Canada 150 Day

It was the day for festivities as Canada celebrated the 150th anniversary of confederation. Regrettably the weather was not fully co-operative in many areas, including Halifax, however I did manage a red and white themed photo.

With the lower harbour "tick o' fog"  the Narrows was the only more or less clear spot all day Canada Day.

CCGC Bickerton sailed from the Bedford Institute Coast Guard dock for its home base of East Bickerton (pronounced Beckerton).

The first Arun class high endurance lifeboat to join the CCG, it is not only the oldest of the ten boats, built in 1989, but it is also the only one with an FRG hull. Bickerton was built by Halmatic in Southampton, UK and followed the original design by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The RNLI operated scores of these craft between 1971 and 2008. The rest of the CCG boats were built in Canada in various yards, with aluminum hull.

Shortly after delivery, Bickerton occupies a spot at the small craft end of the old Coast Guard base on Parker Street in Dartmouth. In the background CCGS Provo Wallis and Frank M. Weston and in the foreground a ubiquitous dory.

 
As delivered to the CCG, Bickerton wore the late lamented Search and Rescue colours of red hull, white stripe and yellow superstructure. Those colours were eliminated when the CCG was folded into the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and many vessels were multi-tasked to include SAR duties.

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