Court Sets Aside Arrest of Crown Vessel

Edited by Graham Walker

In an interesting case involving the law applicable to Crown ships, the plaintiff Society obtained possession of a decommissioned Canadian Navy vessel under an agreement with the Department of National Defence (DND), intending to use the old ship as a museum. When that plan failed, the vessel was returned to the Crown, which nevertheless agreed to give the Society a chance to present an alternate plan should a decision be made to dispose of the ship. When the Crown later proposed disposing of the ship, the Society responded by proposing to send the vessel to the Caribbean, where it could be sunk and used as an artificial reef. The Crown, however, was not prepared to expend the estimated $5 to $6 million needed to ready the vessel for "ocean disposal". Grenada was prepared to use the ship as an artificial reef but not to pay for its transportation to that country. The Society, for its part, had no plan to finance the towage. DND therefore