Canada - Canadian submarine HMCS Ojibwa gets second chance

A Canadian submarine that was awaiting disposal in Halifax is closer to becoming a museum piece.

HMCS Ojibwa, a 252-foot (90-metre) sub originally was to be sold for scrap metal but will be donated to an Ontario museum.

It will be moved from Halifax to Port Burwell Harbour, on the north shore of Lake Erie, using a floating dry dock.

"Project Ojibwa is an effort by the Elgin Military Museum to obtain the decommissioned submarine HMCS Ojibwa," said Ian Raven, the executive director of the Elgin Military Museum. "Our goal is to bring her from her current location in Halifax, N.S., to a new site . . . where we will be creating a museum of naval history of which it will be the significant artifact."

HMCS Ojibwa was commissioned in 1965 and was used on patrol in the North Atlantic. The diesel-electric Oberon-class sub was decommissioned in 1998.

Raven said the vessel will be modified but kept more or less intact so visitors will be able to experience life as a submariner.

The museum hopes the donated submarine will arrive by Sept. 8, after which it will undergo the necessary preparations to become a museum artifact.

On Thursday, Bayham Council voted to front the project's expenses until the museum has completed its fundraising.

"Essentially, we now have access to the necessary funding, and now the local municipality has agreed to be our guarantor for the necessary loans to move the project forward while we complete the fundraising," said Raven. "It's wonderful."

On Friday alone, the museum received $25,000 in donations toward the project. "We have seen very good support in the community," Raven said.

The museum hopes to open the submarine in 2014 to commemorate the centennial of the acquisition of Canada's first subs. Labelled CC1 and CC2, the boats arrived in Canada on Aug. 5, 1914.

"We've started off as a project for the museum, but as it moves forward, we're seeing we are simply the catalyst for what really is a national project," said Raven.

"In Central Canada, we simply don't get to see naval operations, their presence is on the coasts," said Raven. "The opportunity to bring a true piece of naval history to Central Canada is very important."