Spotlight
U of G alumna Lisa Tubb sailed around North America aboard HMCS Harry DeWolf.
From Arctic to Caribbean, first-ever Navy voyage offers ‘adventure’ for grad
26 | PORTICO Summer 2022
management and operation desk. But she hopes to get out on the water again soon. “I like to think the best is yet to come.” What she calls her inaugural “adventure” started in early August when she travelled to Iqualuit in Nunavut. There she met the vessel with its crew of about 80 people. “We were introducing a new class of arctic and offshore patrol ship to Canada’s Northern regions,” said Tubb, whose job was to publicize the voyage with Canadians through social media, video and photos. She had been on the ship for just over a week when she was charged with helping a CBC television crew headed by Peter Mansbridge to film a documentary of the Arctic. Tubb also led production of the Navy’s own documentary about the voyage called Into the North. As part of Operation NANOOK, Canada’s signature Arctic exercise
that included Canadian and American Coast Guard vessels, the ship visited Indigenous communities, including Pond Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Tubb helped run ship tours for community members. “We’re there to serve Canadians, to conduct presence patrols in the Arctic, and to fortify our close
“It was a oncein-a-lifetime deployment,” said Tubb, who hopes to return to the water soon.
PHOTO: CANADIAN ARMED FORCES
From retracing the footsteps of the Franklin expedition in Canada’s Arctic to taking part in cocaine drug busts in the Caribbean, Lisa Tubb had her share of memorable moments during her first-ever deployment with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in fall 2021. It was a voyage of firsts for Tubb, who grew up in landlocked Mitchell, Ont., before studying history at the equally landlocked U of G beginning in 2012. Last year, besides marking her firsttime crossing of the Arctic Circle en route to sailing through the Northwest Passage during the maiden voyage of the HMCS Harry DeWolf, she notched her inaugural circumnavigation of North America. This was the second RCN ship to sail around the continent. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime deployment,” said Tubb. Now 27 and beginning her fourth year with the Navy as a public affairs officer, she is back in Ottawa on the issues
