The submarine HMCS Ojibwa is making her final voyage from Halifax to Port Burwell, Ont., where she will become a museum centrepiece.
Submariners gathered in Halifax to toast the Oberon-class Ojibwa, the last of her kind, as she was put on an ocean-going drydock for the journey to Hamilton, where she is expected to arrive June 4. The Oberon-class submarines served for three decades during the Cold War before being replaced by Victoria class submarines in 1998.
Ojibwa will be at the Heddle Marine shipyard all summer for affixing of permanent cradles and restoration work. The 300-foot long will be shipped by barge Sept. 7 to Port Burwell, then transported over land to her permanent home at the museum site, where it’s hoped she will draw about 100,000 tourists a year, beginning in the summer of 2013.
Ojibwa is expected to attract 100,000 visitors a year to the new Elgin Military Museum of Naval History in Port Burwell, Ont., on the north shore of Lake Erie, 1,000 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean.
On Sept. 7, Ojibwa will arrive by barge in Port Burwell, on the north shore of Lake Erie. Then on the 8th, the submarine will be transported overland to her permanent home in Port Burwell for extensive restoration over the winter. Ojibwa will be opened for tours in the summer of 2013.
