Today, the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve provides trained personnel who are primarily in civilian occupations and serve as part of the Canadian Navy. The Naval Reserve traces its origins to the 1914 creation of the Royal Naval Canadian Naval Reserve (RNCVR) which became the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) in 1923. Members of the RCNVR were civilians who were not in seafaring careers. The Royal Canadian Reserve (RCNR) was created in 1923 as a “seamen’s’ reserve”, i.e. its members had seagoing experience in deep-sea or coastal shipping or in fishing or other vessels. During WWII, the Royal Canadian Navy expanded by enrolling members in the RCNVR (the vast majority) or RCNR for those with seagoing backgrounds. In 1946, the current Naval Reserve was created by merging the former RCNVR and RCNR.
Built in 1822 as a 6th Rate Corvette (sailing warship) (Rate referred to armament). In 1845, she was converted to a survey ship for voyages to Australia from 1846 to 1850. She was broken up in 1860.
Japanese passenger liner, 9,908 tons gross. She was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S. submarine Bonefish on 27 September 1943 while serving as troop transport in the North Pacific.
14,124 tons gross, U.S. passenger liner operated by Dollar Steamship Lines on Transpacific services until 1938, then by successor American President Lines. She was built as Keystone State, and renamed in 1942. She was sold to the United States Navy in 1940 and renamed USS J. Franklin Bell, served as troopship, scrapped in 1948.
21,936 tons gross, U.S. passenger liner operated on Transpacific services by Dollar Steamship Lines until 1938, then by its successor American President Lines. She was converted to a troopship in 1941, and sank on mines in the South Pacific in 1942.
The Dollar Steamship Company was an American shipping company in operation from 1901 to 1938. The company was established by a Scottish-born California lumber baron Robert Dollar (1844-1932) who, in 1903, expanded his business interest to British Columbia. His initial interest in shipping was to transport lumber across the Pacific to markets in China but by the 1920s, Dollar Line ships were offering round the world passenger and cargo services. In 1937, the company went bankrupt and was sold to the United States Maritime Commission.
HMCS Cornwallis was the name given to the naval training establishment in Halifax, Nova Scotia established in 1942. The name was subsequently used for a large naval training base created near Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia in 1943. It was named for General Edward Cornwallis, Governor of Nova Scotia from 1749 to 1752 and the founder of Halifax. HMCS Cornwallis was in commission until 1945 and was re-opened in 1949, becoming Canadian Forces Base (CFB), Cornwallis in 1966. It closed as a military base in 1995. The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre operated on a portion of the former base from 1994 to 2011 to train Canadian and foreign soldiers in peacekeeping.
The Department of Marine and Fisheries, created on July 1, 1867, was legally responsible for the seacoast and inland fisheries of the new dominion.
When British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, the federal government recognized the need for a strong presence in the Pacific region to monitor fisheries and oceans. The Department established a headquarters in Victoria, and by 1875, the Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries recommended that the Fisheries Act be applied to British Columbia. In the following year, a proclamation was issued, extending the Act.
The Government Organization Act of 1979 resulted in the creation of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, under which the federal government's fisheries management and ocean science programs are now jointly located. The Constitution Act, 1982 reinforced this mandate by granting the Department federal jurisdiction over fisheries, public harbours, and navigation. Today, the mandate still calls for the Department to manage Canada's waterways so that they are clean, safe, productive, and accessible -- to ensure sustainable use of fisheries resources, and to facilitate marine trade and commerce.
(see also Fisheries and Oceans Canada)