HMCS Cormorant was a Royal Canadian Navy dive tender. She started life in 1965 as Aspa Quarto, an Italian stern trawler fishing vessel.
Aspa Quarto was purchased by the Canadian Navy in July 1975 and taken to Davie Shipbuilding at Lauzon, Quebec for conversion to a diving support vessel. The ship was commissioned into Maritime Command on 10 November 1978 at Lauzon, becoming the second Canadian naval unit to be named Cormorant.
From 1980 to 1984 the first mixed gender crew trial took place aboard Cormorant in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Cormorant remained in service until 102 July 1997 when she was decommissioned and subsequently sold for conversion into an offshore support vessel. The ship was docked in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia in 2000 and has remained there since.
The derelict ships in Bridgewater
The ship sort of sank on 21 March 2015 due to the amount of ice on the upper decks – sort of as she wound up on a list, with her hull on the bottom of the Lahave River and the upper decks above water. The ship was pumped out and is afloat, but still has a 6° starboard list, toward the wharf.
- Displacement: 2,350 long tons
- Length: 74.7 m
- Beam: 11.9 m
- Draught: 5.0 m
- Propulsion:
- 3 × Marelli-Deutz ACR 12456 EV diesel engines
- Diesel-electric drive system, 1,800 hp
- 1 controllable pitch propeller
- Speed: 14 knots
- Range: 13,000 nmi at 12 knots
- Complement: 65