A tender is a vessel attached to a larger vessel or shore base.  Originally in the RCN, only the Commanding Officer of an actual ship had powers of punishment so each shore base had a tender attached as a legal fiction to enable proper naval discipline ashore.  STAR has had many tenders of various sizes and shapes over the years, often of short duration and with little known about them.  Many of them were referred to as “HMCS” although they were not necessarily commissioned.

During the period of the Great Lakes Training Centre, there were many vessels that operated out of STAR for summer training, often conducting two week cruises throughout the Great Lakes for new entry and trades training.