CCGS John A. Macdonald was a Canadian Coast Guard heavy icebreaker. She was named after The Right Honourable, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. The ship was commissioned into the Canadian Department of Transport's Marine Service in 1960 using the prefix "Canadian Government Ship" (CGS). The vessel was transferred in 1962 into the newly created Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and served with distinction until being decommissioned in 1991, and replaced by the then-chartered (but later purchased) . Design and description Considered one of the finest icebreakers ever constructed for the Canadian service, John A. Macdonald was long overall with a beam of and a draught of . The vessel had a fully loaded displacement of and had a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 6,186 tons. The ship was propelled by three screws driven by a diesel-electric system creating . This gave the vessel a maximum speed of . The vessel could carry two helicopters. Service history The vessel was constructed by Davie Shipbuilding at their yard in Lauzon, Quebec with the yard number 620 and launched on 31 October 1959. During construction, the vessel was visited by Soviet officials who took interest in her design. There was a distinct resemblance to John A. MacDonald in the five ships in the next class of Soviet icebreaker, though they were larger and more powerful. The vessel entered service as part of the government fleet in September 1960 as CGS John A. Macdonald. In 1962, John A. Macdonald transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard and set a record by reaching Tanquary Fjord, the closest to the North Pole a Canadian vessel had ever been. In 1967, John A. Macdonald transited the Northwest Passage in order to aid the smaller icebreaker in the western Arctic. Following that, the icebreaker then travelled to assist after the United States Coast Guard vessel became trapped in heavy ice north of Point Barrow, Alaska. The vessel then returned to the East Coast via the Panama Canal, circumnavigating North America in the process. John A Macdonald was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard Unit Commendation "for extremely meritorious service in the support of United States Coast Guard operations during the period of 23 September 1967 to 08 October 1967", during the Arctic West Summer 1967 cruise by Admiral Willard J. Smith, Commandant, United States Coast Guard. In 1969 John A. Macdonald assisted the then-new