Canadian navy frigate T-boned by American trawler in B.C. harbour

I wonder if the captains got out and exchanged insurance information.

Someone will have some explaining to do after a massive U.S. factory-fishing ship being towed out of Esquimalt harbour near Victoria somehow rammed a Royal Canadian Navy frigate docked at the adjacent naval base. Six people were hurt.

The HMCS Winnipeg had just completed an extensive refit and systems upgrade, when the 90-metre-long American Dynasty T-boned her near the bow Tuesday morning, The Canadian Press reported.

The huge trawler remained wedged in the warship's side, looming over the low-slung frigate, all day before being separated. Photos show a big bite taken out of the fishing vessel's bow.

Witnesses on a nearby boat recorded the accident on video.

[ Related: Trawler and navy frigate finally separated after collision in B.C. harbour ]

The Seattle-based Dynasty was being towed to the harbour's repair dock for regular maintenance and repairs when something went wrong, the Victoria Times Colonist reported.

"They were backing it out in the harbour and as they were sort of swivelling the bow around, this thing sort of shot forward and slammed into the bow of the Canadian navy vessel," Larry Edwards, who has an office overlooking the harbour, told CBC News.

"It hit hard. The wall of water that came up, it went over the bow of the navy vessel."

The collision sent workers completing the Winnipeg's refit flying.

“The boat moved about 20 odd feet, tossed us around and that was it," Rob Patterson, who was standing on a ladder doing cabling work, told CTV News. "We didn’t know what happened.

“The boom was incredible. I’ve heard car crash booms, but that was like somebody beating on a big drum … an incredible noise I don’t want to hear again.”

Six workers suffered minor injuries and were recovering at home, CTV News said.

Ironically, the 64 workers aboard the Winnipeg and the tugboats moving the Dynasty, were all employed by Seaspan, a North Vancouver-based marine services company.

“Escorting a ship in and out of the graving dock is routine business,” Seaspan president Brian Carter told the Times Colonist. “So an incident is very rare.”

The federal Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation. The estimated damage to the two vessels has not yet been determined, but you can bet it's more than the deductible.

[ Related: HMCS Athabaskan damaged after repair problems ]

Canadian navy ships have had their share of mishaps in recent years.

In 2010, the frigate HMCS Fredericton collided with the U.S. Navy supply ship USNS Kanawha off the coast of Florida during a routine refuelling and resupply mission, creating little more than dings, according to an Agence France Press story.

HMCS Athabaskan, an aging destroyer, had to be patched up in January after suffering damage when tow lines broke off a rocky shoal near Sydney, N.S., according to The Canadian Press. The navy has not revealed exactly what happened.

But the worst recent accident involved the submarine HMCS Corner Brook, which ran aground while submerged in Nootka Sound off Vancouver Island in June 2011, causing serious damage to the second-hand former British diesel-electric sub. A navy board of inquiry determined human error was to blame.