How this Canadian submarine sunk a U.S. warship off Hawaii with a torpedo

The skipper of Canada’s lone operational submarine is hoping HMCS Corner Brook’s recent sinking of a decommissioned U.S. warship off Hawaii will help attract more young people to the life subaquatic.

Canada is negotiating with Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems as the preferred supplier for up to 12 submarines to replace our aging Victoria-Class fleet. But the new German subs require a crew of 28 people and, as of this past June, this country only had 193 qualified submariners working within the Canadian Submarine Force, just over half the people required to operate the new subs.

The July 12 sinking of USS Mobile Bay — a SINKEX in military parlance — was part of the U.S. Navy-led Rim of the Pacific 2026 exercise, a 30-nation, month-long set of war games that included five submarines, 30 ships, 15 national land forces, more than 190 aircraft and more than 30,000 personnel.

“One of the things that I thought was so great about the SINKEX was the ability to demonstrate in an open way what we can bring, what we can do, and to be able to push that message to Canadians, especially at a time now when we’re a hot topic and being able to show, this is what we do,” Lt.-Cmdr. Clark Hubbard said.

He doesn’t know how Corner Brook was chosen to deliver the coup de grace.

“It wasn’t on the bucket list. It was a very happy surprise,” Hubbard said Thursday in a telephone interview from Ford Island, an islet in the centre of Pearl Harbor, Oahu.

Hubbard’s crew had to wait out some rough weather on the day they started tracking the retired warship.

Corner Brook — among other allied vessels and aircraft shooting at Mobile Bay — launched a Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo at the warship from about a mile away. She sank in waters 15,000 feet deep, more than 50 nautical miles off the northern coast of Kauai.

“It was mostly missiles and gunfire throughout the day, and missiles and gunfire do a lot of damage. But the most reliable sinking weapon that was fired that day was obviously the torpedo at the end,” said Hubbard, who had never fired a live torpedo before.

Hubbard’s operations officer hit the button to send the weapon on its way. “I got to say ‘shoot,’ though,” he said.

Hubbard has been in the navy for 17 years. He started his career in Halifax on surface ships and switched to submarines 11 years ago.

“To me it just seemed like such a fascinating capability. No one talks about it very much and the more I asked my colleagues about what was going on, what was a submarine doing … no one knew, and that just intrigued me,” said Hubbard, who has been Corner Brook’s commanding officer for about a year.

His crew of 59 left Esquimalt, B.C., for Hawaii around the same time Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement about buying as many as a dozen new submarines.

“Everyone’s very excited,” Hubbard said. “The people who came down to submarines did so because they really believed in the capability, and seeing a commitment to carry on and expand that capability has got everyone in a really good mood.”