True Patriot Love - What Happens When Canada’s Coast Guard Gets the Call？ ft. Tom Morrissey

00:00:00.000 well the East Coast tour continues and I'm in Summerside PI with Tom Morrissey

00:00:08.280 commanding officer for the Canadian Coast Guard Station Summerside Station in Summerside yeah

00:00:12.780 yeah good to see you nice to see you nice to see you so welcome you know I met you last time yeah

00:00:18.300 with what I consider a legend in horse racing yeah yeah Jim Whalen and I was lucky enough

00:00:24.180 that he brought me down to meet you and and we set this up and I'm so excited today because we

00:00:29.340 got back to actually get it done yeah and you know what when i met you i never got an opportunity to

00:00:34.760 ask you one key question which i always really like to ask why the coast guard why why did you

00:00:40.840 get into uh you know what interests you at a young age you know to start this this journey

00:00:47.000 yeah um well i guess paul at a young age i wouldn't have known at the time but as i got

00:00:53.800 older i realized i had salt water running through my veins because my father was a fisherman okay i

00:00:58.040 I grew up on the coast of North Shore of PEI, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, up in Seacow Pond.

00:01:04.500 My grandfather was a lighthouse keeper at North Cape, a lighthouse.

00:01:10.440 I wanted to work on the water, but I didn't want to fish.

00:01:14.360 Okay.

00:01:15.320 It wasn't in my cards.

00:01:18.680 Did you fish?

00:01:20.220 A little bit.

00:01:20.960 A little bit?

00:01:21.540 Yeah.

00:01:21.840 So you knew?

00:01:22.760 I knew it wasn't for me.

00:01:24.560 Right, gotcha.

00:01:25.140 Okay.

00:01:25.480 My family still fish, and it's for them, and they love it.

00:01:27.660 But this allowed me to do something where I touched the lives of fishermen and boaters and people on the water every day.

00:01:35.560 And I kind of wanted to, when I was younger, I wanted a job where I could help people, right?

00:01:42.260 Back then, there was a Canadian Forces-based Summerside, where there was a search and rescue squadron under there.

00:01:47.320 I thought about that as well, that side of things.

00:01:51.480 But I didn't want to go the military route at that young age.

00:01:55.200 I think the military is a different military nowadays, and it's a great opportunity for young people.

00:02:02.120 But at that time, that's not the route I wanted to take.

00:02:04.420 So I went to a marine school, and I ended up with the Canadian Coast Guard.

00:02:08.780 When I first came along with the Canadian Coast Guard, there were many opportunities in private industry back then.

00:02:14.540 And I just couldn't lure myself away to the opportunities in private industry sailing and instead with the Coast Guard.

00:02:20.980 and it was always my interest to do search and rescue and that later prior to my career that's

00:02:26.840 what my mandate is now all the time is search and rescue and we support other government agencies

00:02:30.620 but our primary mandate is search and rescue right yeah so out of Summerside like how big

00:02:35.540 a territory do you cover because so our area of responsibility here at the Summerside uh it goes

00:02:41.160 to North Cape PEI across to a point of Skumanac New Brunswick which in encapsulates the northern

00:02:46.520 prior to the Northumberland Strait, down to River John, Nova Scotia, across the Point Prim,

00:02:51.240 Prince of Rhode Island, and then we take the North Shore with a fast rescue craft, or we can

00:02:56.440 sail up around North Cape with the cutter. It takes a little longer, depends on the seriousness

00:03:00.200 of the call and what the incident is. From Rustico west into northwest, back to North Cape, and

00:03:07.000 offshore in an area that Coast Guard calls a search and rescue area 004. Wow. It's Southern Gulf,

00:03:13.720 Northumberland Strait. It's a very big area. The Northumberland Strait gets very busy. You've got

00:03:18.740 three provinces, and you've got national parks, and you've got provincial parks, and you've just

00:03:24.360 got private beaches or public beaches. And the use of the water is very high in the summertime.

00:03:31.780 It's late spring, early summer, into the fall with water users and pleasure craft. So we can

00:03:39.240 pretty busy with a multitude of different calls yeah yeah tom you alluded to sort of the two

00:03:44.680 vessels so yeah yeah so take me through sort of because you got to make a judgment call you know

00:03:49.640 you get that call you know that 9-1-1 call that it's not a 9-1-1 call it the call would come to us

00:03:55.320 if it was a 9-1-1 call that the public made it would get passed on to the joint rescue

00:03:59.400 coordination center in halifax or the maritime rescue sub center in montreal in quebec or in

00:04:04.920 Newfoundland okay so in this particular area I would deal directly with the joint rescue

00:04:09.720 coordination center out of Halifax they would call and say we have this incident that's developing

00:04:15.160 okay give me the details and then it's our decision to decide okay geographically where's

00:04:21.960 that at how serious is it how quickly we have to get there and what bodies of water we have to

00:04:26.760 transit to to get to that location so we'll we'll decide then and then endurance length of time that

00:04:33.640 that we expect on scene and the time of day yeah right if it's uh in October and it's late in the

00:04:39.060 daytime and I'm going to be searching all night well this has a higher endurance and more ability

00:04:44.800 to uh for the crew to be comfortable on so that they can stay for that extended period of time

00:04:50.960 to search where the fast rescue craft is a quick grab and go right well and I want to I want to

00:04:56.900 before I leave today I'm going to take some pictures of Tom's office is like a command

00:05:01.500 command center for us yes right across from his desk he's got all the tides he's got winds he's

00:05:08.220 got weather he's got mapping he's got like so you're making that decision a quick look at the

00:05:14.440 wall several times a day but a quick look on the wall and the way out the door yeah also lets me

00:05:18.580 know if i'm taking that craft or this craft right if i have lightning storm approaching from the

00:05:24.780 province of new brunswick across southern southeastern new brunswick across the north

00:05:29.620 Humberland Strait and a lot of lightning strikes, well, I'm not going to expose my staff to an open

00:05:35.080 boat. So we'll have to take the Coast Guard cutter. So a quick look at that, a quick look at

00:05:41.600 the tides, because it depends on what the tide's doing. They move in two different directions in

00:05:45.820 the North Humberland Strait, where they can be pulling someone to the north or pulling them to

00:05:49.320 the south. It's just a quick reference to see what was going on before you depart. And or if you have

00:05:55.500 to take someone to a safe harbour, okay, what the tide situation is, do you have enough water to get

00:05:59.240 in there okay and or do you have enough water to approach the beach with a craft that takes a

00:06:05.080 a deeper draft versus a craft that you can put right on the beach right and the crew the crew

00:06:09.720 so how many people would you so there's four there's uh eight stationed in summerside there's

00:06:15.320 four on duty all the time right and so there's four shifting if the if the cutter goes there's

00:06:20.840 four people go on it if the fast rescue craft goes there's three people go on it okay the fast rescue

00:06:25.160 craft has uh seating for three employees with shock mitigating seats uh so that's why we take

00:06:32.200 three okay yep so you know you guys middle of the night anytime you're 24 7 you actually move quickly

00:06:40.120 you're on uh setting up and then off you go and as you mentioned you're doing it based on the

00:06:45.560 weather and all the circumstances happening when i was here last time you were sharing some some

00:06:50.280 really cool information about the cutter which i thought was wild yeah so you take the cutter out

00:06:55.720 and you know you got big swells the waves are going the benefit to that is why don't you talk

00:07:00.280 to me about uh so the cutter the cutter is only shut down in uh 65 knots of wind and that's a

00:07:06.520 hurricane force one right uh beyond that or prior to that the cutter is still on standby for search

00:07:13.000 and rescue deployment. The Cutter is a 47 foot high endurance motor lifeboat. It's capable of

00:07:21.400 operating in quite adverse weather conditions and staying on scene for an extended period of time.

00:07:27.560 It's designed to protect the crew and designed to bring the crew back with survivors on board as well.

00:07:34.280 The Cutter has a top speed of 24 knots and also in adverse weather conditions.

00:07:41.160 again it has shock mitigating seats to protect the staff it's got seat belts on board

00:07:45.640 the cutter in the unfortunate event that it would get knocked down by the environment it's

00:07:49.800 operating in like a breaking sea the cutter will lay down if the cutter actually happened to

00:07:55.400 unfortunately capsize it was self-right itself in seven seconds wow now it'll it'll it'll it will

00:08:03.240 roll all the way all right over now you better have your seat belts on prior to that happening

00:08:07.160 oh yeah or you'll become shrapnel to each other inside right um the cutter was would most likely

00:08:15.480 lay down before it would capsize if you look at the top and the mast the cutter has a buoyancy

00:08:20.840 tank on it with one pound of pressure in it okay and it would be similar to if paul if you were in

00:08:25.720 a kayak or a canoe and it went to fall over you reached out with your paddle okay and your paddle

00:08:30.760 would stop you from yeah rolling over so if the cutter was unfortunately knocked down by the

00:08:36.120 environment it was operating in it would roll over and before the next wave because the periods are

00:08:41.960 far apart enough before the next wave would come and affect it breaking the buoyancy tank would

00:08:48.120 hit the water and most likely can come back and self-right itself not self-right itself

00:08:53.320 stand itself back up before the next breaking wave would come okay i gotta ask you the question

00:08:57.320 has it ever happened to you um so it's happened to me twice not this one in particular this is

00:09:02.440 is the Cape Fox. Yeah. It's here for two years while the Cap Nord is on its VLE, Vessel Life

00:09:08.420 Extension. Okay. So it happened to me when I was stationed in Surrey on the Cape Spry on the North

00:09:14.800 Shore of PEI responding to a call where a bunch of fishers were in trouble fishing in what would

00:09:20.540 have been called back then a derby style tuna fishery. Okay. We laid the vessel down in shallow

00:09:25.280 waters off of North Lake because we had to go in to bring the fishermen out to deeper water where

00:09:30.640 the seas weren't breaking as bad uh it was down for such a short period of time it was back up

00:09:35.280 but when it was down i was looking up at my staff member who was sitting next to me uh i laid the

00:09:41.120 cap north at a summer side down off of cape bear prince of word island taking it to surrey where

00:09:46.260 it goes out of service for the season in the winter in december um it was just kind of a fluke

00:09:52.040 it seemed to have fallen off the instead of the front side of the breaking wave it fell off the

00:09:56.380 backside of the wave into the trough okay yeah and then again it wasn't down very long yeah it's

00:10:02.140 down for such a short period of time you don't have time to think about it and you're back up

00:10:05.660 but you better have your seat belts on yeah you're back up and the conversation after i'm sure is

00:10:10.620 pretty animated wow wow wow because at night you can't see those waves yeah yeah you can have your

00:10:16.300 search lights on and your spotlights on but you can't see them all well yeah let's talk about that

00:10:20.860 for a minute because that was you know something i learned when i met you the first time um most of

00:10:25.260 of your work is at night a lot of our work is at night yeah yeah in the daytime families don't get

00:10:31.020 worried about their families as much yeah right it's that after the sun goes down sometimes mom

00:10:37.340 and dad or a person's loved one starts to say my husband or my wife didn't come home with my kids

00:10:44.240 today and they went fishing somewheres or they were at the beach or they went hunting

00:10:48.200 on this particular area and now they're concerned yeah and their first call may go to the

00:10:53.500 the first law enforcement agency that their their loved one is missing and then eventually will get

00:10:58.820 brought into it and start searching in the area so that generally happens after dark and then

00:11:04.480 the public get nervous once the sun goes down one of our last calls was not really what i would call

00:11:10.700 a serious call but the people involved they got very concerned about their own safety as the sun

00:11:15.780 started to reach the horizon and fall yeah as sunset come upon them they realized they were in

00:11:21.260 more trouble than they thought they were in it was beyond their capacity to be able to finish

00:11:27.940 their journey on their own okay so they made a call to the coast guard and we were tasked to go

00:11:32.540 and get them and we brought them safely back to summerside and you know but it was mostly we

00:11:36.360 told them back they were they were not in as much trouble as they may have thought they were in

00:11:42.900 because the weather conditions were great but the light conditions started to fade okay and they knew

00:11:48.340 that okay we can't make it there right and now it's dark and when it's dark out there paul it's

00:11:52.660 really dark oh yeah it's like as a friend of mine always said it's like you're on the inside of a

00:11:57.020 cow yeah really you can't see anything yeah yeah it's just dark no i know very very there's no

00:12:01.780 ambient light from anything other than the stars yeah or a moonlit night you don't always get a

00:12:06.480 moonlit night i i think i mentioned it last time i had a friend of mine and he actually years ago

00:12:11.720 he had a 46 foot sailboat on miami and he made me actually go sailing to the bahamas with him yeah

00:12:16.760 and i couldn't believe how crazy dark it was at night just sitting there very dark yeah yeah but

00:12:22.700 also those are those are the beautiful things that we get to see yeah oh yeah are the star

00:12:27.420 starlit nights with no ambient light pollution and um the environments that we get to see in

00:12:33.160 the different places we get to go yeah yeah parts of the coast that in this country that most people

00:12:38.440 never get to see the canadian coast there do get to see it yeah yeah and there's some beautiful

00:12:42.360 places to see oh i'm sure i'm sure you know we've we started this trip and we uh in st john's yeah

00:12:47.960 um and you know just seeing the atlantic from coming into the harbor and to the port

00:12:53.880 uh it was amazing because i'd never done it before yeah and and you know going around signal hill and

00:12:58.840 all that was was just amazing for me and that's just the tip of it uh you know as you start off

00:13:03.800 but uh this trip so it's nice to get here and and uh spend some time with you yeah um you mind if we

00:13:10.360 spend some time and go up on the boat for sure we'll go and show you the boat around for sure

00:13:13.640 okay we always like to show our gear off yeah you got it all right tom so you get the call

00:13:19.080 and and the team the part of the crew is up here part is underneath which we're going to go into

00:13:24.040 the i call it the cockpit i call it the cockpit too yeah okay so some would call it in terms of a

00:13:31.000 ship the superstructure the superstructure we'll call it a cockpit you'll see why when we get in

00:13:34.840 there yeah so you the two people up here right and they're basically manning the crow's nest i guess

00:13:42.120 and what is there so before we would go the there's a pre-departure check

00:13:47.480 for any call yeah uh and a pre-departure check and prior to our departure we'd be all outside

00:13:52.200 the vessel because the lines have to be let go yeah and uh visibility is much better up here

00:13:58.040 uh people like coast guard boats and uh oh yeah you have to be very careful in the summertime when

00:14:04.640 you're leaving places because people will come up to them with kayaks and they don't know you're

00:14:07.600 leaving yeah and you'll leave fast so they'll come up to them kayaks canoes or small boats so

00:14:11.720 you have to do a quick check around okay prior to the departure you have a quick look that nobody's

00:14:15.620 actually sitting next to you come to say hi yeah because you don't want to take them with you

00:14:19.300 or bump into them on the way out so yeah so we depart from up here there's a pre-departure

00:14:24.040 check check to make sure actually that you have brakes and you have repulsions before you let

00:14:27.700 airlines go so it's all done from up here okay uh we depart from up here because of visibility

00:14:32.860 all right we can see the crew i can see the recovery zone i can see the wharf i can see

00:14:37.940 the other side of the vessel so uh situational awareness is much higher up here for your

00:14:42.840 departure yeah and for your arrival at port okay yeah yeah so and then you're you're heading

00:14:48.220 out where are you like depending on where you're going you know you're heading yeah so we would

00:14:53.600 leave and go out the Summerside Harbour entrance into the Bedeck Bay area of the Northumberland

00:14:59.040 Strait. And how long a trip roughly, I was trying to get a gauge on that, you know, when we were

00:15:03.380 talking last time, I'm thinking, how long roughly is, like, when you're doing these, like, are you

00:15:07.660 on the water for, like, an hour before, two hours, like, I guess it depends where you're going. Before

00:15:12.300 we find what we're looking for, or we could be gone for 15 minutes or gone for 36 hours. Yeah.

00:15:18.640 Depends on what the case is and what we're looking for. What you're searching for. We may

00:15:23.300 have to come back from the scene as well to resupply fuel or resupply food for their staff

00:15:31.120 or have a rest period right and then go back into the back into the zone to continue to carry out

00:15:37.420 what your tasking was yeah because you can only carry like you're not carrying supplies to you're

00:15:42.260 just you're going to rescue right and and search that's really what you're going for so you know

00:15:48.000 whatever you're carrying is for that mission not for supplies to eat or yeah yeah so if we can

00:15:55.900 manage our supplies properly in this particular vessel and the fuel that it carries we can burn

00:16:01.360 it all in nine hours paul or we can burn it in nine days depending on how you want to consume it

00:16:07.180 or and manage your fuel consumptions what's the longest you've been out in in a search and rescue

00:16:13.640 mission probably 36 hours 36 hours beyond that it's not safe to be there any longer because i

00:16:18.680 mean you would fall asleep yeah you must be sleep deprived at that point in time sleep

00:16:22.680 sleep deprived right there's only four staff on board yeah um and um but in that depending on the

00:16:30.360 conditions the commanding officer has the over uh riding authority to stand himself down and

00:16:36.520 remove himself from the situation uh if the search becomes a period of time where rest becomes an

00:16:43.160 issue we would just notify the joint rescue coordination center that we're pulling back

00:16:47.160 going back for a rest period and then we'll join the search after the rest period is over or after

00:16:51.480 we've resupplied the vessel the tough part must be once you're on once you're on the hunt to go is

00:16:56.200 to the adrenaline's going you want to find the the people you want to complete what you're doing

00:17:01.560 that's the tough part i imagine right it is paul uh the adrenaline rush yeah to go on a search

00:17:07.480 is like i don't know if anyone else could explain it maybe uh paramedics and ambulances or

00:17:14.760 firefighters or police officers could feel that same adrenaline rush but the adrenaline rush that

00:17:20.120 you get going to save somebody on the water is is is huge you realize that they're waiting for

00:17:26.520 you depending on you uh you can't call a tow truck the police aren't generally out there

00:17:32.520 uh you can't walk home you can't call a plumber you can't call a mechanic if you break down on

00:17:38.520 the side of the road like a car it's you depend on the canadian coast guard to come and get you

00:17:43.400 in many ways it's the tasking center it's the right marine coast nearest coast radio station

00:17:50.120 that's dealing with you if you're in trouble out there in the water uh and you're you're not in a

00:17:55.160 cell phone area you're talking to the coast radio station then we'll pass that on to the joint

00:17:59.640 rescue coordination center who then will task whatever resource is close to deal with that

00:18:04.680 and capable of dealing with it so those people are depending on the canadian coast guard

00:18:10.360 when they go out there in every aspect including the navigational systems to get to and from

00:18:15.400 and the lighthouses and the range lights and the mcts the marine traffic control centers

00:18:20.360 and the coast radio stations the navigational aids that are put in place the support of the

00:18:28.040 infrastructure associated with the navigational system around the coast is all looked after by

00:18:33.560 the canadian coast guard yeah and once you're and once you're out there you're you guys are pretty

00:18:37.800 much you know your your mission is uh really to find the search and rescue and you're kind of on

00:18:44.360 your own right because there you're in the night you're actually got your night vision on you're

00:18:49.480 trying to figure out what like it's interesting because i was thinking coming to this show we

00:18:53.160 We did a show in St. John's with Ian White, who's a pilot for a water bomber.

00:18:59.460 Yes.

00:18:59.880 Yeah.

00:19:00.380 And I was astounded that he was talking about the fact that once he gets going,

00:19:05.920 he does 120 dives into the water to pick up 14,000 gallons.

00:19:11.900 And then he's kind of on his own, right?

00:19:13.500 He navigates where he goes into the water, how much water he picks up each time, depending on the risk.

00:19:19.520 And then he's back in the air, and he's in the middle of the fire, and then he's down.

00:19:22.980 I said I'm like wow like but you guys are the same thing on water really right

00:19:27.000 once you're once you cut out that's why I said you once you get out of the you

00:19:30.780 know into the straight it that's your we make all our own decisions of how we're

00:19:35.200 gonna get there execute our mandate when we get there how long we're gonna stay

00:19:38.240 on scene what our endurance is what the expected weather conditions are going to

00:19:42.120 be and then when you find them find what you're looking for we find what we're

00:19:45.540 looking for then we don't just we can't just turn them over to EMS we have to be

00:19:50.560 dms on the water so we have a rescue specialist program where our members are trained to be

00:19:56.640 uh would be the easiest to way to explain this uh would be like paramedics on the water to deal

00:20:02.180 with the initial medical situation that they've may have found themselves in or got themselves in

00:20:07.800 because of the injury that they may have sustained from whether it be a boating accident or ending up

00:20:12.920 in the water being hypothermic drowning victims our staff are trained to deal with that initial

00:20:21.760 medical response and then the patient care until we can turn that individual over to EMS yeah well

00:20:28.980 that's what I was astounded by when I met you because I'm thinking to myself as you were talking

00:20:32.700 last time I'm thinking okay you know Tom had to learn all of this so when we go down the you know

00:20:38.340 how to navigate and how to operate and then quite frankly the navigational piece of it and then the

00:20:44.100 search and rescue piece on top of it which we're gonna we're gonna see when we go down

00:20:48.580 so once that those people are located and secured on board then you know getting them also secured

00:20:54.580 while taking care of them in case you know like we did talk about in case it does turn or capsize

00:21:00.980 as you're trying to uh treat them and all putting yourself in the harm's way of quite frankly what's

00:21:07.700 ever happening on the water right yeah yeah it's really it's amazing and and the time so like you

00:21:13.600 took and when i talked to you you were you you've been started uh you mentioned in bc and you were

00:21:19.640 out there it wasn't bc sorry i did spend some time in newfoundland newfoundland okay and then

00:21:25.500 nova scotia new brunswick pei parts of quebec okay so the east coast of canada but you learned

00:21:31.320 there and and the arctic as well yeah yeah you you learn from the ones ahead of you right how to

00:21:37.580 you can learn from a school which is great because everyone needs that schooling yeah but then you

00:21:42.660 learn from the ones who are your perceptors when you arrive there who take you underneath their

00:21:47.820 wing and show you how to do your job actually in a situation like that under pressure yeah

00:21:53.520 then you model yourself after the ones you decided in your own mind that okay that's who i want to be

00:21:58.540 when i grow up right i want to be like that fella yeah that girl or that human right oh that's who

00:22:04.360 i want to be like right so you meet all kinds of different people that you work with colleagues

00:22:09.300 through your career and you'll learn from them all yeah how to do your job better well because

00:22:14.020 you know the training as we were talking about last time the you know what caught me was yeah

00:22:18.260 you can go through all the training in the world but quite frankly the experience you get from the

00:22:23.940 actual situational training is what really probably is the most key for going through because as you're

00:22:29.580 moving and you know if you make one wrong move it's you're putting your crew at harm harm's way

00:22:35.640 you're putting your crew you're putting your asset at harm's way you're putting the environment

00:22:39.480 at harm's way there's all kinds of things that can get harmed or the public so yeah you have

00:22:45.400 to consider all those things as you're out there on the waters because you're not alone there are

00:22:51.340 other people using the waterways as well yeah so you have to consider that most of the time when

00:22:57.500 you're departing. It's the busiest part of the ocean is along the coast. It's where the majority

00:23:03.420 of the people play or trade or make their living is close to the coast and they come to and from

00:23:10.400 the coast to get back ashore for their rest period or to bring their product ashore or to go home for

00:23:16.200 the day. So you have to deal with them as you're coming and going as well and when you're coming

00:23:20.840 and going sometimes you have to come and go really fast so you have to consider all of the obstacles

00:23:26.940 in your way while you depart then make sure everybody's safe and that you didn't cause

00:23:31.000 anybody harm while you were executing your mandate yeah so and then it's you said Paul

00:23:36.920 learning it's an ever-ending learning period your entire career because as we evolve with

00:23:44.320 new technologies and new pieces of equipment you have to learn the new pieces of equipment

00:23:48.220 as well this vessel was just rebuilt one year ago after serving for approximately 20 years

00:23:56.240 it was rebuilt uh but it came back with a complete new system uh the only thing that would have come

00:24:01.200 back would have been the hull right uh all its navigation package it's uh it's a fly-by-wire

00:24:07.440 features its seats uh everything its propulsion system is all new and you have to learn that again

00:24:13.760 yeah yeah and you have to learn it just from a training and then learn it out there learn what

00:24:18.720 it can actually do because once you got it out there you gotta you're playing with it yeah it

00:24:23.840 operates a little bit different than it did for the last 20 years yeah yeah because of its new

00:24:28.100 systems that are installed on board but they're new improved systems right that will extend its

00:24:32.860 life into the future and to serve canadians yeah so as you're you know you're heading out and then

00:24:38.620 you're here so you're you know you guys are rotating as you're going through you mentioned

00:24:42.320 as you're shifting positions and getting ready for it you know if you're up here for like 12

00:24:48.700 hours searching for people uh you know yeah so how do we rotate each other out yeah we have to be

00:24:56.140 con yeah also have to be considered concerned about your crew fatigue so you take opportunities

00:25:01.900 to spare each other off the cockpit and the survivor's compartment are air conditioned so if

00:25:07.240 it's in the summertime the doors will be closed and they have to be closed when you're at sea

00:25:10.680 anyway because they're they're watertight doors they're required to be closed by transport canada

00:25:14.500 rules you can go down there for a rest period where you can have a snack there's microwave and

00:25:20.020 stuff on board you can have a quick snack you can have a quick rest take yourself out of the heat

00:25:25.360 for a while replenish yourself and then come back up and continue to search again the design of the

00:25:33.360 vessel with the flybridge for two reasons it's situational awareness situation awareness when

00:25:40.840 you're on search as well because if you're up here if you're down there you can't hear somebody

00:25:45.940 yelling if you're up here you can see hear somebody yelling it was determined that the

00:25:51.020 design of this vessel that the majority of adults are approximately six feet tall that the height of

00:25:57.240 eye would be the optimum height of eye with your feet on the deck of the flybridge of this vessel

00:26:02.200 to find a person in the water so this is the optimum height for searching for objects in the

00:26:08.280 water oh okay yeah interesting because you don't lose situational awareness because you're exposed

00:26:13.520 to the environment you're you can't hear if someone's calling for help or yelling in the

00:26:17.260 water because sometimes you wouldn't see them yeah you can imagine they're down to their shoulders

00:26:20.860 and they have blue on and they're wet yeah so your hair is not puffy anymore it's really tight and

00:26:26.540 it might look like a buoy might look like a seal it might look like a bird but it could be a human

00:26:31.680 right but they'll certainly yell at you yeah yeah so you have to be up here so you can hear it so

00:26:37.140 this is this is the search platform up here when we get on scene yeah and we rotate through it

00:26:42.340 at night would come we would use searchlights and spotlights that we also use night vision goggles

00:26:47.540 when that period of time comes some vessels do have FLIR forward looking terminal imaging

00:26:59.460 it works well in some environments and in the ocean environment my experience is not as well

00:27:06.580 because of the temperatures of the water can cool a human you know much faster than the air can cool

00:27:16.580 a human right so getting the heat signature back is not always great but night vision worked very

00:27:23.380 well oh yeah stabilized imaging for binoculars as well you know we use those things just like

00:27:29.620 i said there's uh when i started my career that stuff wasn't available it's very much available

00:27:34.100 now i mean you could go up to canadian tire by that yeah exactly no it's amazing hey why

00:27:38.180 don't we go down yeah yeah why don't we go down take a look chris you gotta see this

00:27:50.020 I'm trying to figure that out.

00:28:08.660 No. 0.98

00:28:10.500 31 and shoot.

00:28:13.540 Yeah.

00:28:20.020 Tommy what are we looking at here this is this is the cockpit right

00:28:28.400 this is the cockpit this is the navigational package that we have it's

00:28:34.920 also the communications package in terms of communicating with coast radio

00:28:38.960 stations in terms of communicating with the Joint Rescue Coordination Center or

00:28:43.660 in terms of listening for distress communications that would be a

00:28:47.460 direction finder there right by your hand pawl with the blue circle yeah that you would pick up

00:28:52.740 signals off of that you can also program it with a frequency to pick up epurbs which deploy if a

00:28:58.420 vessel sinks or can be deployed by a human if they're in trouble that unit can pick up those

00:29:03.860 frequencies so this is the navigation package communication package and propulsion package

00:29:10.900 overhead on the console is your engineering package those are your engine gauges your

00:29:15.700 communication system for your engines and your gearboxes and all your systems on board wow

00:29:22.180 that's right you really like to learn this like it's gotta you know it's amazing just to figure

00:29:29.540 out months i assume um it can take you a period of time but if you're used to the equipment

00:29:37.220 as it changes and evolves it changes and evolves some but it keeps a lot of its

00:29:44.580 old technology in place which you would have from your memory muscle but yes for a new person to

00:29:50.900 learn how to use some of this stuff it does take quite a period of time yeah because you can imagine

00:29:55.940 you're reaching to touch buttons at night and you don't want to affect your night vision because it

00:30:01.460 takes 20 minutes for your pupils to readjust so that's why we would have uh red lights we can just

00:30:08.740 use red lights at night so we can see things if we need to see a little bit better okay we're not

00:30:12.900 using white lights or bright white flashlights because if you if you affect your pupil it takes

00:30:18.500 another 20 minutes for your pupil to readjust to the darkness oh i see okay so you can imagine

00:30:23.620 you're trying to touch all there's a lot of buttons around here yeah so you're trying to touch all

00:30:28.260 these buttons and talk on radios at the same time and keep your crew comfortable uh as well

00:30:36.580 while navigating this to rescue somebody you have your whole computer gear over there

00:30:42.100 so you're much of them actually paul are touch screen as well okay all right wow

00:30:50.100 many of them many of them have multiple uses that's a radar but then i i can turn it into a sounder

00:30:57.620 and you see the seats you're sitting in tommy these are the seats you're talking about

00:31:01.780 again these seats actually a lot of it but you those of you can't see it uh it's like a joystick

00:31:08.020 the controller here yeah so there's no steering wheel down here yeah it's kind of funny for to

00:31:12.420 have a boat with no steering wheel yeah um but um i always tell kids when i showed them around if

00:31:17.620 if they can find a steering wheel in here i'll give them a million dollars and they look really

00:31:21.380 hard um there's no steering wheel it's a joystick yeah we drive with the joystick yeah that's amazing

00:31:27.940 the um and the seats are actually as you mentioned look at the shock compression on these seats

00:31:33.380 and so as tom was mentioning you know if the if it gets rough waters you really strap in and uh

00:31:40.340 seat belts yeah yeah there you go yeah you guys strap in you're strapped in and they're

00:31:46.980 shock mitigating seats so as you go through the wave system you don't feel it you don't feel it

00:31:52.180 on your body and then that would uh maybe extend your career right so you would never get hurt

00:31:58.580 while on duty because the vessel will not hurt you because you you're basically floating on the water

00:32:05.620 as the vessel pounds through the wave it has no other choice but to pound through the waves

00:32:10.180 the seats will float with your weight on them they're adjusted for your weight

00:32:13.780 and you can see them they're adjusted for different individuals so if i come on duty

00:32:17.460 and i'm much heavier than the last commanding officer that was here i'll have to readjust the

00:32:22.180 seats to a certain area where it will accept my weight right now this vessel here so this cutter

00:32:29.780 you may mention last time which we're going to see down below if it ever hit anything in the front of

00:32:34.340 it yeah so it has a collision ball kit yeah in the front of it so it's compartmentalized right

00:32:40.500 each compartment is watertight and you'll see them and behind us is a door a watertight door

00:32:46.420 from the flybridge uh and we're in the cockpit and then the cockpit to the survivors compartment

00:32:51.620 is also another watertight compartment so this cockpit is a watertight compartment that we're

00:32:56.100 standing in right or we're sitting in right now uh and then forward is another watertight there's

00:33:00.820 several watertight compartments that we go forward to until you get to the collision bulkhead right

00:33:05.860 and the collision bulkhead the nose could be sheared off and it would still float wow the

00:33:10.340 collision bulkhead is not accessible in a short period of time it would probably take you

00:33:15.860 45 minutes to access the compartment inside the collision bulkhead because you have to take a

00:33:23.220 plate off that's bolted to a bulkhead to access it all right wow it's amazing so this thing is

00:33:31.140 as far as uh you know i'm sure there is a way for it to actually sink but quite frankly they thought

00:33:37.140 of everything right they thought of everything they thought of everything it rolls over in seven

00:33:42.020 seconds that I can roll over in seven seconds. If you hold if you put a hole

00:33:48.920 through the hull we have the ability there's 12 bilge pumps on board yeah we

00:33:54.420 have the ability to pump the water off then we have external pumps that we can

00:33:58.760 use as well auxiliary pump to pump the water off but it would be a decision

00:34:02.700 between myself and the engineering officer whether we were even going to

00:34:05.600 bother pumping it because the water will come in it will create a new water line

00:34:10.140 yeah and it will only sink to that level oh okay and then the water will stay in

00:34:14.580 that compartment but it won't go any deeper because the other it can't get

00:34:17.820 into the other compartments right right yeah so the water would come in to a

00:34:22.260 point where it created a new water line and would stop coming in there so

00:34:25.740 pumping it out could be just like a dog chasing his tail right right it'd be

00:34:30.240 decision whether where did the compartment was if it was an electrical

00:34:33.600 compartment where your batteries are if it was a compartment up forward that

00:34:36.700 just used to store equipment so it's not that critical yeah we'd probably just leave the water

00:34:40.860 in there deal with it when we get to a shipyard to maintain it or deal with it when we got ashore

00:34:45.500 wow so everything they thought of everything they thought of everything it's quite a design yeah it

00:34:51.100 is very impressive yeah it's very impressive yeah i was amazed when i first saw it you know

00:34:57.020 you mind if we take uh go down one more i just want to uh this is the other part i was really

00:35:01.900 amazed at and when I came last time and this is the this is kind of so you know you know Tom you

00:35:24.100 mentioned earlier that you know once you get someone on board and they're injured and you

00:35:29.140 have to take care of them you know this is you have to you know secure them you have to you know

00:35:34.700 provide emergency care this is where you're doing it this is the uh we call this is officially

00:35:41.960 called the survivors compartment it's the word the survivors would end up um we call it the tin

00:35:47.740 can ambulance part of the boat okay it truly is the tin can ambulance if you look around it looks

00:35:53.420 like the back of an ambulance it's set up like the back of an ambulance because it's a boat it's not

00:35:58.840 an ambulance so it actually has to be configured so that if it was to roll over on its side that

00:36:05.200 things don't move around everything is strapped in and secured everything is bolted down and

00:36:12.000 nothing moves yeah you have to make sure all the medical supplies don't move they're all

00:36:17.180 located underneath the deck in compartments so they can't flip around and get broken up or cause

00:36:24.100 havoc to us or the survivors who are on board. If it was one survivor

00:36:29.760 required to be in a Litterstokes, the Litterstokes will be located here. The

00:36:34.760 Litterstokes right now is up forward because it's a better place to store. The

00:36:39.280 person would be here so the rescue specialist or the crew member on board

00:36:42.560 dealing with that individual if they were incapacitated, that individual will be

00:36:47.540 lying right here at a height where the crew member could stand and check on the

00:36:51.640 individual and these seats flip down these settees flip down and then if it's a long steam back to

00:36:58.680 shore and you have that individual in the litter stokes the crew member who is looking after that

00:37:04.380 individual can stay right with them they can sit on the settee over there or they can lay that one

00:37:10.780 down where they can lay down underneath the injured individual so the injured individual

00:37:17.080 or the victim is just above them in an odor stove yeah so think of you know just again putting in

00:37:22.960 perspective for the people listening you know imagine you got someone in here you're caring

00:37:28.020 for them you know behind me down there is all the engine uh area so if there's an issue with

00:37:33.840 engines or something needs to be done as you're moving along you got someone working working on

00:37:38.960 the injured people or person you got someone working on the engine you got the crew navigating

00:37:44.300 about you guys for four people you guys got a lot going on right yeah because i mean even though

00:37:49.100 this is the tin can ambulance part of the vessel it's also the uh engine management system for the

00:37:55.420 engineer yeah it's located down here you have to get to the engine engines down here they're

00:38:01.100 located yeah in there so uh it's an on-man engine room that's why it has a glass so you can have a

00:38:06.700 look in it also has cameras in there yeah but all of the gauging is moved off outside of the

00:38:12.780 the compartment so that in adverse weather condition unless you had to go down there

00:38:17.100 because all the systems are redundant right they all have backup systems unless you had to go down

00:38:21.800 there for a reason you you wouldn't go down there right because you could get hurt and it's very hot

00:38:27.460 when you come back and open that door to go and do your arrival checks it will be like walking

00:38:36.000 into a burning building the heat that hits and rushes up your nose oh that was a hot one okay

00:38:42.080 yeah yeah but you know you you know just wanted i'm glad we got a chance to come down here because

00:38:47.940 quite frankly you know it's you go up on the the crow's nest and you know everyone's like oh this

00:38:52.180 is beautiful you go back into the cockpit you realize how much is going on and then you come

00:38:56.240 back here and you realize there's you know also crew back here taking care of people yeah taking

00:39:01.080 care of people management systems you know the engineering it's engineering aspect of us here

00:39:05.560 the engine management system is here for the engineer uh there's also a repeater up on the

00:39:10.080 in the cockpit if the engineer happens to be up there with the pilot so you have your engine

00:39:15.120 management system here your vessel monitoring you can see everything going on with the vessels all

00:39:19.680 your data any of the alarming any servicing required all your documentation is on here if

00:39:25.280 you want to look at publications they're all on here if you require support you can ask for support

00:39:33.520 so we'll go back to guessner we'll go back to engine vessel monitoring all right that's amazing

00:39:37.840 i gotta ask you a question yeah so are a lot of people uh applying to do this now is the coast

00:39:45.520 guard we had a period of time where applications right now we had a period of time where maybe

00:39:49.680 people weren't as uh interested but it seems that now we have a lot of people uh who are more

00:39:54.880 interested we have more people coming around asking questions about the coast care i think

00:39:59.760 coast care is probably making a better job through social media paul of uh advertising itself where

00:40:05.440 before it's easy to see a police car or an ambulance or fire truck in a local community

00:40:10.800 you have access to them all the time because they're around the public but the coast guard

00:40:14.640 was along the coast and unless you're involved in coastal activities fishing or boating to some

00:40:21.200 degree where you have a lot of contact with the canadian coast guard your contact with them was

00:40:26.480 not great because a lot of times they'll come back behind a secured fence to a coast guard base

00:40:31.520 here we come back to a Coast Guard facility but we're not behind a secure

00:40:35.660 fence we're along the boardwalk of the city and the public get to ask us all

00:40:39.440 kinds of questions but I think the Coast Guard is actually making a better job of

00:40:43.880 advertising itself as an organization that you can come over to and it

00:40:48.620 certainly has a some people are interested in shift work some people are

00:40:53.900 not interested in shift work but it does have a leaf system equal time on for

00:40:57.160 equal time here mm-hmm so if you're on duty for two weeks you're off duty for

00:41:00.800 two weeks yeah if you're on duty for 28 days you're on duty for 28 days yeah and how long

00:41:05.640 you've been doing this for uh in excess of 30 years yeah yeah and i wanted to you know just

00:41:09.980 as we finish up i just wanted to thank you because you know that is the you know as i got

00:41:14.020 to know you and last time i mentioned to the viewers that i met you with jim you know i got

00:41:18.700 in the car and i said jim you know we're lucky to have you doing this because you know you training

00:41:24.940 and teaching uh the gentleman and i met you know this is the second time out and i'm meeting those

00:41:30.680 younger gentlemen that are actually all learning the trade and you know it's nice because you're

00:41:35.740 teaching them as you said the mentoring that you're handing down to them is the important part

00:41:40.460 and you can see it when you when i spend time with you and i listen to you i think man if someone

00:41:44.900 wasn't telling them all this they'd have to be learning that cold on site you know as they were

00:41:50.000 doing it and you know they're lucky to have yeah so we have lots of time to actually talk about

00:41:54.560 those things right because we're together for extended periods of time even if we're on a call

00:41:58.260 we can just talk about well this what happened 12 years ago when we're on a similar call

00:42:03.440 and this was what the outcome was and the environment kind of tends to not change itself

00:42:08.220 too much in regards to the outcomes but yeah those young crew members that I have that was

00:42:13.520 me 30 some years ago yeah and I looked up to the ones I looked up to who mentored me so yeah it's

00:42:18.680 my job to mentor them before I'm gone yeah and it will be their job to mentor if I make a good job

00:42:24.760 mentoring them, Paul. Yeah. They will make a good job of mentoring who comes behind them. Yeah. Yeah.

00:42:30.120 I remember all the people that were nice to me for my whole career and helped me along. Yes. Yeah.

00:42:34.920 Well, I hope you keep doing it. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks for coming. Thanks for the time.

True Patriot Love - August 24, 2026

What Happens When Canada’s Coast Guard Gets the Call？ ft. Tom Morrissey

Episode Stats

Transcript