Landing craft, ex military?

[Robin Craig]

While on a bimble around Kingston in the last few days with visiting relatives I spied this on the side of the preserved (sic) Coast Guard vessel Alexander Henry.

I wondered if it was a post war surplus unit re-purposed by the Coast Guard?

Interesting design.

One wonders if anyone bothered to take out the drain plug or if it is rotting from the inside out while sitting up there.

Robin

[Lang]

Robin

Looks like a purpose built work-boat/barge to me.

Lang

[maple_leaf_eh]

One of the less well known missions of the Canadian Coast Guard is to resupply some of the smallest detachments and posts in the Arctic. Although the north seems vast, there is perilously little infrastructure like conventional harbour facilities. Air freight is expensive, so almost everything else has to be delivered in the 30 or 60 days of safe shipping.

Loads are assembled through the winter in Montreal, Quebec City and other ports then loaded onto coasters that are escorted by government icebreakers. At destination, cargo is transferred over the side into boats to be landed as best it can. I have seen pictures of huge front end loaders wading out into lightly iced harbours to move cargo in their buckets. For the CCG to have landing craft is only one way of delivering the goods. Rankin Inlet, Churchill and Iqaluit come to mind as having port facilities, but the other dozen or fifteen northern settlements are much less well served - except for spectacular geography and isolation.

Getting back to the original question, I doubt the boats illustrated are ex-military, but very likely inspired by WWII lessons. Every so often work boats and other vessels come up for sale on Crown Assets. https://www.gcsurplus.ca/mn-eng.cfm?...1&sf=ferm-clos

[motto]

Many years ago the Antarctic Division used Army DUKWs crewed by regular army personnel for ship to shore unloading. I'm sure the figure mentioned was 600 tons per season using 2 DUKWs. Overloading was essential and I've seen a photograph of a DUKW with 44 gallon drums of fuel stacked high in the cargo bay and the rear deck almost awash. Obviously well over the 4 ton rating given these vehicles by the Australian Army.
I think it was at Mawson base where a ramp had been cut through the ice for the vehicles to come ashore. Before leaving at the end of each season a series of explosive charges were laid on the ramp. These were detonated on return the following year to clear any accumulation of ice since the previous mission.
The DUKWs were eventually replaced by LARC Vs. I don't know what the current situation is but imagine a lot of supplies would come by air nowadays.

David