Ship tour

 The "Fredricton" was in Cornwall last weekend on a good will tour, and opened itself to the public.  This is a Canadian Frigate.  It is used for sovereignty patrols, pirate hunting both domestic and abroad, and search and rescue operations.  It was up the St. Lawrence river last weekend showing the flag, and they opened it up to the public.

 The big anchor chains were all beautifully painted.  Paint.  Yup.  Always lots of painting to do on a ship.

 The radar array looks like it came out of the cold war.  Which, come to think of it, is true enough.

View looking forward. That deck gun doesn't look like much, but it is plenty dangerous.  Its not the size of the projectile anymore, but rather, the fancy types of munitions you can use to do the job.  The modern projectiles can do the kind of damage with a juice can sized shell that it used to take a car sized shell to perform.  The rate of fire, radar accuracy, and fancy stuff on the sharp end more than makes up for sheer power.  Besides, this is a frigate, not a battle ship.  The biggest thing we have faced on the sea in the last half century is a smuggler! 

If they need to stop, oh, say, an incoming rocket, there are ways to stop it.  In fact, the Frigates are able to stop most any attack from most any platform...they fairly bristle with ordinance.  Mostly grey, unobtrusive stuff which can take a rogue wave and come back fighting.

I asked them why these rocket launchers launched across the middle of the ship.  They told me that they did that so that the rocket blast didn't burn the deck.  I should have thought of that.

Nice shiney bell.  Brasso is still the sailor's greatest enemy, and the deck officer's greatest friend.



Cold rainy day.  Warm welcome onto a Canadian Destroyer.

Fresh back from the pirate chasing.  Showing the flag.  An excellent time was had by all.