Protecteur or Cruiseur?

[bob vernon]

Anybody else notice in the story about the HMCS Protecteur naval ship fire these words: "returning home from Hawaii with families of the crew on board"? What was this military mission that they were on in February, near Hawaii? Was this just a winter vacation cruise on the taxpayers tab?

I didn't pay too much attention when I first heard that it was down near Hawaii, but when the story said that the crew had their families on board, alarm bells went off. I wonder how long they were in Hawaii.

[Ken7]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... e17184504/

I think this is the story you're speaking of?

[Queen K]

It seems strange that a voyage to Austriala was planned with 17 family members on board.

It seems wrong somehow to have family members aboard a Navy ship headed to Austriala. No?

Weird hardly describes it.

[grammafreddy]

It wasn't a voyage to Australia - they were going to their home base at Esquimalt. Hawaii was the closest port after the fire so they were being towed there.

Protecteur, which left on Jan. 6 with HMCS Regina, was carrying 279 crew, 17 family members and two civilian contractors. The vessel was returning to B.C. from extended operations with the U.S. navy in the mid-Pacific.

The Department of National Defence said in a news release that having family members on board for the final part of such a voyage is a common practice with navy ships returning from extended operations and exercises.

“The idea behind it is they’re seeing what life is like in a ship,” Cmdre. Auchterlonie said. “Last night, they experienced more life on a ship than they probably wanted to experience again.”

And that's why the family members were there.

[dakoda62]

This is not an uncommon practice to have family members accompany crew members on short trips.