells Explode My most memorable technical challenge in the CF was as a young sub-lieutenant posted onboard HMCS Regina in 2003. The situation was that two book cells for the blackwater treat- ment plant exploded. I was selected to be the investigating officer for the technical investiga- tion. Without getting into too much detail about the actual incident, what made it so memora- ble was the fact that I was still so green and I was put into responsibility to use my technical ability to create a conclusive report. In hindsight Combat Camera photo the actual TI was peanuts but it is my most ET 2003-0316-66a memorable. — Lt(N) Francis Leung (2003by Combat Cpl Charles Camera Barber Photo)

TASS, Harpoon and GMVLS Sea changes in areas such as signature board HMCS Fredericton to bring Sparrow systems. A challenge, but a management and to determine the a successful conclusion to the prob- rewarding one nonetheless. By read- expected improvement in the ship’s lem. ing technical pubs and talking to my ability to defeat an attack. This was — SLt Sorensen, fellow NWTs and asking lots and lots a great opportunity, as a junior officer, of questions, I was able to gain con- to be exposed to an area beyond my NCS Eng Student fidence with these systems. normal employment opportunities. It Variety of Individuals — A/SLt Jon Hopkins was interesting technical work and served to greatly expand my hori- Having joined the Canadian navy zons. as an ordinary seaman stoker and The Next Two Years serving over 28 years in all classes My most technical challenge in — Lt(N) Brian Mury of ships, submarines and shore es- the navy has not yet arrived, but will tablishments on both coasts I have shortly start, as I prepare to go back Fault in the MTTU of the STIR had the opportunity to be part of to sea as a Head of Department. My most technical challenge in many efforts, projects and outright After five years ashore, working in the navy so far has come not as an larks. Throughout this time I have recruiting and CFNES, as well as NTO but when I was an NET(T) experienced these events from vari- raising two young children, I now (tactical technician). It had to do with ous perspectives as my role evolved feel that this next two years will be a fault in the MTTU (multiple task within the organization. Without a my most challenging ones. track unit) of the STIR fire-control doubt, the greatest part of all this was system. It proved to be a problem the variety of capable and unique — Lt(N) Bélisle with five different cards within the individuals who continually rose to unit. The five different cards failed the occasion to overcome difficulty Algorithm And Software To due to a possible power spike but this and turn challenges into fun and Model Missile Engagements could never be fully confirmed. The memorable experiences. My most interesting technical reason it was the most challenging is challenge to date came as a junior the problem was never seen before — LCdr Pierre Boucher officer under training while employed and even a phone call to FMF did not at DRDC(A) for the summer. I was shed light on the problem. Also the working in operational analysis and MTTU of the STIR is one of the was tasked to design an algorithm and most reliable units in the system and (Turn the page for even more of develop software to model missile problems with it are very rare. It these great snapshots of technical engagements. This software would took many days of fault finding, life in the navy...) be used to analyze the projected im- reading manuals and the input of provement of various engineering the whole NET(T) department on

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 13 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Most memorable Technical strain gauge data and dropped the tion Inspections) were required for Challenge whole bunch on my lap. John indi- both main engines in Iroquois. Of ...repair & clean-up of a bridge cated, just use Excel and use graphs course, with the OPSCHED, this flooded at sea through a broken win- to figure out the problem. Then they task was embarked upon and so dow by a rogue wave (with some all went on leave for two weeks. straddled over the Christmas/New fire-damaged equipment too!). Using my programming skills, I mod- Year’s break. elled the data in real time, showing As the Chief Electrician — make how the raft was experiencing strain. After Christmas with four work- the bridge equipment work again for I was able to use CSE technology to ing days (Thurs.-Sun.) we were still the rest of the still-long deployment assist in an MSE problem. unsuccessful in starting either port/ time, & you guessed it...Now or right starboard main. The troubleshooting away (ASAP)...even after SALT- — Lt(N) Shawn Ellis and teamwork that unfolded were in- WATER damage credible! The to sensitive elec- CERA (CPO2 trical/electronic Bob Polvi) was equipment that set up in the would normally MCR with the be written off. engineers and control techs. A The biggest whiteboard was technical chal- set up. On the lenge really was board he wrote picking the peo- what we knew ple resources and and what we convincing them didn’t. In the end, that it could be it came out that done. Although the both engines electronic equip- were exhibiting ment clean-up the exact same was difficult, it symptoms — im- was not the most La Baleine (The Whale) — possible. inspiring or re- Steering gear jump ring clearance & warding outcome hydraulic oil X-contamination with seawater So with a that saw the light “what do you in the end. AHoD St. John’s — FISHPAT somewhere off the coast. need to start a — Anon. Every once in a while the rudder stock would make a noise that gas turbine,” off sounded like a whale in heat in the depths of the sea — only when they went. First CSE Tackles passing through helm movements in or about midships position. principle trou- MSE Problem bleshooting with In 2002 I was We had no idea. We did know we had cross-contamination at a pen and a employed at the same time, but the two were coincidental. With proper mainte- whiteboard. The DRDC Atlantic in nance the clearance of the jump ring and rudder stock assembly CO was briefed emerging materi- was silenced, and the hydraulic oil flushed and changed. that it was down als. I needed sum- Solution: We had to record an MP3 of the sound and e-mail it to to four items mer employment FTA (Fleet Technical Authority) for guidance and prebriefing on what that all could be replaced. A few so I asked them if to expect. — Anonymous they needed a more hours and computer guy. the problems John Porter said, were found. Team- “Sure, we never had one before!” So First Principles work, first principles, and some hard I worked as a CSEO in training sur- and Some Hard Work work and off to sea we went. To rounded by MSEO stuff. MCDV It was as part of the run up to- have a team to put a ship to sea was was experiencing hull cracking and wards refit where I had my most in- an incredible experience. the engine raft was cracking as well. teresting challenge. Before heading NETE collected massive amounts of out to pre-refit trials, HSI (Hot Sec- — LCdr Helga Budden

14 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Most memorable naval technical challenge

HMCS Margaree – NATO 1991 for the work. Then we looked at how have to be the one that was not with While it may not be the most tech- much the ship staff could do to re- the navy. It would have to be my time nical memory of my naval career, it duce the workload on the FMF. Then spent in Bosnia. we looked at scheduling this work to is one that resides with me and has You ask how does a “fishhead” for years. allow the ship to work in some man- ner. An amazing amount of repairs serving with a UK air force officer We had just completed fuelling were accomplished. This effort al- in an army environment face techni- ship in the Azores as the Canadian lowed the ship to sail without major cal challenges? Well, imagine trying ship representing the Standing Naval problems for another two years. to build business cases to “sell” Forces Atlantic Fleet during the Per- NGOs on the need for funding for sian Gulf War. A consequence of the — LCdr Wade Temple special projects, but not being able to war was the requirement to search talk directly to the individuals [look- Perceived Professionalism the hulls of all ships for potential en- ing for funding] because of the lan- emy or terrorist mines. We were I have been in for two years, guage barrier, and having to deal with berthed inboard of an Oliver Hazard joined as DEO (direct entry technology from a communist Perry class American destroyer, and officer)....I have been in training for era...after a war...and following each they, without a ship’s dive team, re- all of those two years. project through to completion... quired the services of our dive team I have 2½ weeks of sea time and Non-technical, you say? Well a to search their hull. After they com- can honestly say that I have not ex- wood shop / welding shop / techni- pleted a diving safety checklist, en- perienced a real technical problem cal school were all tech projects. suring that all our auxiliaries were since I’ve been in. shut down, our dive team com- — C. Grant Heddon menced a hull search. I had just com- Perhaps the biggest struggle for pleted fuelling and as the A/HoD I me was putting aside my drive for Potable Water Maintenance was responsible for checking over the results and replacing that with time An ongoing challenge which is side for burped fuel (as the steam- spent learning material I already carried on by many of us as stokers ers were known to do this), and as I know. Also, replacing that drive for (and yes, this is a personal pet peeve looked over the starboard side a Ca- results with the drive for perceived of mine!) is potable water mainte- nadian diver surfaced announcing a professionalism. nance. Starting on St. John’s 4-5 diver was down – sucked up into the Perceived professionalism is do- years ago, I began looking at the condenser circ pump inlet. The ing what is expected, even if better training we DO NOT receive in this Americans failed to confirm this dur- results can be obtained in another fine art. As an engineer with Public ing their checks. The end result, two less professional manner — it’s kinda Works for a municipality, a person is good divers drowned from HMCS hard to explain with little time. formally trained with years of expe- Margaree’s dive team and an entire rience and a degree of legal respon- ship’s company impacted. During course presentations, I was sibility. We, as the navy, leave the told to not get caught in the weeds, safety and quality of our water sup- — LCdr Trevor Scurlock however I find that those weeds also ply in the capable hands of an 18-19 exist in professionalism and manner- year-old OS with as little as a grade Mini-Refit Disguised isms. — [Name withheld at edi- 10 education as an SWP tor’s discretion.] I was the Engineering Officer of I have expended a great effort and HMCS Cormorant and it had been 1st Multinational Civil/Military personal financial obligation in the rumoured the ship was being paid off Co-operation Group – Bosnia hope of instilling in the department on Halifax the importance of this. Fair in two years or so. Once formally [My most memorable tech chal- or not, this is our responsibility, our announced, the priority for getting lenge? The question of what was my work done on the ship would fall most technical challenge while in the dilemma. — Pat Devenish even lower than it currently was. navy...and to do this in under 10 min- There was an SWP (short work pe- utes!] riod) scheduled starting in a few (Need a break? Why not have a months. The challenge was to get a I’ve had a lot of technical chal- read of Hugues Létourneau’s mini-refit for the ship under the guise lenges from many different perspec- fascinating book review on of an SWP. My senior techs and I sat tives, all having their own difficulties page 28, then come on back and down and assessed every major sys- to overcome. At the end of all the pick up the stories at page 16.) tem and developed a list of priorities challenges, the most technical would

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 15 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Detection System metal as a backing plate; install four reer thus far...the length of training. My most technical challenge in jubilee clamps...and problem solved. Being a mil col graduate, my training my naval career thus far has been the Obviously this was done when not as been spread out over five years. freon detector in the Kingston-class under pressure. Although I see the need for this ex- ships. The detector was not detect- Repair worked perfectly for re- tensive training, it makes it difficult ing small freon leaks occurring over maining five months of deployment to keep your eye on the prize... extended periods of time. My task until properly repaired by FMF Cape — SLt Hartzell was to improve the detection system Scott. — LCdr Craig Bradley by either moving the detector, or TIC Camera putting in a new detector with more My most significant technical Using technology of a thermal or improved sensors. — Anon. challenge imaging camera to find the clog of a “Introducing” and implementing DG drain line where it is all welded AFFF in My SPS-49 Radar the necessary safety and environ- joints and awkward areas. The TIC The MSEO and his band of fire mental changes at FMF Cape camera helped pinpoint clog location. fighters were “testing/trialling” the Breton. fitted dry pipe system on board. The — Anon. This involved changing cultures, plan was simply to bring pressure to None the system until AFFF (aqueous film- attitudes and approaches to safety forming foam) appeared at the end and environmental issues, developing None to date in the fleet. Still in of the line. On completion the “trial” solid and achievable implementation training. — Anon. called for blowing out the system with plans and finally, building the neces- LP air. Unfortunately, after success- sary internal and external relation- Sultan Duty Watch fully trialling the system (and I guess ships to ensure unit successes and My most memorable technical due to the satisfaction of this) the goals. — Cdr M.W. Batsford challenge was to undertake duty team forgot to completely de-isolate watch during our training in Sultan; the dry pipe, so that when the LP air Largest Technical Challenge the scenario they create and the line was connected to blow out the HMCS Halifax at 48 hours No- hands-on practical experience the system, AFFF and sea water was tice for Power with many key sys- facility gives us. The time limit, un- forced back through the LP air tems either disabled or removed. derstanding the technical aspects, system...Can you guess exactly how Ship tasked on a SAR (search and problem-solving and the bombard- many systems are fed by LP air rescue), managed to patch most key ment of questions while on the sce- onboard? I unfortunately no longer systems together and deployed in nario was wonderful and challenging. approximately 3 hours of receiving have to guess...and yes, the SPS-49 — Anon. waveguides use LP air as part of the tasking. Ship left without vent system air dryer system... for heads — i.e., NO operational I.T. Issues heads. Had to figure out how to run Software within the Forces suf- — LCdr S. Curran a below deck vent system from a fers from a nearly perpetual state of cut-off pipe to an emergency over- Super-Heated Steam Leak obsolescence. During DC (damage board discharge hull fitting on the fly While EO of Preserver in the control) school we tried to bring in while travelling at 25 knots. Adriatic Sea, we developed a super- interesting videos that fit with lesson heated steam leak on the super- — Anon. material from previous classes. The heater header drain line. The steam videos we brought turned out to be was impinging on the casing and the The Most Callenging... in the wrong file format. We took the risk was that the leak would grow, I am currently completing the videos home to convert their format, causing the loss of the boiler or, if left Marine Systems applications course. but when we brought them back in unresolved, a serious safety hazard. My ship time adds up to approxi- we found that the version of the file The solution arrived at with the col- mately six weeks and my sea time to format we brought in was too new laboration of the main propulsion three. The technical challenges I for our computer to read. It ended up petty officer, CERA and myself, was: have faced have been in the comfort taking three days to convert the file clear the outer surface of the pinhole and safety of my training environ- to a useable format when all that was with a small rotary grinder; pack with ment. So, instead of discussing my needed was permission to update Belzona (liquid metal); wrap with most memorable technical challenge, Windows Media Player. Maybe in- grey fibrous material (asbestos); fab- I’ll briefly mention what I have found structional computers need fewer ricate a large area piece of sheet to be the most challenging in my ca- locks. — A/SLt Marasco, NT

16 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Beartrapped A Call in the Night I was the UWGTO (Underwater Group Technical Officer) in MOG5 in the late 90s...working long hours to push the O-boats through their last few years of service. At about 3:00 a.m., unbeknownst to me, sound asleep in my home, Okanagan was at Emergency Stations, powerless, a few miles south of Chebucto Head. The phone rang and I got out of some deep sleep. On the phone is the EO of the boat on a cellular call broken up by seconds, feeling like hours, of silence. The much broken message is conveyed and it is not good — the rocks are near and we need assist- ance — is in a nutshell the order of the day that has not started yet. More to follow... — Anon. Most Significant Technical challenge(s) 1. Operational — Unitizing the main propulsion plant to repair “condenseritis” whilst maintaining course and speed (12 knots) in order As a former NCM I had the pleasure of being flight deck stoker to continue shadowing/escorting a while serving on board HMCS St. John’s. Having had the course Soviet task force (one Krivak and I thought I was prepared to handle anything the job could throw at two Krestas) off the West Coast me. One time while performing maintenance on the beartrap I (HMCS Kootenay — 1981). noticed it would not close. After performing several checks I could 2. Program — I could write a not figure out what was wrong. I opened the beartrap up and re- book (some day!) on the challenges alized what a mechanical nightmare was inside. Realizing I was and complexities, both technical and in above my head I had to call in FMF to resolve the issue for me. program, of the “TRUMP” project. — Anonymous — Capt(N) Rick Payne Big Sense of Accomplishment It All Just Seems Like a Blur Understanding the redesign re- change be addressed after a strug- My most memorable technical quired for [equipment name withheld gle with senior engineers... moment...wow! I can honestly say I – Ed.], I submitted the research and [Name withheld at editor’s dis- don’t really have any one moment. UCR (Unsatisfactory Condition Re- I’ve been in the navy for almost 19 cretion] port) for it, only to be told...that a years and it all just seems like a blur. “plan” already existed. I’ve spent time on steamers, the good Loss of Refrigerant ’ole Dirty 230 (HMCS Margaree) to I realized that the...“plan” was not I conducted a Technical Investi- CPF HMCS Halifax, Fredericton, good enough. So I pushed and gation into a loss of refrigerant from Montréal and more; both as an pushed...and eventually was suc- the main refrigeration system on NCM and as an officer. All a blur, the cessful in having the...hardware/ HMCS Charlottetown. The findings good times of cleaning sprayer tips software changes implemented as resulted in an addition to the Engineer- in the wee hours of the morning to per the original UCR submitted two ing Officer’s Technical Instructions humping shore cables (not so fun years prior. (EOTIs) to help prevent future losses really, but I remember all too well). It was a big sense of accomplish- of refrigerant. — CGY ment to see an essential engineering — SLt David Pittis

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 17 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Courses not Sufficient dertaken by the Canadian navy since etc., to determine capability of My biggest challenge (technical) the superheater header scare of the RODs (reverse-osmosis desalina- so far is not related to equipment, but early 1980s and the turboblower mys- tion) system and implement miti- rather, the courses and qualifications tery of 1987-88 [see “The Trouble gating measures. with Turboblowers,” Maritime En- needed to be a successful NTO that — Anon. were presented/delivered to us dur- gineering Journal, Jan./April, 1990)]. Discussing the Huron inci- ing various phases of our training. I Attitude feel that the courses are not sufficient dent later, Mr. Jost [MAAG’s FSR] Incredibly cold day of December. enough to prepare us when we en- said that while MAAG had made I just came back from Quebec City ter the fleet. I’ve been told by many similar in-situ repairs for smaller war- on vacation where I had been told of my predecessors that some of the ships in the Far East, this was the how useless the navy/military was. courses are of no or little relevance. first time they had attempted in-situ A pretty sad week seen from my I find it frustrating that these issues repairs of this magnitude.”] side of things as I was part of that were recognized, but not addressed. navy. — Anon. So that day was the return in Huron’s Gearbox Issue Halifax of HMCS Toronto. Huron’s gearbox issue As I was standing on NB while I was MSEO/ PowerPoint jetty, looking at all those NEUP (Naval Engineer- At this point in my career I haven’t had many people who did not think ing Unit Pacific): opportunities to be “technically” tested; however, my that our navy was use- • bolts failed and ma- daily dose of PowerPoint presentations while on my less, I suddenly forgot all terial went through applications course has certainly been a challenge about the comments Huron’s bullwheel during in itself. A challenge which sadly/happily will come from Quebec as I saw the WUPS (work-ups) to an end tomorrow. — SLt “Cloud” ship appearing in the har- • FSR (field service rep- bour and was filled with the same pride as everybody else resentative) from [gearbox [i.e. Anonymous!] manufacturer] MAAG brought that was there. There was one of onsite to repair in-situ our ships coming back home. • closed off Engine Room and in- Balancing Duties — Lt(N) David Roberge, stituted clean room procedures As Sensors and Weapons officer CFNES • LCdr Mark Sheppard MSEO for the SNFL (Standing Naval Force Huron Atlantic) fleet while balancing these Protecteur Post Refit • involved NEUP main gearing duties with that of CSEO of the flag- Assisting in getting Protecteur, at inspector Dick Mills ship. — Cdr G.E. Bannister 37 years young, put back together • several months to repair — did post-refit to the point that she’s ca- repairs twice Three Challenges pable of sailing to the Gulf and around • FOD (foreign objects) found 1. Conducting/monitoring DWP the world. — Lt(N) Mooney way back into gearbox after first (docking work period) work at HSL repair (Halifax Shipyard Ltd.). Satellite Communications • eventually got it working 2. Discover a crack on a fuel The most challenging — and • episode resulted in a brown en- tank, taking appropriate measures funny — was perhaps ensuring sat- velope to “Esprit de Corps” to mitigate the risk of the crack ellite communications were consist- • persuaded Capt(N) Sutherland while deployed, and come back to ently available during a six-month de- to write a rebuttal that was published. home port with the exact fuel sta- ployment in the Med. Amongst these, — Cdr Darren Rich tus required to conduct repairs was making sure the darn satellite promptly. TV was available for the crew and [Editor’s Note — In his February, 3. While deployed on humanitar- the Commodore at all times. The real 1999 MEJ article, “HMCS Huron ian relief mission, explore options challenge was coming with valid ex- Gearbox Failure and Repair,” Darren to produce fresh water while at an- planation as to why SAT TV was not wrote: This was, without a doubt, one chor for extended periods of time. available...Oh what fun. of the most technically challenging Contacted FTO (Fleet Technical — LCdr Chouinard repair and investigation efforts un- Officer), DA (Design Authority),

18 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Most memorable naval technical challenge

Satellite Connectivity We were in consort with Iroquois Through good teamwork, hard work As an NCM communications and Halifax. St John’s had not only and the dedication of ships’ techs, we tech I installed several INMARSAT been designated as a firing ship, but were successful. was also the recovery vessel systems prior to NERA-B becoming A piece of one of the BQM tar- (range could not provide), data col- mainstream. gets that was destroyed was donated lection [ship] for the entire fleet, to FMF Cape Scott by CCFL (Com- MARLANT thought the IN- and target launching platform for mander Canadian Fleet Atlantic) as MARSATs were not capable of con- Iroquois. necting to the Internet at any data a token of appreciation for the effort speed and were weighing their op- In order to proceed on the range that went into getting the ships ready. tions. Our ship advised MARLANT we needed to have at least two — Anon. that we had been doing e-mail on methods of recovering targets. One NATO and were unaware of all the was the RHIB, the other Zodiac. On Introduction of the New Class problems with other ships. our transit to Norfolk for an eight- of Submarines hour port visit the RHIB davit failed As a Lt(N) MSEO in Okanagan I created an SOP and faxed it to while launching the boat. several ships, took many calls at 1988-1990, we had just begun to ex- home via INMARSAT from ships My job as CSE was to get perience the questioning of docu- deployed and briefed MARLANT recertification of the RHIB davit. mentation of submarine valves and staff in Halifax. We were arriving at 10:00 Friday our system of configuration manage- of a long weekend and leaving ment. It was a crash course in work- It was a great feeling to accom- about 18:00. Weather prediction was ing with NEU(A) and SRU(A). Sig- plish a fleet-wide goal through shared not good so window on range was nificantly, the DA (design authority) teamwork across platforms. finite. in NDHQ was not part of the story. Which leads me to my point... — Lt(N) Terry Moore*, Trying to certify a Canadian crane, CFNES in a US port with no time for an In 2001 I was posted to DGMEPM [*An MS NET(C) at the time.] FTA/FMF TAV (Fleet Technical as DMCM SUBS as a freshly minted Authority / Fleet Maintenance Facil- Cdr. The challenge was the introduc- Combat Systems Engineering ity technical assistance visit) was a tion of the new class of submarines, Applications Course challenge. However with the help of except with diminishing technical the FTO who was embarked in support from the “builder,” and the Surviving the NCSEAC Naval Iroquois, excellent support from installation of a Canadian DA in Combat Systems Engineering Ap- FTA; and the tremendous work of the NDHQ with substantial configura- plications Course. While not nec- Maritime Systems, Combat Systems tion management. It was a crash essarily technical it certainly is a and Supply departments, we achieved course in working with the coast, required hurdle. the mission and miraculously got the DMSS, overseas builder, and the — Anon. davit certified. MoD(UK). Same idea as the late While there are many more de- ’80s, but a much more complex chal- The 2049 Tech Console tails, suffice it to say, that what was lenge at a relatively senior level. Sitting down at the 2049 console initially thought impossible was ac- My work between 2001-2004, watching the star flashing about 15 complished. this was the most significant techni- times an hour. It was pretty demand- — LCdr Dave Benoit, cal challenge that I have faced to ing and challenging. During that time, date. I felt like I was an integral part of the DCmdt CFNES Canadian navy. — Cdr R.J. Hovey, Challenging Tech Experience Cmdt CFNES — SLt Irvine Bringing a three-ship force to technical readiness for a multiple Urgent Recertification of RHIB missile firing in 1999 was a definite (We hope you have been enjoying Davit in a US Port challenge. I was the new SSO Com- reading these stories and While as the HoD in St John’s, we bat Systems in FTA and was sud- musings as much as we enjoyed were on deployment to conduct the denly responsible for certifying the bringing them to you. Turn the first operational acceptance of the ships ready to fire. This was my first page for the final eight.) ESSM (Evolved SeaSparrow Mis- missilex prep. Each of the ships had sile). varying degrees of technical issues.

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 19 Most memorable naval technical challenge

My most interesting technical In the Gulf 1991 fuel for ships, lack of recruiting suc- challenge As a Junior Officer, I deployed on cess, helicopter, etc. Without doubt, it was my three HMCS Protecteur for the liberation Pride felt after ship returning from years as detachment commander for of Kuwait. Gulf after 9/11. — Anon. the submarine project in the UK. The months leading to the deploy- Working with a less than specific ment were challenging as we were You can’t go to sea with only contract, backed by an enthusiastic the Preserver crew getting ready to one diesel! crew and a design authority on a deploy and take over our sister unit My most interesting story is really steep learning curve every day pre- Protecteur. just the most recent story, and it has sented challenges. to do with the “Cadoozling” exercise Lots, lots of memories of how a at the MARPAC Technical Seminar. These mainly arose from a clash crew comes together. A good friend of mine wrote an ex- of the English language, as Canadian — R. Tremblay cellent story about struggling to get and British authorities wrestled with his ship to sea with temperamental the true meaning of terms and con- Getting a Non-technical Posting diesel engines and a high profile visit ditions. My greatest technical challenge of NATO general officers. His story Both parties had the same goal — was to finally get posted to a post that was selected as the winner, though I safe and operational Victoria-class was non-technical. Upon promotion don’t think many people thought (Upholder) submarines — but ap- to Cdr, I was posted to ADM(Pol) as through the implications of the story. proached the task from different an- the director CAN-US defence rela- You see, there were crusty old gles. tions — without a lick of an idea of marine engineering officers in the We persevered, and thanks to the how I was to perform this task. Well, crowd, and one of them said, “Wait superb and steadfast support of a cast after settling in, 2 full days after my a minute...you can’t go to sea with of talented, diligent and experienced return from Staff College in Paris, I only one diesel!” And this started an MARE officers, NCMs, and civilian was to be acting Director for West- interesting few days of questions, LCMMs, we were able to deliver a ern Hemisphere Policy! Well, what anxiety and general churn related to pretty darn solid vessel! worked for me in my comfort zone the safety of vessels at sea. technical world, worked again in a — Capt(N) Mike Williamson true political outside world. Trust, Now it was temporarily embar- people skills and teamwork pulled rassing for my friend, but most of the Training And Development what was, for me, a truly stressful engineers in the fleet learned from Not necessarily a technical chal- event. the experience and my friend still lenge, as I am still quite junior in my ended up winning a fine book and his career. That being said, the biggest The training, exposure and devel- picture in the MARE Journal. oped “common sense” acquired as and most rewarding challenge that I — LCdr Dan Horan have had so far is the training and an NTO proved absolutely beneficial to employment in any capacity. development of future naval engi- Working this mechanical pencil! neers, and all of the rewards associ- — Cdr P. Deschênes Working this mechanical pencil ated in developing the future techni- ranks in the top 10. I have no expe- cal leaders of our navy. Pride And Motivation riences as of yet that are of a tech- — Lt(N) Bathurst Biggest challenge for trainee: nical nature. Peace. I have been Finding a HoD or Senior NCO who “training” for about two years. Passing genuinely cares about their training — Anon. Passing the MSE Phase 6 Board. and mentoring. — Anon. Keeping up one’s pride and moti- vation despite lack of political sup- port (in the past and at present), i.e.,

Bravo zulu...and thank you!

20 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Materiel Acquisition and Support Information System —First Frigate Rollout of the MASIS “Deployed Solution”

Article by LCdr Simon Paré, CP02 Chris Tucker and Janelle Mansfield

he implementation of National cific — are putting MASIS to work was integrated with the onboard TDefence’s leading edge Ma- on operational processes such as ShipLAN local area network and teriel Acquisition and Support In- materiel fitness reports and tiered accessed via a MASIS graphical formation System has taken a sig- readiness programs. The fleet main- user interface on the ship’s compu- nificant step forward. Last Sep- tenance facilities, FMF Cape Breton ter workstations. At sea and along- tember, the Halifax-class side, the deployed server frigate HMCS Toronto will normally be connected received the MASIS “de- via satellite or secure land ployed solution” to replace line to the central MASIS the ship’s Consolidated server at CFB Borden, ON. Maintenance Information Whenever the deployed System (Ship) — CMIS-S. server is disconnected, it The introduction of MASIS will continue to operate as provides shipboard mainte- a standalone system, main- nance and supply person- taining the full maintenance nel a single integrated and management capability of more complete view of the the ship. The central and ship’s maintenance activi- deployed servers are de- ties. signed to synchronize once connection has been re- MASIS was first rolled stored. out to the navy’s central and coastal organizations in A key design point in the 2003, and six years later MASIS deployed solution is more than 2,000 naval the concept of data owner- MASIS users are working ship. Because the architec- with the information sys- tural landscape includes tem. At National Defence multiple servers with com- headquarters in the Na- mon data, it is imperative tional Capital Region, life- that only one of the servers cycle materiel managers, on ship or in Borden have supply managers, procure- edit access or change au- ment officers and other HMCS Toronto. (Combat Camera photo 2008-9013 by thority for any given piece staff in the maritime equip- Sgt. Kevin MacAulay) of data at any given time. ment program manage- This concept applies to ment division (DGMEPM) are using in Esquimalt, BC, and FMF Cape master data objects such as Equip- MASIS in their day-to-day busi- Scott in Halifax, NS, are heavy us- ment Master Records (EMRs) and ness. Business planning, project ers of MASIS for work planning, equipment functional locations, as management, cost planning and en- scheduling and work execution. well as to transactional data such as gineering change management are Canada’s Victoria-class submarines notifications and work orders. some of the key activities being use the information system in the key As this is a new system for the handled by DGMEPM staff through area of submarine materiel certifica- Halifax class, the ship’s maintain- MASIS. tion. ers, maintenance supervisors and On the coasts, the formations — For the rollout to the frigate, a de- supply technicians received MASIS Maritime Forces Atlantic and Pa- ployed MASIS HP DL385 server (deployed) training prior to the sys-

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 21 Fig. 1. The MASIS HP DL385 deployed server destined for the Halifax-class frigates. (Image courtesy PMO MASIS)

Fig. 2. When connected by satellite or other secure line, a ship’s onboard MASIS server communicates continuously with the main server at Canadian Forces Base Borden in Ontario. When disconnected, the ship’s deployed server operates as a fully capable standalone system until such time as the ship is able to reconnect and synchronize with the central server. (Combat Camera photo 2008-17 by Sgt. Kevin MacAulay) tem’s launch. Following implemen- being completed by the fleet Currently, CMIS schedules pre- tation, PMO MASIS provided maintenance facilities on their ventive maintenance using cal- three weeks of on-board expert behalf. endar based tracking which can support to assist ship’s staff be misleading if the equipment is MASIS (deployed) will allow through the transition. At the end not used regularly. This can result ship’s staff to assess, in real-time, of the three-week support period in a higher level of maintenance the availability of maintenance ship’s staff would access the al- than is required, translating into in- spares and permit them to reserve ready established MASIS user sup- creased demands on staff time and spare parts as required. Equipment port process to address any MASIS higher maintenance costs. With will be given serial numbers so that related problems. MASIS, preventive maintenance MASIS can maintain specific can be scheduled either by calen- equipment maintenance history and MASIS (deployed) — dar, or on a counter based system provide increased visibility, report- benefits that tracks total equipment running ing and tracking capability in a The MASIS central system cur- time and notifies ship’s staff when number of areas. For example, it rently receives information from it is time to conduct specific main- will become much easier to assess CMIS-S through interfaces. Once tenance. the MASIS deployed solution is the costs associated with the main- completely implemented, it will al- tenance process and transfer of Innovative functionality equipment. low the entire naval technical com- The MASIS deployed solution munity to operate from the same Similar to CMIS-S, the MASIS includes two key processes — an system and enable end-to-end deployed solution will be used to equipment transfer function and a maintenance processes between record onboard maintenance ac- work-in-progress inventory. Both the formations and deployed units. tivities. One noteworthy change are designed to provide additional Ship’s staff will therefore have is the way MASIS allows preven- integration and visibility of mainte- increased visibility to the work tive maintenance to be scheduled. nance activities.

22 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 Equipment Transfer: equipment tenance spare parts from the Cana- navy deployed solution described dismantle and install dian Forces Supply System deployed here, along with the capability to In MASIS, the physical structure with the ship to MASIS (deployed). support the planning and conduct of the ship is represented by an elec- The MASIS application thereby be- of operations. With these imple- tronic technical structure consisting comes the source system for all mentations, MASIS is on its way to of functional locations and equipment maintenance, supply and financial achieving the goal set by the de- master records. This technical struc- reporting of maintenance spares, partment to have an integrated in- ture must be accurately maintained while still maintaining some integra- formation management system to ensure the maintenance history of tion with CFSS. with up-to-date data that supports the ship and its constituent parts is both military operations and corpo- properly captured. In the course of The work-in-progress inventory rate processes. conducting maintenance, any actual provides added functionality to ship- equipment that is physically removed board maintenance activities by al- from the ship must be transactionally lowing integration with other MASIS “dismantled” from the ship’s techni- activity modules such as plant main- cal structure. Likewise, any equip- tenance and finance. WIP inventory ment that is physically added to the also offers additional visibility and in- ship must be transactionally installed formation to the user. Ship’s staff LCdr Simon Paré led the into the ship’s electronic technical will have a better, more accurate PMO MASIS User Relation- structure. CMIS-S currently uses view of the inventory of various ship Management team fo- S3A and S3B maintenance action ship’s maintenance spares, while cusing on training, business forms (MAFs) for these transac- MASIS itself can automatically de- transition and performance tions, but in MASIS (deployed) they termine maintenance spare require- management. He transferred are known as IE4Ns. ments and re-order as necessary. to PMO Arctic/Offshore Pa- trol Ship (AOP)S in Ottawa The first phase of the WIP inven- last September. The MASIS IE4N transactions tory solution was included in the directly update the ship’s technical rollout of the MASIS deployed solu- CP02 Chris Tucker is a ma- structure. Similar to CMIS-S, the tion in the first Halifax-class frigate, rine electrical technician in- MASIS deployed solution has been HMCS Toronto, in September. Full volved with solution delivery customized such that for a given implementation of WIP inventory for and training for PMO MASIS. equipment registration number that ship took place over the winter. (ERN) and its location within the ship He previously served as chief structure, a dismantlement must take What’s next? electrician with HMCS place before an installation can be PMO MASIS, along with imple- Algonquin. made. This ensures, from a data per- mentation partner IBM Canada, is spective, that all relevant information continuing its progress toward suc- Janelle Mansfield is a mem- is captured and stored as required, cessful delivery of the MASIS de- ber of Team IBM (MASIS). and that IE4N transactions are only ployed solution to the navy’s sur- She works in the area of busi- used for their intended purpose of re- face and submarine fleets, as well ness transition, focusing her pair-by-replacement activities. Engi- as to the army and air force. The efforts on collaborating with neering changes require a different project recently completed a series navy stakeholders to ensure transaction. of workshops for current and fu- successful implementation of ture users of the system. A signifi- MASIS initiatives. Work-in-progress (WIP) cant technical upgrade made to the inventory of maintenance spares Materiel Acquisition and Support (With files from Team IBM The ship-based WIP “inventory Information System in July 2008 members Jeff Strachan and solution” transfers the complete provided the required functionality Michele Ho.) management and reporting of main- to house new capability such as the

Submissions to the Journal The Journal welcomes unclassified submissions in English or French. To avoid duplication of effort and ensure suitability of subject matter, contributors are asked to first contact the Production Editor, Maritime Engineering Journal, DMSS, National Defence H.Q., Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0K2, Tel. (613) 831-4932. Letters are always welcome, but only signed correspondence will be considered for publication.

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 23 Configuration Management Scrimshaw or scroll saw — Is this your Ship?

Article and photos by CPO2 (ret.) Grant Heddon (with Brian McCullough)

n previous articles we have Ishown pictures of spaces that have undergone many unsafe and unauthorized modifications, most in the pursuit of creature comforts. The West Coast article in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue ex- plained in detail why making unau- thorized changes is not only danger- ous to people, but also creates ex- tra cost whenever approved changes are about to be imple- mented.

The photos this time highlight the work that some very talented peo- ple put into their mess to improve their comfort while away on de- ployment. Presumably, the “com- fort” is actually meant for those playing the video games, not for the people trying to sleep. Let me Much effort went into tell you, I would be one cranky creating this comfort- sailor if some messdeck “guitar able bench seat and hero” were keeping me awake. “entertainment centre” And which sailor, I wonder, gave in this ship’s messdeck, up his locker so they could install creature comforts for the all-important fridge and TV? Is those long deployments. he planning to stow his gear under Unfortunately, all of it the new bench seat? contravenes naval regu- lations for configuration Unfortunately, what jumps out management and fire safety. While the mate- immediately is the increase in the rials present an obvious fire load created in this space due added fire load, the set- to the materials that have been up also raises concerns used. The wood, the varnish, the for emergency access to seat cushion material — all good ship’s structure. The ad- smoky fire fodder — and do you dition of video gaming even want to see the electrical equipment may be a hook-ups hidden behind the equip- mixed blessing for off- ment cabinet? watch personnel trying to sleep. The set-up also raises concerns for emergency damage control ac- cess to ship’s structure. Unlike the

24 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 The bench seat stowage

sailors who live in this space, the No one expects our crews to making modifications like these mermaid painted on the ship’s side work around the clock when they without challenging their right to do appears to have instant access to are at sea, and off-watch projects so. an endless supply of cool water are a good way to unwind. But and breathable air should the worst where the seafarers of old were happen. once encouraged to engage in a bit of fancy embroidery work or de- You really have to wonder who tailed scrimshaw on a whale’s in authority allowed these materi- tooth to occupy their precious short als to be installed on board this ship time below, it is a much different Grant Heddon is the former in this way. I suppose we’ll just story today. At least in our navy, the Staff Officer, Maritime have to take it on faith that the no-less-skilled sailors of the Rona Forces Atlantic Fleet materials were purchased privately generation have traded in the tra- Technical Authority in and manufactured and installed ditional needle and pocket knife for Halifax. outside of work hours. After all, power drill and scroll saw to con- there isn’t a sailor in the fleet who struct their visions on a much thinks the navy has enough mate- grander scale. That this all happens rial resources or hours in a day to to be completely against regulation complete the work that absolutely pales in comparison to the extent needs to be done. to which we now accept people

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 25 Survivability A Measure of Seaworthiness Article by Michael Dervin

HMCS Kingston. (Combat Camera photo 2001 ISD01-9595a by MCpl Brian Walsh)

ost of us have our own worthiness at a Kingston-class high- following is a slightly edited extract Munderstanding of what seas capability meeting on Sept. 25, from that publication, ANEP-79, seaworthiness means, but rarely do 2001. The purpose of the meeting Edition 1. we share a common definition. was to kick off a project to determine Depending on the context, it could the limitations and risks associated The Seaworthiness Scale mean that a ship handles well in with heavy seas operations and tran- The Seaworthiness Scale heavy seas, or that it has good sits by Kingston-class maritime as proposed by team member stability, or that it is structurally coastal defence vessels. The “Sea- Mike Dervin (DND, Canada) sound. Certainly not the ideal worthiness Scale” put forward at is essentially a set of criteria situation if you happen to be the that meeting allowed participants to that could be used by ship own- one responsible for specifying (or put generic terms into a common ers, designers, engineers, per- interpreting) requirements, which context. While the author is first to formance specification writ- deal with various aspects of admit it is still imprecise, at least ers, and operators to catego- seaworthiness. As with anything, a when we were discussing require- rize and quantify the desired or shared understanding of the ground ments like, “The ship shall withstand achieved capacity of a ship, all rules and definitions means sea state X,” we could refer to the its systems and crew to func- everything. Seaworthiness Scale to better quan- tion in adverse sea state envi- tify what was being asked. Generic terms such as operate, ronments. withstand and survive are used In July 2007 a slightly evolved The scale considers the regularly in ship specifications. We version of the Seaworthiness Scale ability of the crew to effec- all have a gut feeling as to what they (Table 1) was published in the tively operate the ship in dif- mean, but what exactly is being NATO allied naval engineering ferent seaways, the ship’s sta- specified and how can it possibly be publication, “Controllability and bility reserve and structure re- verified? Without formal definition of Safety in a Seaway.” At the time, the silience to sustain degrees of the terms, misunderstanding, failure author was a member of the NATO direct or indirect damage and and frustration are inevitable. Naval Armaments Group (Maritime system/equipment malfunc- The author first introduced a sys- Capability Group 6) specialist team tion up to and including sur- tem of definitions pertaining to sea- dealing with seaway mobility The vival scenarios. The damage

26 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 may or may not be the result of warfare action. The Seaworthiness Scale The scale ranges from 1 to 10, with 1 indicating unfettered 10 Capsize Sunk or sinking is inevitable and imminent operability and 10 being total loss of the ship. The scale is 9 Survive (c) Salvageable applicable to any type of sea- going ship and is independent 8 Survive (b) Sustained major structural damage and some of the sea environment. As compartments flooded, but able to return to such, an aircraft carrier and a port under own power. small fishing boat could have the same rating, but in very dif- 7 Survive (a) Structural and equipment damage; some in- ferent sea states. Further- gress of water, but manageable. more, a particular ship would have different ratings for dif- ferent environments — for 6 Withstand (c) Likelihood of damage that may lead to flood- example, a rating of 1 in sea ing; difficult or unable to maintain or change state 2, and a rating of 5 in sea heading;unable to make headway. state 7. For the scale to be 5 Withstand (b) Compelled to change speed and/or heading, meaningful, a rating value minor structural or equipment damage possi- must be linked with a specific ble, personnel injury probable. environment of wind and waves. 4 Withstand (a) Without sustaining damage, but possible risk Suitable rating values would of personnel injury. depend on the type of service the ship would see and the ac- 3 Operate (c) Basic ship functions are not degraded. How- ceptable level of risk the ever, primary mission tasks are limited. Ship owner is willing to endure. The may have to hold or change heading and/or ship’s performance still needs change speed to minimise mission impact. to be evaluated through simu- lation, model tests or sea trials, 2 Operate (b) Only certain shipboard tasks limited for and where hard criteria do not some conditions/scenarios. exist the evaluation may be somewhat subjective. Never- 1 Operate (a) Mission and shipboard tasks unimpeded by theless, in the context of a sea conditions. ship’s capability or limitations in, or resilience to a seaway Table 1: Seaworthiness Scale defining overall ship performance environment — in other for a given environment. (From ANEP-79, Edition 1, July 2007, words, the “seaworthiness” of Controllability and Safety in a Seaway.) the ship — the scale provides a common point of reference to often used terms like oper- evaluate the handling qualities of an into human terms and answer the ate, withstand and survive. aircraft is similar to the Seaworthi- question; “Is the ship seaworthy?” Previously, such terms have ness Scale. Although both scales are been used without formal defi- largely subjective, and that my be nition, resulting in inconsisten- their biggest downfall, their great ad- cies in the understanding of vantage is that without complex in- the ship’s required or observed strumentation, data collection and performance. analysis, one can rapidly get an im- Michael Dervin is the naval pression of the capability of a plat- architecture manager for the Conclusion form and how well all of its systems Canadian Surface Combat- The concept of using a scale to (including the humans) are function- ant Project. He is the former define in quantitative terms the diffi- ing together. Technology will no doubt DGMEPM hydrodynamics culty in performing a mission or con- one day replace the human sensor specialist engineer. ducting a task is not new. The and remove the subjectivity of the Cooper-Harper rating scale used by human evaluator, but it will still be test pilots since the late 1960s to necessary to consolidate all the data

MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 27 Book Review Betrayed Reviewed by Captain(N) Hugues Létourneau

Betrayed — Scandal, Politics and reserve components. MacLean, U-boats. Despite this, as historian Canadian Naval Leadership however, would write directly (and Mayne clearly demonstrates, head- by Richard O. Mayne frequently) to Angus L. Macdonald, quarters worked long and hard to UBC Press © 2006 Minister of National Defence for enlist the support of the minister to ISBN 978-0-7748-1295-5 (bound) Naval Services, and because of address the equipment gap. By late 978-0-7748-1296-2 (paperback) MacLean’s political influence the 1944 that gap would close, yet a 279 pages, illustrated minister listened. As a result, number of seagoing officers (many references and index, $29.95 MacLean caused considerable grief of whom were based in Londonderry to Macdonald as well as to Nelles — and were supported by Royal Navy he 1,500-member naval re- at least until both the minister and the Commodore (D) G.W.G. Simpson) Tserve I joined in 1970 was far, navy got fed up with MacLean and made representations to Macdonald’s far removed from the 80,000-strong eased him out in 1943. executive assistant, John Joseph Connolly. They convinced him — and Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Such disloyalty to the chain of through him the minister — that a se- Reserve of the Second World War. command was bad enough. Far more While today few reservists have po- rious crisis was brewing in the navy. litical influence through civilian con- There wasn’t one, and yet Macdonald nections, the number of those who did would end up accusing Nelles of in- was much higher during the war due competence. Nelles fought back, but to the sheer size of the reserve and in a battle with one’s political master the context of the times. Still, I had being right is not always enough. The no idea that some of my fellow re- admiral was removed from his func- servists had forced the navy’s top tions in January 1944. man — Vice Admiral Percy W. This meticulously well-researched Nelles, the Chief of the Naval Staff book reads like a good novel. Author — out of his job. Richard Mayne, who works at Betrayed — Scandal, Politics DND’s Directorate of History and and Canadian Naval Leadership Heritage, is part of a new generation by naval historian Richard Mayne of naval historians who are doing tells the story of two groups of naval much to research some of the lesser reserve officers whose behind-the- known aspects of our historical scenes manoeuvring ultimately led to record. The stand-up of modern Nelles’ removal. The first group was serious was the perception among Canadian naval history as an ongo- a number of disgruntled RCNVR some elements of the RCNVR that ing concern is relatively recent, and officers led by LCdr Andrew our ships were under-equipped com- Betrayed — Scandal, Politics and MacLean, of the Toronto publishing pared to those of the Royal Navy. Canadian Naval Leadership is a family of the same name, who had Many reserve “sharp-enders” re- first-rate effort on this front. close ties to the opposition Conserva- sented this because it was mostly tives. MacLean, painted by Mayne true, but the British were struggling as a man of enormous hubris, was to keep their own ships current and convinced that the RCN regular could not afford to give the RCN a force mistreated and looked down on high priority. What was not correct, Capt(N) Hugues Létourneau reservists, considering them second- apparently, was the impression that lives in Québec City, and is class amateurs. That some regulars Naval Service Headquarters in Ot- Regional Advisor (Eastern Re- had these feelings is undeniable, but tawa neither knew nor cared. gion) and Director of Strategic they were and are a minority — the The RCN in 1943 was in the midst Communications for the Naval history of the navy has consistently of a fifty-fold expansion and doing Reserve. shown more co-operation than con- everything it could to produce and frontation between its regular and maintain enough ships to fight the

28 MARITIME ENGINEERING JOURNAL NO. 64 SPRING 2009 SPRING 2009

CANADIAN NAVAL TECHNICAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION

CANDIB Update: An Interview with Vice-Admiral Robert Stephens

he Canadian Naval Defence rows Admiralty Research Depart- TIndustrial Base (CANDIB) ment [Y-ARD] had done a lot of good CNTHA News Est. 1997 project continues to add papers and work in the British navy, particularly interview transcripts to DND’s Direc- as we were moving to much higher CNTHA Chairman torate of History and Heritage ar- steam pressures and steam tempera- RAdm (ret.) M.T. Saker chive for use by historians, students tures. These were new things and we CANDIB Committee Chairman and researchers. The CANDIB recognized that we needed something Tony Thatcher project, which is being conducted on similar. We were very fortunate. Directorate of History and Heritage behalf of the Canadian Naval Tech- George Raper was very much in- Liaison nical History Association, is an impor- volved with Y-ARD and he was one Michael Whitby tant endeavour as many aspects of of their brightest engineers. We man- Maritime Engineering Journal Canada’s naval industrial story were aged to talk the British Admiralty into Liaison Brian McCullough not adequately documented back in lending us Raper, and he came over the day. Curiously, historical record- and put together NEDIT. NEDIT was Newsletter Production Editing Services by keeping seems to be becoming in- headed up by RN officers originally, Brightstar Communications creasingly problematic in today’s and Canadians later on as we got more Kanata, Ontario connected workplace. experienced. That was the idea of CNTHA News is the unofficial newsletter of In April we completed our 16th oral NEDIT — we didn’t think we had the the Canadian Naval Technical History Asso- design capabilities in naval headquar- ciation. Please address all correspondence interview in our series focusing on to the publisher, attention Michael Whitby, people who have been involved with ters. It was better to leave this to a Chief of the Naval Team, Directorate of His- the industrial aspects of naval pro- separate establishment. NEDIT tory and Heritage, NDHQ Ottawa, K1A 0K2. weren’t only doing new designs, they Tel. (613) 998-7045, fax 990-8579. Views curement. CANDIB interviewed Vice expressed are those of the writers and do Admiral Bob Stephens about his in- were looking at problems in designs, not necessarily reflect official DND opinion volvement with several ship and sub- particularly to deal with noise and vi- or policy. The editor reserves the right to edit bration, sound and propellers, which or reject any editorial material. marine projects during his career. The full interview is available through the developed into a fine art...and we Directorate of History and Heritage, probably knew more than the UK. but here is what VAdm Stephens had NETE was established at the same to say about design investigation and time as NEDIT since we needed testing of the St. Laurent (205) class somewhere to do testing. We didn’t destroyers: know how to do shock testing, so we “In the 1951-1954 period we put had to have shock machines. We together NEDIT [Naval Engineering wanted to make sure that the perform- Design Investigation Team] and ance of the feed pumps was up to NETE [Naval Engineering Test Es- scratch and although the contractors tablishment]. We knew that the Yar- had to do this, when they had problems

Preserving Canada’s Naval Technical Heritage CNTHA News — Spring 2009

“John Chauvin was the naval over- seer in Montreal and he discovered what we were doing on the auxiliary boilers. The auxiliary boilers in the 205-class de- stroyers were like a miniature Y-100 boiler, with drums and everything. He thought this was crazy and he found this boiler in some big laundry in Montreal which was a straight-through coil boiler where you put water in one end and it came out hot the other. So we decided on that. We often went to the manufac- turer in Chicago to do the tests and of- ten found that it didn’t meet the specs. They got so fed up with us that they used to call them ‘boilers for the frigging frig- ates.’” CANDIB continues to reach out to new members to help record Canada’s naval industrial history. Investigate our website (www.cntha.ca) and feel free to HMCS St. Laurent attend our meetings or contact one of we would do tests at NETE. We did our members. We’d love to hear from every kind of testing imaginable. Similar you. to NEDIT we had a naval officer in Tony Thatcher, charge of NETE, but all the other staff Co-Chairman CANDIB Committee were civilians from Peacock Brothers [email protected] Ltd., Montreal. We purposely put it in that (613) 567-7004 ext 227 location because NEDIT was there and we thought NEDIT and NETE could work together in a nice, tidy package.” A nice little window on the NEDIT/ NETE story for sure. VAdm Stephens also recounted this anecdote:

The CNTHA Collection at Directorate of History and Heritage, Ottawa hanks in part to the contributions sists of transcripts of interviews with Tfrom the Canadian Naval History those involved in some of the navy’s Association and in particular, the Cana- most significant shipbuilding projects, in- dian Naval Defence Industrial Base cluding the DDH-280 and Candian Pa- (CANDIB) committee, the Directorate trol Frigate projects. The collection is of History and Heritage (DHH) has or- available to CF/DND personnel as well ganized and catalogued a growing col- as the general public through the refer- lection of material related to our navy’s ence room at DHH at Holly Lane in Ot- technical history. This collection is titled tawa. For hours of operation and to the Canadian Naval Technical History consult this collection, please contact Mr. Association Collection (93/110) and con- Warren Sinclair at (613) 998-7060. tains material on various system devel- — Lt(N) Jason Delaney, Naval opment projects and procurement Historian, DHH 2-2-7. programs. Of particular note is the CANDIB oral history project that con-

2 Preserving Canada’s Naval Technical Heritage