HALIFAX – HMCS Preserver made the difference in a cocaine bust in the Caribbean Sea by staying afloat earlier this week.
“The Royal Canadian Navy demonstrated professionalism and hard work by keeping a 43 year-old Cold War dinosaur on the surface” said LCdr Larry Turcotte, Executive Officer of the navy’s largest ship on the east coast. “Sure, we had several small technical problems leaving port, complicated by a minor fuel leak, engine shutdown and electric fire. Nevertheless, we sent a clear warning to drug traffickers and, well, everyone else at sea who we might collide with.”
After being adrift for several hours due to an overheated boiler, Preserver spotted a suspicious watercraft and immediately called in the US Coast Guard to intercept it.
“We noticed that the power boat was dumping several packages of what we believe to be cocaine” said Officer of the Watch Lt (N) Edmund Saké. “Thank goodness they dumped most of the drugs because any additional weight would have sunk us to the bottom.”
Preserver is expected to be back in Halifax in March of 2014 or until something serious goes wrong with the ship.
