The design of the vessel is based on offshore supply-tugboat designs, with strengthened chines. The vessel has a tall foredeck, and a long low quarterdeck, for carrying buoys, where a crane with a capability of lifting is permanently mounted. The crane is motion stabilized. Samuel Risley is long overall with a beam of. The icebreaker has a draught of. Samuel Risley has a and. The ship is powered by four Wärtsilä Vasa 16V22 12-cylinder geared Diesel Engines driving two controllable pitch propellers that create. This gives the vessel a maximum speed of. The vessel has a capacity of of diesel fuel that gives Samuel Risley a range of at and the vessel can stay at sea for up to 58 days. The ship is equipped with one General Motors 6–71 emergency generator. The vessel is equipped with two Racal Decca navigational radars using the "X" and "S" band. Samuel Risley is a light icebreaker and has an ice class of Arctic Class 2, which certifies that the ship has the capability to break ice up to thick, but in practice can successfully maintain continuous progress in up to 0.9 meters of ice. The vessel has a complement of 22, with 9 officers and 13 crew.
Operational history
Ordered in 1983, the ship was launched in 1984 by Vito Steel Boat & Barge Limited at their yard in Delta, British Columbia with the yard number 161. The vessel was completed on 4 April 1985. After completion, the ship sailed to eastern Canada, transiting the Panama Canal and deploying to the Great Lakes. The ship is assigned to the Central Region, based at Parry Sound, Ontario. In January 2015, Samuel Risley and worked to free several ships that had become icebound on the St. Clair River. In April, Samuel Risley was one of four icebreakers sent to rescue ten commercial vessels trapped in ice near Whitefish Point, Michigan. In June 2016Samuel Risley underwent a major refit by Newdock – St. John's Dockyard Ltd. Work was expected to last until September 2016. The cost of the contract was $3.6 million CAN. The refit involved the replacement of the bow thruster, a crane overhaul and recoating of the hull, along with a renovation of the galley and inspections. On 28 December 2017, Samuel Risley, in concert with the United States Coast Guard vessel, freed the lakers and that had become stuck in the ice on the St. Marys River below Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario the day before. Samuel Risley made its maiden voyage to the Arctic Ocean during the 2018 sailing season, leaving Quebec on 11 July 2018. The vessel took part in the annual resupply of the United States air station at Thule, Greenland.
