Canadian Naval Centennial
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List of facts
1) A Canadian warship is known in writing as H.M.C.S. Buckingham or HMCS Buckingham, even, the Buckingham (with her name in italics); but a ship’s name should never appear in quotation marks. The name when used for the designated class is not in italic and only the first letter is capitalized. In the Department of National Defence documents, names of ships are written entirely in upper case and are not italicized: HMCS HALIFAX.
Ref: The Canadian Style – A guide to writing and editing. Dundurn Press Limited, Toronto, 1997, p.107.
2) The Canadian Navy came into existence on May 4, 1910, when the Naval Service Act became law. Permission to add the prefix “Royal” was granted by King George V in 1911. In 1968, the Canadian Navy was merged with Canada’s army and air force to form the Canadian Armed Forces, later the Canadian Forces; The maritime component was named Maritime Command replacing the title Royal Canadian Navy.
3) A cruiser is a large type of warship, which had its prime period from the late 19th century to the end of the Cold War. The first cruisers were intended for individual raiding and protection missions on the seas. Over the years, the nature and role of the cruiser has changed considerably, and today the cruiser has largely been replaced by destroyers in its roles. Canada’s Navy had operated five cruisers since 1910: HMCS Rainbow (first of the name), Niobe (first of the name), Aurora, Uganda/Quebec and Ontario. The last cruiser in service in the Canadian Navy, HMCS Ontario, was paid off in October 1958.
4) The Canadian warships flew the White Ensign from 1910 until the adoption of the current Canadian flag. The maple leaf flag was adopted on 15 February 1965 in time for the nation's Centennial. The White Ensign consists of a red St.George’s Cross on a white field with the Union Flag in the upper canton. The ensign is still flown by the Royal Navy, in ships and at land bases operated by the navy.
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5) The first warships built for the Canadian Navy were the destroyers HMCS Saguenay (D later I79) and Skeena (D later I59). Both were built in England by John I. Thornycroft & Co. Ltd of Southampton and were commissioned in 1931
 Corvette HMCS Sackville K181 |
6) The crew of the Flower class HMCS Sackville chose Donald Duck as their gun shield emblem. Many Canadian ships displayed such symbols during the Second World War; our ships carry on the practice, but more discreetly. HMCS Sackville was reverted to her original wartime appearance and is preserved as national naval memorial in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Ref : In Peril on the Sea – The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, Donald E. Graves, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 2003, p. 107.
7) In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range but powerful attackers (originally torpedo boats, later submarines and aircraft).
.jpg) Destroyer HMCS Algonquin DDG-283 |
8) A corvette is a small, manoeuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role. Almost all modern navies use ships smaller than frigates for coastal duty, but not all of them use the term corvette (from the French corvair) or equivalent. The rank Corvette Captain in French derives from the name of this type of ship. During the Second World War, Canada operated two different classes of corvette, the most known class was the Flowers and the least known were the Castles.
9) A battleship is a large, heavily armoured warship with a main battery consisting of the largest calibre of guns. Battleships are larger, better armed, and better armoured than cruisers and destroyers. Although the Canadian Navy never manned battleships, there have been two British battleships named in honour of Canada: HMS Dominion (1903) and HMS Canada (1914); both served in the First World War. There is no battleship currently in service in the world.
10) The mascot on board the Flower class corvette HMCS Trail was a groundhog named Percy, who liked to play fetch with an old glove.
11) Although Canadian sailors manned five aircraft carriers; the only Canadian-owned aircraft carrier was HMCS Bonaventure. She was commissioned on 17 January 1957 and was named after a bird sanctuary in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. She was launched as HMS Powerful of the Majestic class but work stopped at the end of the Second World War. The first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down was the British HMS Hermes in 1918, the next year Japan began work on HIMJS Hosho.
12) Some of the early Canadian-built corvettes crossed the Atlantic with dummy wooden guns mounted on deck in an effort to fool U-boats.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p. 85.
_1.jpg) Frigate HMCS Regina FFH-334 |
13) A frigate is a warship between a corvette and a destroyer in size. The term has been used for warships of many sizes and roles over the past centuries. In modern navies, frigates are used to protect other warships and merchant-marine ships, especially as anti-submarine warfare combatants. The Canadian Navy is operating the Halifax class frigates; our navy had three classes of frigates prior to the Halifax: River, Loch and Prestonian.
14) The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of the Second World War; it started at the beginning of the war in September and concluded when the U-boats surrendered in May 1945. The battle is commemorated every year on the first Sunday of May in locations where the Canadian Navy is present.
15) Many Second World War kills by Canadian ships were not confirmed for over 40 years, until German records were made available for analysis.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p. 125.
16) At one minute past midnight on 28 May 1945, all Canadian ships at sea turned on their running lights signalling the end of the Battle of the Atlantic.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p. 203.
17) The first attempt to found a Canadian Navy was in 1881, when the 14-year-old country purchased a steam-powered wooden vessel, HMS Charybdis. But without an aggressor, the ship fell into disrepair.
Ref: Canada’s Navy – The First Century, Marc Milner, University of Toronto Press, 1999, p. 5 and The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p. 20.
18) When the Second World War broke out, Canada had just 13 vessels: six destroyers (Saguenay, Skeena, Fraser, Ottawa, Restigouche and St-Laurent), four minesweepers (Comox, Fundy, Gaspé and Nootka/Nanoose), and three auxiliaries (Armentières, Skidegate and Venture).
Ref: In Peril on the Sea – The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, Donald E. Graves, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 2003, p. 42 and 231.
19) By the end of the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy had grown to become one of the largest Allied navies with 434 commissioned vessels including cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes and auxiliaries.
Ref: In Peril on the Sea – The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, Donald E. Graves, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 2003, p. 42 and 231.
20) From 1910 to 1948, ships of the Royal Canadian Navy had no official badges or insignia. Choosing a ship's badge was left to the vessel's commanding officer, without Naval Service Headquarters (NSHQ) becoming involved. The war period brought a multitude of badges, many without heraldic basis. In 1948, NSHQ introduced the first of the official badges and mottoes, all of which have been thoroughly documented.
21) When the Royal Naval College of Canada opened in Halifax in 1910, the two-year course was open only to boys between the ages of 14 and 16.
Ref: Canada’s Navy – The First Century, Marc Milner, University of Toronto Press, 1999, p.21.
22) The Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) was established in 1923 following major cuts in the Navy's budget. The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve merged in 1946 to form the Royal Canadian Naval (Reserve) {RCN(R)} forerunner of the current Naval Reserve.
Ref: In Peril on the Sea – The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, Donald E. Graves, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 2003, p.35.
23) The WRCNS (Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service), more familiarly known as the WRENS was founded in 1942 due to a shortage of male recruits. The WRCNS ceased to exist in August 1946, but in 1951 parliament authorized the formation of a WREN section in the RCN(R). In 1955 a women's component of the RCN was authorized and fully integrated into the regular force. This was a first throughout the British Commonwealth.
Ref: In Peril on the Sea – The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, Donald E. Graves, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 2003, p.183.
24) The Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRENs) wore blue stripes on their sleeves, while the colour gold was reserved for men.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p.190.
25) Goofing Stations is a pipe on-board ship to indicate there is something unusual to be seen from the upper deck.
Ref: Ready Aye Ready
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26) In the 1960s, crew of the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure held parties for disadvantaged children in ports such as Trinidad, Stockholm, Hamburg, Belfast and Rotterdam while the ship was visiting these cities. Festivities included miniature merry-go-rounds, mock-up airplane and train rides, races, clowns and pirates, and hamburgers and ice cream.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p.275.
27) On 4 July, 1986, the destroyer HMCS Iroquois (2nd of the name) attended an International Naval Review in New York in honour of the Statue of Liberty’s centennial.
Ref: Cadillac of Destroyers – HMCS St. Laurent and Her Successors, Ron Barrie and Ken Macpherson, Vanwell Publishing Ltd., St. Catharines, ON, 1996, p.73.
28) After the destroyer HMCS Mackenzie was paid off in 1993, she was painted in USN colours for an episode of the television series “The X-Files”.
Ref: Cadillac of Destroyers – HMCS St. Laurent and Her Successors, Ron Barrie and Ken Macpherson, Vanwell Publishing Ltd., St. Catharines, ON, 1996, p. 53.
29) Paid off on 31 March 2005, the Iroquois class destroyer HMCS Huron (2nd of the name) was sunk during exercise Trident Fury on 14 May 2007 at an offshore weapons range, 150 km west of Vancouver Island by one of its own guns, which had been mounted on her sister ship HMCS Algonquin (2nd of the name). An one-hour television programme on the sinking was produced for television.
Ref: Wikipedia.
30) Cadets attending the Royal Canadian Naval College at HMCS Royal Roads in Victoria, British Columbia, faced a mandatory plunge in the frigid ocean each morning.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p.240.
31) In 1948, a Regular Force Leading Seaman had to support his family on an annual salary of $1,440. The average annual salary in Canada for that year was $2,175 for a man and $1,233 for a woman.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p.206.
32) The first Canadian designed and built warships were the St-Laurent class destroyers. There were seven built and all were modified in the mid-1960s to carry and operate a Sea King helicopter and variable depth sonar. The last remaining vessel of that class to be paid off in 1994, HMCS Fraser (second of the name), is alongside at Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
33) Women were forced to leave the service when they got married until the late 1960s, and when they got pregnant until the mid-1970s.
Ref: The Sea is at Our Gates – The History of the Canadian Navy, Commander Tony German, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, p. 304.
34) The modern Canadian Navy uses bunks which the sailors commonly refer to as "racks". Prior to the St-Laurent Class (built in the 1950s-60s) it was common for a sailor to sleep in a hammock. The guidelines for the use of the hammock were actually fairly strict and steeped in tradition.
Ref: Ready Aye Ready.
35) The ship's bell is used for the shipboard christening of a sailor’s child. Traditionally, a chaplain using the ship’s bell inverted as a baptismal font may christen children of members of the ship’s company. Afterwards, the consecrated water is returned to the sea by the chaplain. The names of these children are then inscribed on the ship's bell.
Ref: Customs and Traditions of the Canadian Navy, Lieutenant(Navy) Graeme Arbuckle, Nimbus Publishing Ltd, Halifax, (1984), p.46.
36) The custom of marking a sailor's first passage across important geographical parallels with a special ceremony is apparently ancient. In the Canadian Navy, one of the most tangible symbols of this rite of passage is the Crossing the Line certificate.
Ref: Naval and Military Museum.
37) Canada’s Navy in number is ranked 28th in the world. Half the size of the Columbian Navy and one third the size of Chile’s Navy and with the US Navy approximately 40 times the size.
Ref: Nation Master.
38) Able Seaman William Hall, the Indian Mutiny Victoria Cross recipient, was the first man of colour and the first Canadian seaman to receive the award. He was born in Hants Co., Nova Scotia, in 1829. He served in Royal Navy during the Crimean War, and when the Indian Mutiny broke out he was on-board a ship headed for China. Naval guns were brought up close to the Shah Nujeff Mosque, and the gun crews kept up a steady fire in an attempt to breach the walls. Unfortunately, every time the gun was fired, the recoil knocked it back into the fire zone. There were only two surviving members of the gun crew, Lieutenant T.J. Young and Hall. Able Seaman Hall died at Avonport, Nova Scotia on 27 August 1904. A cairn was erected in his memory to commemorate his heroism.
Ref: Mysteries of Canada.
39) A part of the sailors' Christmas celebrations was the ancient Roman custom of exchanging clothes and duties during the festival of the Saturnalia, now followed in the Canadian Navy in its present form, that of the captain and the youngest sailor on-board changing places for the day, and the officers serving Christmas dinner to the men and women.
Ref: Ready Aye Ready.
40) A killick is Gaelic for anchor, an invention of the Chinese emperor Yu (2205 - 2197 B.C.). As the rank badge of a Royal Canadian Navy Leading Seaman was a single fouled anchor, the slang term killick has to come to represent the rank Leading Seaman. The current two chevrons replaced this badge when the forces unified.
Ref: Ready Aye Ready.
41) Convoy HX 300 was the largest convoy to have crossed the Atlantic during the war. It was made up of 167 merchant ships carrying 1,056,413 tons of cargo and 32 warships. It departed New York City on 17 July 1944, joiner convoys from Halifax (Nova Scotia), Sydney (Nova Scotia) and St. John’s (Newfoundland) joined it, and arrived Liverpool, Great Britain, on August 3rd without any lost. The ships traveled in 19 columns covering more than 30 square miles of ocean. The Royal Canadian Navy provided the frigate Dunver (K03), and the corvettes HMCS Algoma (K126), Arvida (K113), Chicoutimi (K156), Dauphin (K157), Hespeler (K489), Kamsack (K171), Lethbridge (K160), Longbranch (K487), New Westminster (K228), Pictou (K146), Portage (J331), Rosthern (K169), The Pas (K168), and Wetaskiwin (K175); the United-States Navy provided the remaining two vessels: USSC-1338 and USSC-1350. In mid-summer of 1944, the Royal Canadian Navy was responsible for the close escort of all convoys sailing the North Atlantic.
42) The title admiral is derived from the Arabic “emir-el-bahr” - lord of the sea. The Spanish adopted this term during the Moorish conquests in the 8th century as “almirante”, then in French as “amiral”, and in English admiral. The prefix “vice” with admiral means “in place of”, and therefore subordinate to, an admiral. At one time it was considered most important to protect the head and rear of a fleet of ships in fixed formation, usually with two squadrons known as the “vanguard” and the “rearguard”. The admiral commanding the rearguard was the “admiral of the rear” or rear-admiral. The “admiral of the van” was next in seniority to the “admiral-in-chief” (later “admiral of the fleet”) and bore the rank of vice-admiral. The rank of Commodore is a much more recent term and is an officer who commands a detached squadron of ships. Several merchant shipping lines confer this rank on their senior captains, and in wartime retired senior naval officers are appointed as commodores of convoys. A vice-admiral heads the Canadian Navy and the entire Canadian Forces are led by a general or admiral.
43) During the Second World War, the River class frigate HMCS Charlottetown (K244) retained the same hull number as the lost Flower class corvette of the same name. The corvette Charlottetown (K244) was lost on 11 September 1942 with nine of her ship’s company.
44) The anti-aircraft cruiser HMCS Prince Robert represented Canada at the Japanese surrender WW2; her commanding officer was Captain Wallace Bourchier Creery, RCN. The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) acquired her and her sisters Prince David and Prince Henry, at the beginning of the war from the Canadian National Steamship line and converted, originally as auxiliary merchant cruisers, three vessels. They were the largest RCN ships for three years. Prince Robert was converted to an anti-aircraft cruiser in 1943 while both her sisters were converted into infantry landing ships. All sisters were returned to trade after the war.
 Victoria Class submarine (DND Photo) |
45) A submarine is a watercraft that can operate independently below water. The word submarine was originally an adjective meaning "under the sea". Submarine was shortened from the term "submarine boat". Submarines are referred to as “boat” for historical reasons because vessels deployed from a ship are referred to as boats. The first submarines were launched in such a manner. Modern military submarines are traditionally armed with torpedoes but sea mines and missiles are now part of their arsenal. The Canadian Navy is operating the submarines of the Victoria class; our navy had six classes of submarines prior to the Victoria class.
 Canadian Forces Submariner insignia since 1972 |
 The Grey Cup in 2006 |
46) In 1909, the Grey Cup was donated by the then Governor General of Canada, His Excellency Earl Grey, to recognize the top amateur rugby football team in Canada. By this time Canadian football had become markedly different from the rugby football from which it developed. On 25 November 1944, a team composed of members of HMCS Donnacona, the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve division of Montréal, Québec, and HMCS Hochelaga, the Royal Canadian Navy’s training establishment for Logistics in Montréal, won the Grey Cup against the Hamilton Flying Wildcats at the Civic Stadium in Hamilton by a score of 7 to 6. Over time, the Grey Cup became the property of the Canadian Football League as it evolved into a professional football league. Amateur teams ceased competing for the Cup by 1954. The names of the winning team are engreaved on the cup for posterity.
47) An example of a custom that continues to evolve or change is the banyan, a special kind of party in our navy. Banyan was originally meant as a meatless day and therefore unpopular in the 17th century British navy. The origin of the term is derived from the the Banians, a caste of Hindus in India, who abstained from eating meat as a reverence for life. Banyan days gradually changed from meagre to much more pleasant ones. There are three constants for a banyan: it is always a fun occasion, it is held outdoors and the emphasis is on good food, good drink and good fellowship; something along the line of the old-fashioned picnic. Banyan is a good way to relax after strenuous or long activities.
48) The last commissioned vessel launched in a traditional way for the Canadian Navy is the Kingston Class HMCS Summerside (711). She was launched on 26 August 1998 in Halifax, Nova Scotia from the Halifax Shipyards Ltd. The ships of the previous class of warships built for our navy, the Halifax Class frigates, were floated in dock due to their construction in mega blocks.
49) When the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) was established in 1923, ratings (today non-commissioned members) were paid 25 cents per evening of training while officers received no pay.
Ref: In Peril on the Sea – The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, by Donald E. Graves, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, (2003).
50) During the Cold War, the Canadian Navy developed numerous advances in ship design and anti-submarine warfare that became world-recognized. Among these innovations are: the concept of a destroyer or frigate-size vessel operating a large anti-submarine-warfare helicopter, the bear-trap, the variable depth-sonar and a series of hull sonar sets. Many of these developments were incorporated in the design of our warships.
Ref: Canada’s Navy – The First Century, by Marc Milner, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, (1999).
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