THUNDER BAY – The future site where the Alexander Henry still remains to be determined, more than two weeks after the decommissioned icebreaker returned home.
The former Canadian Coast Guard ship, which was built at the Port Arthur Shipyard, was brought back to Thunder Bay June 27 following a week-long voyage towed across the Great Lakes from southern Ontario.
But since it was brought back, the Henry has temporarily moored at an iron ore dock as issues remain about whether it will be relocated to the Pool Six site at the waterfront or Kam River Heritage. With council off until July 24, a decision won’t come until later this month at the earliest.
Charlie Brown, president of the Lakehead Transportation Museum Society, said the uncertainty has delayed the planned opening of the ship.
“We were hoping to get the lease agreement by the end of June out of the city. We were originally going to bring the ship up about the middle of July and have it open for the long August weekend,” Brown said on Wednesday.
“I would say that’s going to be pushed back at least two weeks, if not to a month and maybe more.”
Brown said the Henry is in “excellent shape” and outside of a thorough cleaning there is very little maintenance work that needs to be completed
The Henry was built at the Port Arthur Shipyard before being commissioned as a Canadian Coast Guard ship in 1959. It spent the next 25 years breaking ice across the Great Lakes and serving as an annual fixture in the local harbour.
After its decommissioning in 1984, the ship eventually ended up in the possession of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston and served as a tourist attraction.
The future of the Henry came into question when the museum property in Kingston was sold and potential options included scrapping the ship. That led to the Thunder Bay group acquiring the retired icebreaker, receiving $125,000 from Thunder Bay and $50,000 from Kingston towards the $250,000 budget to tow it home.
Brown said the desired location is the Pool Six site but that land is under the control of the Thunder Bay Port Authority, which is requiring the city to be included in the indemnification.
“The Kam River site I think is still going to be an upward battle for us,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, within the community the people we’ve been talking to are not very supportive of that site just because of its history. Actually, it’s affected some of our fundraising because people say they will give to the Henry but not necessarily to the Kam River site.”
Every day that passes before the ship can be opened is a financial hit to the group, Brown said.
Without a determined location, there is little volunteers can do to advance the required site preparation work that needs to be completed before it is ready for public use.
“There has to be fencing, there has to be electrical. We have a mooring survey we have to bring somebody up from Toronto to do. There’s still the asbestos survey to be done, the final one for that,” Brown said.
“There are a number of things that we actually have to do to prepare the site. It has to be cleaned up and that’s going to take a little bit of time as well. I wish we had that opportunity now because we could utilize that in this last month but unfortunately until we get some sort of confirmed site then we just have to work from there.”
