{"id":147967,"date":"2018-01-22T02:21:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T07:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=147967"},"modified":"2018-01-22T02:21:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T07:21:12","slug":"newly-commissioned-u-s-combat-ship-stuck-in-montreal-due-to-icy-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/22\/newly-commissioned-u-s-combat-ship-stuck-in-montreal-due-to-icy-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly commissioned U.S. combat ship stuck in Montreal due to icy conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"USS<\/a>
USS Little Rock Buffalo Harbor (Photo By Buffaboy – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL — A brand new Navy warship that has been stuck in Montreal for weeks will spend the winter in Canada after its journey to Florida was thwarted by cold and ice.<\/p>\n

The USS Little Rock was commissioned in Buffalo on Dec. 16 in a grand ceremony attended by over 8,000 people that featured a brass band, speeches by military leaders and a chaplain who prayed for \u201cfair winds and following seas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it hasn’t gotten very far since then, after its maiden journey was complicated by unusually heavy ice conditions that have kept it in Montreal since Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

Now the Navy has decided to wait until weather conditions improve before allowing the ship to continue to its home port in Mayport, Fla., according to a spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe temperatures in Montreal and throughout the transit area have been colder than normal, and included near-record low temperatures, which created significant and historical conditions in the late December, early January time frame,\u201d Lt.-Cmdr. Courtney Hillson said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping the ship in Montreal until waterways are clear ensures the safety of the ship and crew, and will have limited impact on the ship’s operational schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 118-metre Freedom-variant Little Rock is described as a fast and agile combat ship that is capable of operating near shore as well as on the open ocean.<\/p>\n

It’s the second vessel to bear the name, and was commissioned in December alongside its Second World War-era namesake — a U.S. naval first.<\/p>\n

Hillson could not say whether it’s common for ships to encounter such long delays, but said previous ships have transited the area in December without trouble.<\/p>\n

The ship, she added, has been equipped with temporary heaters and 16 de-icers designed to reduce ice accumulation on the hull.<\/p>\n

The crew has also been provided with cold-weather clothing in light of the change to their winter plans, she said.<\/p>\n

She said the delay would have \u201climited operational impact\u201d on the ship and the crew would focus on mission training and certification while it waits to travel to warmer waters.<\/p>\n

While there’s no departure date scheduled, Hillson said the St. Lawrence Seaway is usually navigable by mid-March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL — A brand new Navy warship that has been stuck in Montreal for weeks will spend the winter in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":147979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[25721,398,44267,949,1485,44265,44266],"class_list":["post-147967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-buffalo","tag-canada","tag-courtney-hillson","tag-florida","tag-montreal","tag-navy-warship","tag-uss-little-rock","mauthors-morgan-lowrie","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}