“We have various types of interesting boats,” said Jamie Sangster, CEO of Halifax-based Leeway Marine. “We’ve got some really bizarre boats.”

As Sangster is speaking, in mid-July 2025, the company’s latest vessel—an Oceanus12 designed by British-based Zero USV—is making its way from Northampton on a container ship. It’s slated to arrive in Halifax on the 21st, and while it may not be bizarre, it certainly is unique.

Leeway owns and operates offshore ships, largely doing survey work for government and private clients, including the Navy and the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS). “We’re mapping out the ocean bottom—whether that’s for creating navigational charts, or mapping out where a fibre optic cable would go, or a pipeline. That is probably 60 to 70 per cent of the work we do,” Sangster said.

He compares survey work to mowing a lawn: “You’re really driving over every aspect of the area you’re mapping.” The work is critically important, but also “dull and boring.”

The Odyssey, explained Sangster, is one of their crewed survey vessels. It’s 140 feet long, 350 tonnes and needs to have a 12-person crew (including the survey team). “They all have to be fed, they all have to be kept safe, they have to have sufficient fuel to go and do a proper job, and you have to manage all the waste from everybody.

It’s a floating city, and everything that you have at home needs to be on board, along with everything related to keeping people safe on the ocean that generally just wants to kill you.”

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