Shipyard to boost security after coast guard ship targeted by vandals
The Sambro Head, N.S., shipyard where a Canadian Coast Guard vessel was vandalized over the weekend is stepping up security.
Ray Gallant, vice president of Canadian Maritime Engineering Limited, said the plan will include additional cameras, fencing, cameras and lights.
Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, someone cut the cables and safety lines that were holding CCGS Corporal McLaren in place. The vessel had been at the shipyard for a refit.
Gallant said the act of vandalism is a first for the shipyard.
"Just very disheartening to us as a company, the Canadian government and the community," Gallant told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon in an interview Monday.
He said investigators were able to determine it was vandalism because the cuts to the lines were clean. If the lines broke because of too much strain, there would have been frays.
Cutting the cables was "remarkably" dangerous, Gallant said.
"You have a line that is under tension and, when it is cut, that tension is released and the cable can jump in many directions," he said.
The good news, Gallant said, is damage to the vessel appears to be "very minimal."
"No hull damage can be seen in the underwater investigation," he said.
He said divers will continue work to seal any places where water can enter the ship.
