Halifax-based warship sees COVID outbreak during Great Lakes tour: ‘It was just a question of time before it would spread’

The skipper of one of Canada’s newest warships says there’s no way to know if some of his sailors caught COVID at the Grey Cup.

HMCS Harry DeWolf left Montreal around midday Saturday after Cdr. Guillaume Côté decided it was no longer safe to continue with a public relations tour aimed at bolstering the navy’s numbers. Some of the 78 sailors aboard started feeling sick the day the ship left Hamilton, where the crew participated in Grey Cup festivities.

“So, we tested 100 per cent of the crew right there and then,” Côté said in a phone interview Saturday afternoon as the Arctic and offshore patrol vessel he commands steamed through the Lac Saint-Pierre section of the St. Lawrence River.

Fourteen sailors tested initially positive for COVID, he said.

“Of those 14 positives, nine were symptomatic,” Côté said, noting their symptoms included fevers, coughing, headaches, sneezing and runny noses.

‘Not easy to isolate’

“Immediately what we ended up doing is isolating these individuals and it’s not easy to isolate on a ship,” he said.

“From that point on it was kind of clear in this very closed environment where 78 men and women are working together that it was just a question of time before it would spread,” Côté said.

“The final number as it stands right now: we’ve had 29 confirmed positives … As of today, three remain in isolation because they’re still showing symptoms. But the others have all returned to work as they are symptom-free and all of them are masked. Actually, everybody on board is masked up and we maintain sanitation protocol.”

The crew removed some chairs in the ship’s cafeteria and mealtimes were extended to reduce crowding, he said. “People were socially distanced as much as possible,” Côté said. “It was going back to the reflexes that we had learned from a couple of years ago.”

‘Makeshift sanitarium’

When COVID numbers were relatively small, the crew set up beds in storerooms so sick folks could isolate themselves.

“We moved people out of their mess decks – the place where they sleep,” Côté said, noting four cabins aboard Harry DeWolf normally sleep six sailors, while petty officers and above share a cabin with one other person.

The ship’s captain, executive officer, operations officer and engineering officer get their own cabins, as does the coxswain.

“Even the officers’ wardroom was a makeshift sanitarium with basically nine people within the wardroom with cots,” Côté said, describing what’s been the height of the outbreak thus far.

“And basically, we would deliver food to them.”

‘No guarantee’

The sick have dedicated showers and toilets.

“We isolated positive cases as much as it was possible, but … with air-exchanging on board the ship, the doors are closed, they’re all in the same room, there’s no guarantee that there’s no spreading.”

Côté made the difficult decision Friday to cancel the remainder of the Halifax-based warship’s scheduled Great Lakes deployment which was to include tours for the public in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Québec City and Saguenay.

The trip was aimed at improving public relations for the Royal Canadian Navy, he said.

“The recruiting, the showing the ship to Canadians,” Côté said. “At that point it was irresponsible to actually bring people into our house when we know that there’s a problem.”

‘Close to the water’

Harry DeWolf left Halifax Nov. 2. It delivered the Grey Cup trophy to Hamilton on Nov. 13.

“One of the primary missions, if not the sole reason, for actually leaving Halifax and going up to the Great Lakes was to be able to support the Canadian Armed Forces efforts in the partnership that we have with the Canadian Football League,” Côté said. “So, this year, the Grey Cup game was in Hamilton, close to the water, so finally the navy could actually participate.”

Thirty of the ship’s sailors were on the field to parade the colours, then they watched the Montreal Alouettes defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from the sidelines. Côté and his ship’s coxswain watched from the stands.

“The Grey Cup – the game itself – we’re talking about thousands of Canadians in the … open-air stadium. But at same time, throughout the week before the game we probably had a few thousand Canadians coming on board for a visit. So, it is almost impossible to know what is the entry vector of COVID into the ship. But once it’s here, this new variant spreads quickly.”

‘Nose-to-nose’

Harry DeWolf tied up in Hamilton “nose-to-nose” with her namesake’s famed Tribal-class destroyer, HMCS Haida, which now serves as a museum ship on the Hamilton waterfront.

Bedford-born Vice-Admiral Harry DeWolf earned the nickname “Hard-Over-Harry” while serving in the Second World War. His vessel became known as “the Fightingest Ship in the Canadian Navy” for its fearsome reputation in the North Atlantic and off the coast of France.

“We spent the entire week (with the) ship open to visitors, having events with the friends of Haida,” Côté said.

About 30 navy veterans who once served aboard Haida went for a sail aboard Harry DeWolf on Nov. 20, the day after the Grey Cup.

‘Great reunion’

A 93-year-old former naval communicator was even given the task of hoisting and lowering flags during the trip.

“For this entire group of outstanding Canadians, it was basically a return to sea one more time,” Côté said.

“It was just a great reunion.”

None of them have come down with COVID, he said. “That was the prime concern that I had that all these veterans had come on board and maybe had been contaminated.”

Côté has tested negative for COVID, so far. But the ship’s coxswain, Chief Petty Officer (First Class) Christine Thompson, came down with it Friday morning after Harry DeWolf arrived in Montreal.

‘She’s a rock star’

“That was basically the factor that made me decide that this was it, we had to go back home,” he said.

“Because the coxswain is probably the toughest person I have ever known in my life. She’s a rock star. And then when she says, ‘This one is a tough one and I have to go down,’ I was like ok, ‘This is not a joke.’ So, I had to make the decision yesterday that we had to stop the program because it’s not safe for us to embark Canadians and subject them to that.”

Côté’s parents, who live in Sorel, Que., along his wife and two children, who live in Ottawa, were at the jetty in Montreal Saturday to wave goodbye.

“They were supposed to be on board,” Côté said, noting the that in addition to friends and family, the cancelled day cruise to Trois-Rivières was also slated to include a group of Mohawk youngsters interested in joining the military.

He had to let them all know the trip was cancelled. “It is not safe to be on board.”

Skin in the game 

After Harry DeWolf left Montreal, the skipper’s family rushed to Sorel to wave as he sailed past.

“It was my fifth time on the river, mostly with HMCS Toronto and Ville de Quebec and Montreal, but this time it was my own ship, so of course they would be here,” Côté said.

“It was a tough decision yesterday to say that’s it, the program is out, because what kind of skin I had in the game.”

He blew the ship’s foghorn with a pre-arranged signal while passing Sorrel to let his kids, Alexandre and Olivia Rose know he was thinking of them. “They were happy with that.”

Cutting the voyage short also cancelled two days of bringing prospective recruits aboard in Quebec City to “live like a sailor,” as well as a side trip up the Saguenay River to visit a naval reserve detachment in Chicoutimi.

Harry DeWolf’s original return date was to be Dec. 2.

Back mid-week

“But we should be back now on (Nov. 28) in the evening or the 29 in the morning,” Côté said.

“By the time we’re in Halifax, our seven-day isolation period from the first time we had a case will pretty much be finished, so basically everybody should be okay to leave the ship. But should there be any cases that are still active and virulent, then at that point we will make the decision not to actually release anything within the population of Halifax.”

Anyone aboard with “strong symptoms” will be kept in confinement, he said, noting Harry DeWolf had one new case Saturday, but the sailor wasn’t showing symptoms.

“Everything that can be done to prevent spreading and to actually make sure that we are returning to Halifax with healthy sailors is being done right now,” Côté said.

‘Lots of room’

Harry DeWolf’s isolation ward is now an aviation storage area.

“That gives a chance to have two or three people on cots, comfortably together,” Côté said. “Then we can re-sanitize the spaces that were used for all active cases before.”

The ship is roomie, there’s wi-fi onboard and the crew is delivering meals to those in isolation, Côté said.

“The ship is extremely comfortable. There’s a lot of room,” he said.

“I won’t say that it’s a good situation, but basically people are very well taken care of.”

The ship has a physician’s assistant and medical technician aboard, though the latter fell ill at one point.

‘Very tiring’

Should more sailors come down with COVID, Harry Dewolf can operate with a skeleton crew.

“Could I actually sail this ship with 35 people? Yes,” Côté said.

“But not for very long because then you end up having everybody working on a six-hour on, six-hour off shift and basically that gets to be very tiring.”

The skipper has even been rolling up his sleeves to help wash dishes.

“Most of the crew actually try to get me to not do this because they feel bad for some reason,” Côté said.

“But I keep telling them that when I’m at home, I wash dishes.”