The Louis sails on...and on...and on

Excerpts from a nice (and long) front page story in the Toronto Star about Canada's largest icebreaker, Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St. Laurent:

The Louis is old and ornery, but bravely defends us
...

PAUL WATSON/TORONTO STAR

The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent battles the Northwest Passage's thick fog and ice.

ABOARD THE CCGS LOUIS S. ST-LAURENT–Icebreakers are built for hard knocks. Canada's biggest, and her crew, have taken more than their share.

For 40 years, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent has steamed through some of the most unforgiving seas on Earth, battering through heavy ice that would crush the hulls of vessels several times her size.

At just under 120 metres long, she is no giant. But when the ice pack seems impassable, the odds unbeatable, she punches way above her weight...

Since she was built in 1969, the icebreaker has been repaired and renovated with 35 refits. Five years past her normal design life, the vessel is still the most powerful ship in the Canadian Coast Guard's icebreaking fleet.

"She's likely to keep going for 15 years more," predicts her commander, Capt. Andrew McNeill [then she'll be 55 folks, ready for early, er, retirement]...

Harper has promised the coast guard a new $720 million icebreaker, to be named after former prime minister John Diefenbaker.

As the Arctic warms, interest in commercial shipping through the Northwest Passage is growing.

And so far, the Diefenbaker is just an idea...

The headline, unfortunately, is misleading. The Canadian Coast Guard is a strictly civilian, not military or law enforcement, organization and has no formal defensive role--see the end of this post as well as this one. As for the new icebreaker the Conservative government has promised (for what that's worth):

The "Diefenbreaker"--in 2017!?!