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On patrol

THUNDER BAY -- A new, and rather large, ship is patrolling Lake Superior coast around this city. The Canadian Coast Guard ship Constable Carrière is a 140-foot mid-shore patrol vessel that will be in Thunder Bay until Friday.
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The Constable Carrière ship will be patrolling Thunder Bay waters until Friday. (Kathleen Charlebois, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- A new, and rather large, ship is patrolling Lake Superior coast around this city.

The Canadian Coast Guard ship Constable Carrière is a 140-foot mid-shore patrol vessel that will be in Thunder Bay until Friday. But that exit from the Lakehead won’t be a final farewell. RCMP Cpl. Tim Waters said the boat and its detachment will return a couple more times in the summer season.

The Constable Carrière is one of four boats used to patrol the Great Lakes and is responsible for patrolling Lake Superior and Lake Huron down into Georgian Bay. The ship itself is based out of Sault Ste. Marie.

Waters is part of the RCMP Marine Security Enforcement Team, which partners with the Canadian Coast Guard to patrol the waters, maintain border security, and check on vessels.

“We have numerous RCMP detachments in those areas that we work with,” Waters said.

“In this case, here in Thunder Bay, we work with the Thunder Bay detachment and their vessels. We all work in conjunction on investigations with them and anything they need in the water.”

Waters said the detachment will monitor anything on the Great Lakes as far as vessels go. Search and rescue is part of the Canadian Coast Guard’s program, so when a search and rescue call is made, all nearby ships will respond, including the RCMP ships.

The Coast Guard also frequently works with its US partners in order to maintain border security on the Great Lakes.

“We do joint patrols with them along with our other partners,” Waters said.

The Constable Carrière is named after an RCMP diver in Nova Scotia, Constable JL Francois Carrière, who died in the line of duty.
“We just had the naming ceremony for him last week for the ship,” Waters said.


 





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