The Rainbow. A World War One on Canada's West Coast Timeline

History/ Alt History Sidebar: I have been doing some travelling around the coast of this fair province lately, and seeing an assortment of sunken wrecks. If the wrecks of warships sunk as harbour breakwaters were ISOTed back into this storyline, the Germans would be hard pressed.

At Royston the breakwater contains:
HMCS Gatineau, former HMS Express, an E-class destroyer
HMCS Prince Rupert, Eastview, and Dunver, all River class frigates,
USS Tattnall, a Clemson class destroyer.

The Breakwater at Kelsey Bay contains:
HMCS Longueuil, Runnymede, and Lasalle, more River class frigates, and by some reports
USS Charleston, a protected cruiser.

The breakwater at Powell River is made of concrete freighters, formerly 10, but some have been retired.

Following this tenuous thread, if one ISOTed all the warships sunk in BC as artificial reefs, then there would be a whole cold war NATO fleet.
 
Last edited:
History/ Alt History Sidebar: I have been doing some travelling around the coast of this fair province lately, and seeing an assortment of sunken wrecks. If the wrecks of warships sunk as harbour breakwaters were ISOTed back into this storyline, the Germans would be hard pressed.

At Royston the breakwater contains:
HMCS Gatineau, former HMS Express, an E-class destroyer
HMCS Prince Rupert, Eastview, and Dunver, all River class frigates,
USS Tattnall, a Clemson class destroyer.

The Breakwater at Kelsey Bay contains:
HMCS Longueuil, Runnymede, and Lasalle, more River class frigates, and by some reports
USS Charleston, a protected cruiser.

The breakwater at Powell River is made of concrete freighters, formerly 10, but some have been retired.

Following this tenuous thread, if one ISOTed all the warships sunk in BC as artificial reefs, then there would be a whole cold war NATO fleet.
Few more here for you:
Several folks I know travel to BC specifically to dive these wrecks...similar to those who travel to dive on the purpose sunks wrecks in the Florida Keys.

foresterab
 
History/ Alt History Sidebar: I have been doing some travelling around the coast of this fair province lately, and seeing an assortment of sunken wrecks. If the wrecks of warships sunk as harbour breakwaters were ISOTed back into this storyline, the Germans would be hard pressed.

At Royston the breakwater contains:
HMCS Gatineau, former HMS Express, an E-class destroyer
HMCS Prince Rupert, Eastview, and Dunver, all River class frigates,
USS Tattnall, a Clemson class destroyer.

The Breakwater at Kelsey Bay contains:
HMCS Longueuil, Runnymede, and Lasalle, more River class frigates, and by some reports
USS Charleston, a protected cruiser.

The breakwater at Powell River is made of concrete freighters, formerly 10, but some have been retired.

Following this tenuous thread, if one ISOTed all the warships sunk in BC as artificial reefs, then there would be a whole cold war NATO fleet.

Interesting, the USS Charleston is at Kelsey Bay and the USS South Dakota/Huron is at the Powell River mill. And both cruisers were in the area at the time of this ATL. Oh right, Charleston showed up in an early installment. In 16 years they go from being the most powerful warships in the region to breakwaters.
 
Interesting, the USS Charleston is at Kelsey Bay and the USS South Dakota/Huron is at the Powell River mill. And both cruisers were in the area at the time of this ATL. Oh right, Charleston showed up in an early installment. In 16 years they go from being the most powerful warships in the region to breakwaters.

Yes, there would be no ISOT required to have USS Charleston or South Dakota (as she was still named at the time) appear. Charleston was the receiving ship at Bremerton at the time, so semi-active but fully functional. The South Dakota was cruising in the area and could have rushed back to Bremerton if it looked like the neutrality patrol needed beefing up. Although the realization that the Germans were really in BC, rather than wildly rumoured to be in BC, only happened on the 18th.

Sharp eye noticing that the South Dakota/Huron is sunk in the mill pond at Powell River. I did not find that tidbit until after I wrote the previous post.

The US Navy cruiser that appeared previously was USS Milwaukee, also based out of Bremerton.
 
Last edited:
I also read that some of the metal used to build the South Dakota was mined only a few miles away.
At the iron mines on Texada Island. Which sort of raises the question, Why did the Germans not bombard the iron mines? The iron ore production seemed to be just barged somewhere else for processing, there was no mill that I am aware of. I suppose the loading wharf could be burned, but there was no facility like a smelter that if destroyed would cause a damaging bottleneck in production. No critical node. And I think iron mines are more common than copper mines. So trade commissioner Meyer would have advised scratching Texada Iron Mine off the original long list of targets, at the officer's meeting in Ucluelet harbour the previous night.
 
History/ Alt History Sidebar: I have been doing some travelling around the coast of this fair province lately, and seeing an assortment of sunken wrecks. If the wrecks of warships sunk as harbour breakwaters were ISOTed back into this storyline, the Germans would be hard pressed.

At Royston the breakwater contains:
HMCS Gatineau, former HMS Express, an E-class destroyer
HMCS Prince Rupert, Eastview, and Dunver, all River class frigates,
USS Tattnall, a Clemson class destroyer.

The Breakwater at Kelsey Bay contains:
HMCS Longueuil, Runnymede, and Lasalle, more River class frigates, and by some reports
USS Charleston, a protected cruiser.

The breakwater at Powell River is made of concrete freighters, formerly 10, but some have been retired.

Following this tenuous thread, if one ISOTed all the warships sunk in BC as artificial reefs, then there would be a whole cold war NATO fleet.

An ASB thread involving typical Cold War era Canadian ASW destroyers vs WW1 German cruisers would be interesting :)

Maybe a night action where the Canadians empty the magazines of their 3" 50 or 3" 70 Cal mounts at long range from behind a smoke screen :)


Sending back some of the Tribal class destroyers might make things more interesting :)
 
Last edited:
Did ASROC have and anti surface ship mode ? :)
Nope. At least not officially. However, by the time ASROC is a thing you can be putting guided missiles into the Germans, or air dropped bombs, or cluster AT bombs, or any other semi modern weapon. It's ok that the 100 pound torpedo warhead wont hit the germans, we developed better ways to kill surface targets.
 

ferdi254

Banned
This is far from any ASB and so it shall stay imo.

What is the complete list of shipping lost by the UK by now would be nice to know. Especially since a large part were ocean going and that was exactly that was missing in 1917.
 
This is far from any ASB and so it shall stay imo.

What is the complete list of shipping lost by the UK by now would be nice to know. Especially since a large part were ocean going and that was exactly that was missing in 1917.
Lots. I have a spreadsheet, but I need to update.
 

Driftless

Donor
Ultimately, the ships would get replaced - in some cases. with new, probably in many cases with older ships purchased at a premium (law of supply and demand!). In the interim, the BC economy would be knocked for a loop, I'd think. Mill jobs, mining jobs too if the mills are up in smoke, some shipping jobs are interrupted. It would all come back, just not right away. Once the fires go out and the sorting and salvaging starts, some jobs will surface.

The big question, where's the money to rebuild coming from, and when does it start to appear? 1906 San Francisco (after the devastating earthquake) was a mess for quite a while till the money started to flow back in for the rebuild
 
Top