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All Expenses Paid Vacation
CGS Canada would arrive in Gaspé, Quebec on September 14, 1904 where she would undergo a rigorous period of inspections and testing by Commander Spain, the professional head of the Fisheries Protection Service. During a two week stay, Spain put Canada through her paces with various sea trials, firing exercises and maneuvers off the coast. Generally satisfied with his most modern ship, Canada attended an official ceremony in Quebec City on September 29 to celebrate her arrival in Canada. Minister Prefontaine would be present and in typical fashion, enjoyed himself quite a bit through the whole pomp of the ceremony. Such frivolous occasions would not last forever and while Canada was being fitted with her top of the line Marconi wireless set in Halifax, the Department began an experiment.
CGS Canada with flags dressed in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1906.
As was seen with the Newfoundland naval reserves, the Winter season was generally the most lucrative period to try and acquire valuable personnel. With fishermen generally being unemployed and looking for work, the call of an escape to the West Indies and reliable pay for even a short period was quite an appealing prospect. Spain, Laurier and Prefontaine looked to capitalize on this fact and throughout the fall months of 1904, an extensive media campaign was conducted to try to drum up volunteers and gauge interest for yearly winter maneuvers and the general thoughts of the average men about being naval reservists.
This endeavor would prove to be an initial success at least when in January of 1905, Canada departed Halifax with a full crew of recruits, reaching Bermuda sometime later. The cruise was almost immediately off to a rocky start given the fact that both the West Indies and North American squadrons were undergoing major changes, meaning they had little direction on the composition of their own fleets, let alone working a foreign ship into the fray. It work turn out that Canada would sadly never actually operate with the Royal Navy squadrons present in the area, largely due to Royal Navy officers being unable to legally control the Canadians and the fact that their untrained nature made them a potential liability during fleet maneuvers. While this was off-putting initially to all hands, the Commander of Canada took this situation and turned it into a learning experience. Canada shadowed her larger and more experienced Royal Navy counterparts from a safe distance, observing and attempting to gleam valuable information from their day to day operations. Even with their lack of direct experience with strictly naval matters, the largely fishermen-based volunteers showed fairly good seamanship as to be expected and adapted quickly to life on the ship.
Crew members of CGS Canada undergoing rifle drills on deck, note the tropical white naval style uniforms.
Discipline was somewhat stricter than they were used to as almost naval levels of discipline were upheld alongside mandatory uniforms however, some of the perks for these people clearly outweighed the cons. Being able to escape the cold North Atlantic in the dead of winter while being able to ‘play’ with some of the most modern weaponry and technology was eye opening to a large amount of the sailors and general interest was very high. Canada spent three months total in the West Indies, making her way around the area and making ports of call. As semi-official Canadian ambassadors, Canada participated in many deliveries of salutes to other warships and foreign dignitaries. Canada met with both a Dutch and Italian gunboat present in the area alongside various British warships, each time paying compliments to each other and exchanging crews briefly for tours. This is one of the first instances in history that Canada as a nation had conducted itself on the international stage alongside it’s seniors in a naval sense. As for the training itself, there was little that was not addressed. Drills on deck with cutlasses, live fire small arms training, communication using the new Marconi wireless set, semaphore drills, naval signal flag exercises and the general favorite among the crew, live fire drills with the 1 pdr automatic cannons against various targets. These live fire drills were singled out multiple times as being extremely successful, the sailors showing very high proficiency with the platform.
Crew of CGS Canada prepare for a 1 pdr live fire drill.
As Canada returned from her short stint in more tropical waters, the attitudes among the volunteers was very positive and quite receptive. Many expressed enjoyments and pressed for future trips in a similar vein, something not lost on the powers that be. Commander Spain would later say on the matter;
“According to the minister’s idea, this was proposed to be the beginning of naval militia. On the return from her instructional cruise, the men who had already been sufficiently trained were distributed among the other ships, fresh men were taken on and further instruction would continue. The material that we have in the Canadian naval militia is probably the best in the world.”
While as an experiment the cruise itself was a complete success all things considered and the overall conditions surrounding the rapidly growing ideas for a naval militia were fairly well received, Prefontaine himself would be at its center. As the transfers of both Halifax and Esquimalt bases were ongoing, Prefontaine himself had became slightly enraptured with what he saw as ‘his’ fleet. His ego was incredibly swelled by his initial tour aboard Canada herself after her West Indies sail, being received aboard by an honor guard and sent off with a full salute of the ships armament as he left. His comments about the state of the ship and her crew were quite positive. While the opposition within the House would attempt to disparage him and his efforts by referring to the Fisheries Protection Fleet as “Prefontaine’s Navy”, this seemed to only harden the ministers resolve. Canada’s winter cruise was exhaustively well addressed within the 1905 Departmental annual report and Prefontaine himself would go out on a limb and even state that “few, if any, of the works undertaken by the present administration of the dominion promise to be of greater national importance than the organization of the naval militia.”
While CGS Canada herself seems somewhat camera shy, the size of her crew members on the bow helps show how diminutive she truly was.
As both Laurier and Prefontaine himself planned for his late winter of 1905 trip to the United Kingdom, this would unknowingly toss multiple wrenches into Canadian naval planning for some time to come. Prefontaine always has had a tendency to make slips of the tongue in non-opportune times due to his pride and boastful nature however, Laurier was prepared to pay special attention to try and address this before letting the Minister free on Europe.
CGS Canada with flags dressed in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1906.
As was seen with the Newfoundland naval reserves, the Winter season was generally the most lucrative period to try and acquire valuable personnel. With fishermen generally being unemployed and looking for work, the call of an escape to the West Indies and reliable pay for even a short period was quite an appealing prospect. Spain, Laurier and Prefontaine looked to capitalize on this fact and throughout the fall months of 1904, an extensive media campaign was conducted to try to drum up volunteers and gauge interest for yearly winter maneuvers and the general thoughts of the average men about being naval reservists.
This endeavor would prove to be an initial success at least when in January of 1905, Canada departed Halifax with a full crew of recruits, reaching Bermuda sometime later. The cruise was almost immediately off to a rocky start given the fact that both the West Indies and North American squadrons were undergoing major changes, meaning they had little direction on the composition of their own fleets, let alone working a foreign ship into the fray. It work turn out that Canada would sadly never actually operate with the Royal Navy squadrons present in the area, largely due to Royal Navy officers being unable to legally control the Canadians and the fact that their untrained nature made them a potential liability during fleet maneuvers. While this was off-putting initially to all hands, the Commander of Canada took this situation and turned it into a learning experience. Canada shadowed her larger and more experienced Royal Navy counterparts from a safe distance, observing and attempting to gleam valuable information from their day to day operations. Even with their lack of direct experience with strictly naval matters, the largely fishermen-based volunteers showed fairly good seamanship as to be expected and adapted quickly to life on the ship.
Crew members of CGS Canada undergoing rifle drills on deck, note the tropical white naval style uniforms.
Discipline was somewhat stricter than they were used to as almost naval levels of discipline were upheld alongside mandatory uniforms however, some of the perks for these people clearly outweighed the cons. Being able to escape the cold North Atlantic in the dead of winter while being able to ‘play’ with some of the most modern weaponry and technology was eye opening to a large amount of the sailors and general interest was very high. Canada spent three months total in the West Indies, making her way around the area and making ports of call. As semi-official Canadian ambassadors, Canada participated in many deliveries of salutes to other warships and foreign dignitaries. Canada met with both a Dutch and Italian gunboat present in the area alongside various British warships, each time paying compliments to each other and exchanging crews briefly for tours. This is one of the first instances in history that Canada as a nation had conducted itself on the international stage alongside it’s seniors in a naval sense. As for the training itself, there was little that was not addressed. Drills on deck with cutlasses, live fire small arms training, communication using the new Marconi wireless set, semaphore drills, naval signal flag exercises and the general favorite among the crew, live fire drills with the 1 pdr automatic cannons against various targets. These live fire drills were singled out multiple times as being extremely successful, the sailors showing very high proficiency with the platform.
Crew of CGS Canada prepare for a 1 pdr live fire drill.
As Canada returned from her short stint in more tropical waters, the attitudes among the volunteers was very positive and quite receptive. Many expressed enjoyments and pressed for future trips in a similar vein, something not lost on the powers that be. Commander Spain would later say on the matter;
“According to the minister’s idea, this was proposed to be the beginning of naval militia. On the return from her instructional cruise, the men who had already been sufficiently trained were distributed among the other ships, fresh men were taken on and further instruction would continue. The material that we have in the Canadian naval militia is probably the best in the world.”
While as an experiment the cruise itself was a complete success all things considered and the overall conditions surrounding the rapidly growing ideas for a naval militia were fairly well received, Prefontaine himself would be at its center. As the transfers of both Halifax and Esquimalt bases were ongoing, Prefontaine himself had became slightly enraptured with what he saw as ‘his’ fleet. His ego was incredibly swelled by his initial tour aboard Canada herself after her West Indies sail, being received aboard by an honor guard and sent off with a full salute of the ships armament as he left. His comments about the state of the ship and her crew were quite positive. While the opposition within the House would attempt to disparage him and his efforts by referring to the Fisheries Protection Fleet as “Prefontaine’s Navy”, this seemed to only harden the ministers resolve. Canada’s winter cruise was exhaustively well addressed within the 1905 Departmental annual report and Prefontaine himself would go out on a limb and even state that “few, if any, of the works undertaken by the present administration of the dominion promise to be of greater national importance than the organization of the naval militia.”
While CGS Canada herself seems somewhat camera shy, the size of her crew members on the bow helps show how diminutive she truly was.
As both Laurier and Prefontaine himself planned for his late winter of 1905 trip to the United Kingdom, this would unknowingly toss multiple wrenches into Canadian naval planning for some time to come. Prefontaine always has had a tendency to make slips of the tongue in non-opportune times due to his pride and boastful nature however, Laurier was prepared to pay special attention to try and address this before letting the Minister free on Europe.
- RelativeGalaxy7
- Word Count: 1.1k