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In for a Penny…
As was fitting for a branch of the navy which was formed completely out of the blue, the following days proved to be just as rocky and treacherous as any that had come before. The submarines were safely nestled within Esquimalt however, their usefulness as combatants had almost instantly came into question. Contrary to earlier reports, no torpedoes was shipped aboard the vessels, meaning the submarines were completely unarmed due to their lack of a deck gun. The questionable build quality and lack of deck reinforcement meant that fitting a deck gun was out of the question as well. Esquimalt’s various magazines and storerooms were quickly ransacked in search of 18” torpedoes but much to the dismay of everybody involved, only 14” weapons formerly belonging to Rainbow were found. Adapting the much smaller torpedoes to be fired from the submarines would be essentially impossible so drastic measures were called for, base staff sent a message to Ottawa that very day reading,
“Require all gear in connection with 18” submerged tubes firing torpedoes; including gyroscopes spare tools and torp manuals, torp artificers, torp ratings. We have nothing.”
The 18” torpedoes utilized by HMCS Niobe could theoretically be adapted to be fired by the submarines however, said stocks were 3,600 miles away in Halifax. For their part, Ottawa was quick to realize the situation and jumped into action. An express train was organized, and all necessary equipment was loaded, departing at all possible speed for Esquimalt. Ottawa also went to work sourcing any retired Royal Navy personnel or otherwise useful men to be found in Canada. In order to remedy the lack of armament and spare parts more quickly, Logan would once again return to Seattle with Paterson. His valiant attempt to purchase torpedoes was quickly foiled by the US Government when a prominent Canadian politician personally sent an un-coded, plain language telegram to Paterson, requesting him to sell Canada live torpedoes for the ships. With the tightened security and news of the shipment hopefully arriving from Halifax, Logan returned to Esquimalt. In the absence of Lieutenant Pilcher, Prime Minister McBride had appointed himself and Lieutenant Bertram Jones as the commanding officers of the navy base, moving as quickly as they could to throw together a crew.
A diagram of HMCS CC-1 with a fairly good look at her cramped interiors.
Experienced submariners were quite the uncommon sight anywhere around the world in this period and completely absent from the Royal Canadian Navy but in a stroke of luck, one of the most qualified individuals in the Empire found himself on the Canadian’s doorstep. Adrian St. Vincent Keyes had retired to Toronto in 1912 after a somewhat spotty career with the Royal Navy. The 32-year-old had left the navy at the rank of Lieutenant-Commander of his own volition as throughout his career, he had been plagued by syphilis, gonorrhea, scabies, gout, and many other related and unrelated illnesses. Discounting his questionable health, Keyes was a pioneer within the submarine community, serving in multiple vessels since 1904, commanding an A-class submarine and eventually becoming a well-respected submarine instructor. It is largely speculated that Premier McBride was aware of Adrian ‘Tubby’ (apparently an endearing name as the man was rather slim and has been described as ‘ravishingly good looking’) Keyes through a friendship with his older brother Roger Keyes, the current Commodore of the Royal Navy Submarine Service. However it was done, Keyes reported to the dockyard between August 9 and August 10 alongside Midshipman John 'Jock' Edwards. Edwards had been a clerk in Toronto following his early departure from the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and shortly after war broke out, the patriot in him decided to enlist in the Army. Little would he know that his friend, Keyes, would draft him into the Navy and haul him off to Esquimalt. Technically a deserter, Edwards hid his rifle under his bed at home and threw his uniform off the train on their way for Esquimalt.
Upon his arrival, Keyes was reinstated as a Lieutenant within the RCN and alongside Lieutenant Jones (ironically an old student of his from the Royal Navy Sub Service), quickly went to work scavenging for crew members. It is sometimes said that Keyes and Edwards were arrested at gunpoint when they arrived at Esquimalt however, this is yet another yarn spun by enterprising sailors likely looking to entertain over dinner. Keyes rounded up roughly 50 men from Esquimalt and informed them about the submarine service, the inherent dangers present within and its volunteer only nature. Not a man moved and from those, 28 were picked out. Stokers, electricians, seamen, engineering staff and so on were rather hard to come by but through sheer luck, a pair of engineering staff that had missed HMCS Rainbow’s departure still hung around the base, ripe for the picking. Some deserters were granted the Kings pardon and reenlisted, even the retired US Navy officer who had helped guide the pair of submarines into Esquimalt was enlisted. Alongside the above-mentioned officer and Lieutenant Jones, Keyes worked tirelessly to attempt to give some semblance of training to the men aboard these boats. Keyes himself would command CC-1 while Jones would be in charge of CC-2, lending some bit of experience to the vessels full of former grocers, teachers, bankers, and farm hands. The following is a rough crew compliment list, such a list fluctuated with available personnel.
Commanding Officer
Second in Command/Navigator
Third in Command (Midshipman in training)
Coxswain
Chief Engine Room Artificer
2 Engine Room Artificer
6 Stokers
1 - 2 Torpedomen
Wireless Operator
2 - 3 Leading Hands
4 Able Seamen (1 cook)
Two personnel of note within the submarines was Barney Johnson aboard CC-2 and Midshipman William Maitland-Dougall in CC-1. Johnson was a certified Master Mariner and local pilot within the area who was lent to the navy by the British Columbia Pilot Authority, his 20 years of experience made him an invaluable navigator for any operations in the area. Dougall was a 1913 graduate with honors of the Royal Naval College of Canada, he was roped into duties at Esquimalt just pending the declaration of war, as we was returning to Halifax from a vacation. Many other men arrived specifically for the submarines in the coming days, torpedo experts, engineering specialists and even simply experienced seamen. Even with such an influx of personnel, the inexperienced men still heavily outnumbered the rest which was further complicated by the temperamental nature of the boats themselves. Both boats showed signs of stability issues when submerged, the quality of components within had to be constantly checked and replaced and the diesels themselves seemed to be prone to overheating. In one dive, the bow of one of the boats sharply dipped almost 45 degrees downwards, nearly causing the vessel to be lost, quick thinking from Keyes thankfully stopped this. As the men were pressed on relentlessly day and night, they thought about their overall situation often, not knowing if the Germans or their torpedoes would arrive first.
HMCS CC-1 at sea with a photo insert of Lieutenant Keyes in the top left.
The crew of CC-1’s afternoon Spanish lesson to assist in gauge reading was interrupted when news of a potential German attacker came into the base, CC-2 was already performing a patrol around Vancouver and Victoria on August 13 to attempt to calm the riots of the previous night and would be unavailable. Clambering into their vessel and preparing to depart, the alarm was waved away as the form of HMS Shearwater slowly entered the dockyard. The sloop had heard nothing of Rainbow, Prince George or their current situation, everything being quite the surprise to the crew of hardened British regulars. Algerine's location was also unknown, the pair of sloops had been separated somewhere on their journey and failed to join back up. Ottawa quickly ordered that all men from Shearwater be immediately loaded aboard a train bound for Halifax, presumably to fill out the crew of HMCS Niobe. Lieutenant Keyes picked through some of the experienced engineering staff aboard before they departed, keeping what he needed for his own vessels. As the men trained on around them, the engineers of Esquimalt Navy Base were hard at work preparing the adaptors for the 18” torpedoes that would hopefully be arriving any day. One of torpedomen aboard CC-2 jokingly inquired about the carved wood facsimile torpedo sitting in the Chief Engineers workshop, only to be told “Laugh all you want but when the time comes, this wooden bugger might be all you have.” HMCS CC-1 and her crew departed from Esquimalt on August 14 to patrol the Strait of Juan de Fuca, possessing only their wireless set as a weapon against any enterprising Germans. Neither of the boats were officially cleared for service at this point but with such little time before a potential attack, training and combat had ceased to be separate roles entirely.
“Require all gear in connection with 18” submerged tubes firing torpedoes; including gyroscopes spare tools and torp manuals, torp artificers, torp ratings. We have nothing.”
The 18” torpedoes utilized by HMCS Niobe could theoretically be adapted to be fired by the submarines however, said stocks were 3,600 miles away in Halifax. For their part, Ottawa was quick to realize the situation and jumped into action. An express train was organized, and all necessary equipment was loaded, departing at all possible speed for Esquimalt. Ottawa also went to work sourcing any retired Royal Navy personnel or otherwise useful men to be found in Canada. In order to remedy the lack of armament and spare parts more quickly, Logan would once again return to Seattle with Paterson. His valiant attempt to purchase torpedoes was quickly foiled by the US Government when a prominent Canadian politician personally sent an un-coded, plain language telegram to Paterson, requesting him to sell Canada live torpedoes for the ships. With the tightened security and news of the shipment hopefully arriving from Halifax, Logan returned to Esquimalt. In the absence of Lieutenant Pilcher, Prime Minister McBride had appointed himself and Lieutenant Bertram Jones as the commanding officers of the navy base, moving as quickly as they could to throw together a crew.
A diagram of HMCS CC-1 with a fairly good look at her cramped interiors.
Experienced submariners were quite the uncommon sight anywhere around the world in this period and completely absent from the Royal Canadian Navy but in a stroke of luck, one of the most qualified individuals in the Empire found himself on the Canadian’s doorstep. Adrian St. Vincent Keyes had retired to Toronto in 1912 after a somewhat spotty career with the Royal Navy. The 32-year-old had left the navy at the rank of Lieutenant-Commander of his own volition as throughout his career, he had been plagued by syphilis, gonorrhea, scabies, gout, and many other related and unrelated illnesses. Discounting his questionable health, Keyes was a pioneer within the submarine community, serving in multiple vessels since 1904, commanding an A-class submarine and eventually becoming a well-respected submarine instructor. It is largely speculated that Premier McBride was aware of Adrian ‘Tubby’ (apparently an endearing name as the man was rather slim and has been described as ‘ravishingly good looking’) Keyes through a friendship with his older brother Roger Keyes, the current Commodore of the Royal Navy Submarine Service. However it was done, Keyes reported to the dockyard between August 9 and August 10 alongside Midshipman John 'Jock' Edwards. Edwards had been a clerk in Toronto following his early departure from the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and shortly after war broke out, the patriot in him decided to enlist in the Army. Little would he know that his friend, Keyes, would draft him into the Navy and haul him off to Esquimalt. Technically a deserter, Edwards hid his rifle under his bed at home and threw his uniform off the train on their way for Esquimalt.
Upon his arrival, Keyes was reinstated as a Lieutenant within the RCN and alongside Lieutenant Jones (ironically an old student of his from the Royal Navy Sub Service), quickly went to work scavenging for crew members. It is sometimes said that Keyes and Edwards were arrested at gunpoint when they arrived at Esquimalt however, this is yet another yarn spun by enterprising sailors likely looking to entertain over dinner. Keyes rounded up roughly 50 men from Esquimalt and informed them about the submarine service, the inherent dangers present within and its volunteer only nature. Not a man moved and from those, 28 were picked out. Stokers, electricians, seamen, engineering staff and so on were rather hard to come by but through sheer luck, a pair of engineering staff that had missed HMCS Rainbow’s departure still hung around the base, ripe for the picking. Some deserters were granted the Kings pardon and reenlisted, even the retired US Navy officer who had helped guide the pair of submarines into Esquimalt was enlisted. Alongside the above-mentioned officer and Lieutenant Jones, Keyes worked tirelessly to attempt to give some semblance of training to the men aboard these boats. Keyes himself would command CC-1 while Jones would be in charge of CC-2, lending some bit of experience to the vessels full of former grocers, teachers, bankers, and farm hands. The following is a rough crew compliment list, such a list fluctuated with available personnel.
Commanding Officer
Second in Command/Navigator
Third in Command (Midshipman in training)
Coxswain
Chief Engine Room Artificer
2 Engine Room Artificer
6 Stokers
1 - 2 Torpedomen
Wireless Operator
2 - 3 Leading Hands
4 Able Seamen (1 cook)
Two personnel of note within the submarines was Barney Johnson aboard CC-2 and Midshipman William Maitland-Dougall in CC-1. Johnson was a certified Master Mariner and local pilot within the area who was lent to the navy by the British Columbia Pilot Authority, his 20 years of experience made him an invaluable navigator for any operations in the area. Dougall was a 1913 graduate with honors of the Royal Naval College of Canada, he was roped into duties at Esquimalt just pending the declaration of war, as we was returning to Halifax from a vacation. Many other men arrived specifically for the submarines in the coming days, torpedo experts, engineering specialists and even simply experienced seamen. Even with such an influx of personnel, the inexperienced men still heavily outnumbered the rest which was further complicated by the temperamental nature of the boats themselves. Both boats showed signs of stability issues when submerged, the quality of components within had to be constantly checked and replaced and the diesels themselves seemed to be prone to overheating. In one dive, the bow of one of the boats sharply dipped almost 45 degrees downwards, nearly causing the vessel to be lost, quick thinking from Keyes thankfully stopped this. As the men were pressed on relentlessly day and night, they thought about their overall situation often, not knowing if the Germans or their torpedoes would arrive first.
HMCS CC-1 at sea with a photo insert of Lieutenant Keyes in the top left.
The crew of CC-1’s afternoon Spanish lesson to assist in gauge reading was interrupted when news of a potential German attacker came into the base, CC-2 was already performing a patrol around Vancouver and Victoria on August 13 to attempt to calm the riots of the previous night and would be unavailable. Clambering into their vessel and preparing to depart, the alarm was waved away as the form of HMS Shearwater slowly entered the dockyard. The sloop had heard nothing of Rainbow, Prince George or their current situation, everything being quite the surprise to the crew of hardened British regulars. Algerine's location was also unknown, the pair of sloops had been separated somewhere on their journey and failed to join back up. Ottawa quickly ordered that all men from Shearwater be immediately loaded aboard a train bound for Halifax, presumably to fill out the crew of HMCS Niobe. Lieutenant Keyes picked through some of the experienced engineering staff aboard before they departed, keeping what he needed for his own vessels. As the men trained on around them, the engineers of Esquimalt Navy Base were hard at work preparing the adaptors for the 18” torpedoes that would hopefully be arriving any day. One of torpedomen aboard CC-2 jokingly inquired about the carved wood facsimile torpedo sitting in the Chief Engineers workshop, only to be told “Laugh all you want but when the time comes, this wooden bugger might be all you have.” HMCS CC-1 and her crew departed from Esquimalt on August 14 to patrol the Strait of Juan de Fuca, possessing only their wireless set as a weapon against any enterprising Germans. Neither of the boats were officially cleared for service at this point but with such little time before a potential attack, training and combat had ceased to be separate roles entirely.
- RelativeGalaxy7
- Word Count: 1.5k