Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 04/99) - The HMCS Yellowknife recently received national attention when the Globe and Mail reported the ship hit another mine sweeper at sea. The Globe got the story from an access to information request.

Captain Jean-Yves Forcier, who was the investigating officer, said he was surprised by the attention last December's $15,000 "fender bender" drew.

The HMCS Yellowknife was performing light line transfer manoeuvres along the Victoria, B.C. coastline. It's an exercise where a line is strung between the vessels while they are sailing and supplies are transferred along the line.

"The Yellowknife crew spotted two telephone- pole sized logs sunk in the water vertically. Captain Grant Bannister didn't know how deep the logs extended and if you hit something like that, it could seriously damage the ship," Forcier said.

"He made an evasive manoeuvre and in his recovery, he overcompensated and touched the other mine sweeper. I would compare it to breaking the taillight on your car. The repairs were mostly just straightening the guard rails and a little painting."

He added that Captain Bannister still commands the confidence of his crew and superior officers.

"I think Captain Grant Bannister did a good job to get himself out of trouble. Every time you scrape and bump, it's not pleasant but the damage was minor," Forcier said.

"We have recreated the event in a simulator and are using the incident to show to other crews so we can exchange ideas on ship driving and evasive manoeuvres."

The HMCS Yellowknife is currently out on manoeuvres doing navigation training with young officers but the ship's crew will be in town June 18.

The crew was invited by the City of Yellowknife and they'll be here just in time for Raven Mad Daze. City councillors also declared June 18 Freedom of the City day to publicly express their appreciation to the crew for acting as ambassadors for Yellowknife.