The following is text of a news release from Seaspan Shipyards:
(NORTH VANCOUVER, British Columbia) — On Friday, July 3, under strict COVID-19 public health requirements and protocols, Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, joined a small number of Seaspan Shipyards employees and special guests to break the customary bottle of champagne against the bow of the future CCGS John Cabot, officially launching the third offshore fisheries science vessel (OFSV) for the Canadian Coast Guard.
Seaspan Shipyards significantly adapted its normal operations to continue building the ship while ensuring the health and well-being of employees, customers, partners and the community. The traditional public celebration was scaled back to a skeleton launch party including Henry, Tsleil-Waututh elder Margaret George, representatives from the Canadian Coast Guard, and the handful of employees needed to launch the vessel.
Henry, who began her career as a medical officer with the Royal Canadian Navy, was invited by Seaspan to officially launch the vessel in recognition of her exceptional leadership and tireless efforts to keep British Columbians safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and to slow the spread of the virus in Canada.
More than 1,200 Seaspan Shipyards employees and more than 400 Canadian small and medium-sized companies and their thousands of employees across the country contributed to the construction of this vessel, which entered the water on July 3 at 97 percent complete.
CCGS John Cabot, CCGS Capt Jacques Cartier and CCGS Sir John Franklin are the first class of ships built under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), the government of Canada’s strategy to renew the fleets of the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy. Two ships have been delivered and the third launched from Seaspan’s Vancouver shipyard in just 13 months.