Formative years During the early years of the 20th century, there was growing debate within the
British Empire as to the role the
Dominions would play in
defence and
foreign relations. Because of the developing
naval arms race with Germany, a key part of this discussion focused on naval issues. In Canada, the naval debate came down to a choice between two options: either the young country could provide funds, support and manpower to the
Royal Navy, or it could form its own navy, which could help support the Royal Navy if necessary. After extensive political debates, Canadian politicians chose the latter option. On 29 March 1909,
George Foster introduced a resolution in the
House of Commons calling for the establishment of a Canadian Naval Service. The resolution was not successful; however, on 12 January 1910, the government of
Prime Minister Sir
Wilfrid Laurier took Foster's resolution and introduced it as the Naval Service Bill. After third reading, the bill received royal assent on 4 May 1910, becoming the
Naval Service Act which created a
Department of the Naval Service under the
Minister of Marine and Fisheries, who also became the Minister of the Naval Service. The act called for: • a permanent force • a reserve (to be called up in emergency) • a volunteer reserve (to be called up in emergency) • the establishment of a naval college was named the first director of the Naval Service of Canada in 1910. The service was later renamed the
Royal Canadian Navy in 1911. The official title of the navy was the
Naval Service of Canada (also Canadian Naval Forces), and the first Director of the Naval Service of Canada was Rear-Admiral
Charles Kingsmill (Royal Navy, retired), who had previously been in charge of the Marine Service of the
Department of Marine and Fisheries. A request to change name of the Naval Service of Canada to Royal Canadian Navy on 30 January 1911, brought a favourable reply from King George V on 29 August of that year. The naval college was established in the dockyard at
Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1911 as "
Royal Naval College of Canada". The Royal Naval College was established to impart a complete education in Naval Science. Graduates were qualified to enter the Imperial or Canadian Service as midshipmen although a Naval career was not compulsory. The course provided a grounding in Applied Science,
Engineering,
Mathematics,
Navigation,
History and Modern Languages and was accepted as qualifying for entry as second-year students in Canadian Universities. The program aimed to develop both the physical and mental including discipline, the ability to obey and take charge, and honour. Candidates had to be between their fourteenth and sixteenth birthdays on 1 July following the examination. The original Royal Naval College of Canada facilities were destroyed in December 1917 in the
Halifax Explosion. What could be salvaged was moved to at the
Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in
Kingston, Ontario. The "Royal Canadian Naval College" moved in 1919 to a building in the naval dockyard at
Esquimalt, British Columbia. The college was closed in 1922. To form the nucleus of its
new navy, and to train Canadians for the country's planned fleet of five cruisers and six destroyers, Canada acquired two ships from Great Britain. The cruiser was the first ship commissioned into Canada's navy on 4 August 1910, at
Portsmouth, England. She arrived at Esquimalt on 7 November 1910, and carried out fishery patrols and training duties on Canada's west coast. Another Royal Navy cruiser, , became the second ship commissioned into the Canadian navy on 6 September 1910, at
Devonport in
England and arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 21 October 1910—
Trafalgar Day. These initial plans encountered significant setbacks following Laurier's defeat in the
1911 federal election, in which the debate about naval policy played a significant part. The new Conservative government, led by
Robert Borden, had opposed the Naval Service Act while they were in opposition. At the urging of the
Admiralty's First Sea Lord Winston Churchill, Borden agreed to finance the construction of three
dreadnoughts for $35 million. This plan was far more costly than Laurier's original plan of the Canadian-built fleet, and would reap no benefits to Canadian industries whatsoever. On 5 December 1912, Borden introduced the
Naval Aid Bill as a one-time contribution to the British Royal Navy. After a bitter debate and a long filibuster by the opposition
Liberals, the
Borden government invoked
closure on the debate, for the first time ever in Canadian Parliament, and the bill passed third reading on 15 May 1913. The act was soundly defeated by the Liberal-majority
Senate two weeks later. The Royal Canadian Navy now found itself in limbo, with very limited funds for operations, two obsolescent cruisers, and no prospect of new ships being built or acquired. Despite the problems of these early years, some Canadians were still active supporters of a national navy. Building on earlier, unofficial efforts, a volunteer reserve came into being in May 1914 as the
Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR). Its initial establishment was 1,200 men, and it was divided into three distinct geographic areas: (1) Atlantic, (2) Pacific, and (3) Lake (representing inland areas). During the First World War, it would expand considerably, and also establish an "Overseas Division" specifically for service with the Royal Navy. Immediately before the First World War, the premier of
British Columbia, in a fit of public spirit, purchased two submarines ( and ) from a shipyard in
Washington. The submarines had been built for the
Chilean Navy but the purchase had fallen through. On 7 August 1914, the Government of Canada purchased the boats from the Government of British Columbia, and they were consequently commissioned into the RCN.
First World War At the outbreak of the First World War on 5 August 1914, two government vessels, CGS
Canada (renamed ) and , were immediately pressed into naval service, joining
Niobe,
Rainbow and the two submarines
CC-1 and
CC-2, to form a six-vessel naval force. At this point,
London and
Ottawa were planning to significantly expand the RCN, but it was decided that Canadian men would be permitted to enlist in either the Royal Navy or its Canadian counterpart, with many choosing the former. During the fall of 1914, HMCS
Rainbow patrolled the west coast of
North America, as far south as Panama, although these patrols became less important following the elimination of the German naval threat in the Pacific with the December 1914 defeat of German Admiral
Maximilian von Spee's
East Asia Squadron in the
Battle of the Falkland Islands. Many of
Rainbow crew were posted to the east coast for the remainder of the war and by 1917
Rainbow was withdrawn from service. The early part of the war also saw HMCS
Niobe actively patrolling off the coast of
New York City as part of British blockading forces, but she returned to Halifax permanently in July 1915 when she was declared no longer fit for service and was converted to a depot ship. She was heavily damaged in the December 1917 Halifax Explosion.
CC-1 and
CC-2 spent the first three years of the war patrolling the Pacific; however, the lack of German threat saw them reposted to Halifax in 1917. With their tender,
HMCS Shearwater, they became the first warships to transit the
Panama Canal flying the
White Ensign (the RCN's service flag). Arriving in Halifax on 17 October 1917, they were declared unfit for service and never patrolled again, being scrapped in 1920. In June 1918, was sunk by a
U-boat. In terms of the number of dead- 234 - the sinking was
the most significant Canadian naval disaster of the First World War. On 5 September 1918, the
Royal Canadian Naval Air Service (RCNAS) was formed with a main function to carry out anti-submarine operations using
flying boat patrol aircraft. The
U.S. Navy's Naval Air Station Halifax, located on the eastern shores of the harbour at
Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, was acquired, but following the
11 November 1918 Armistice, the RCNAS was discontinued.
Inter-war period was decommissioned in 1922, along with a number of other ships as the RCN scaled-back after the
First World War. Following a draw-down in the RCN after the war, the RCN undertook to find a mission and found it in taking over many of the civilian responsibilities of the Marine Service of the
Department of Transport. Even though by 1922 the RCN had been cut back to 366 men and had paid off its last remaining cruiser
HMCS Aurora, the Navy kept two destroyers donated by the Royal Navy, and , until they were replaced in the late 1920s by two other ex-Royal Navy vessels and , and thereby maintained ships in service throughout the lean years. On 31 January 1923, the RNCVR was replaced by the
Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR). The initial authorized strength of the RCNVR was 1,000 all ranks. Twelve Canadian cities (Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, Ottawa, Prince Rupert, Quebec City, Regina, Saint John, Saskatoon and Vancouver) were earmarked for divisions of "Half-Company" strength, i.e. 50 men, all ranks. Three larger cities (Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg) were ordered to man to a "Company" strength, which was 100, all ranks. The first commission was given, on 14 March 1923, to Lieutenant Frank Meade, who established a Company sized detachment in Montreal. By the end of 1923, twelve units had been formed. In 1931, the RCN underwent a major facelift when the first ships specifically built for the RCN, the destroyers and , were commissioned at Portsmouth, England. In late January 1932,
Skeena along with
Vancouver provided protection to British assets and civilians in
El Salvador at the request of the British Consul in San Salvador following the outbreak of a
peasant uprising. A landing party was briefly sent ashore at
Acajutla, but the situation there improved and the sailors saw no combat, although the two ships remained in the area until the end of the month. Throughout the 1930s, the RCN, along with its sister services, was starved of funding and equipment. Nevertheless, this decade saw the RCN slowly begin its rebuilding, as Ottawa joined London,
Paris, and
Washington in a growing apprehension of the ramifications of
Nazi Germany's rearmament and the adventurism of
Italy and
Japan, and procured two more destroyers from the Royal Navy: and . A custom-built training vessel, the tern
schooner based on the famous
Bluenose was commissioned in 1938 for advanced seamanship training. By the outbreak of war in September 1939, however, the RCN still had only six
River-class destroyers, five
minesweepers and two small training vessels, bases at
Halifax and
Victoria, and altogether 145 officers and 1,674 men.
Second World War . The RCN expanded substantially during WW2, becoming the fourth-largest navy in the world at the end of the war. The RCN expanded substantially during the Second World War, with the larger vessels transferred or purchased from the US and British navies (many through the
Destroyers for Bases Agreement), and the smaller vessels such as
corvettes and
frigates constructed in Canada. By the end of the conflict Canada had the fourth-largest navy in the world, behind the United States, the United Kingdom and the USSR, but only two ships larger than destroyers, the light cruisers and . Although it showed its inexperience at times during the early part of the war, a navy made up of men from all across the country, including many who had never before seen a large body of water, proved capable of exceeding the expectations of its allies. By the end of the
Battle of the Atlantic, the RCN was the primary navy in the
northwest sector of the
Atlantic Ocean and under the command of
Rear-Admiral Murray was responsible for the safe escort of innumerable convoys and the destruction of many U-boats—an anti-submarine capability that the RCN would build upon in post-war years. The
Northwest Atlantic Theatre was the only theatre not under command of either a Briton or American during the entire war. At the end of the Battle of the Atlantic, Canadian ships (either alone or in conjunction with other ships and planes) sank a total of 27 U-boats, and either sank or captured 42
Axis surface ships. But the real victory was not so much in the statistics of battle, as in the successful completion of 25,343 merchant ship crossings, carrying 181,643,180 tons of cargo and a significant proportion of the Canadian and US forces for the eventual victory in Europe. in May 1945.
Uganda was one of several RCN ships attached to the
British Pacific Fleet. As the end of the war against Germany approached, attention focused on Japan. At the end of 1944, some RCN ships were deployed with the
British Pacific Fleet, joining the many Canadian personnel already serving with the Royal Navy in the
Pacific War. Ottawa was also laying plans to expand the RCN's capabilities beyond its
anti-submarine orientation. The war in the Pacific was expected to culminate with a massive invasion of Japan itself, and this would need a different navy than that required in the Atlantic. Britain was nearly bankrupt after five and a half years of war and was looking to shrink its military somewhat, especially since the United States was now the dominant power in the Pacific. With this in mind, the RCN and the
Royal Australian Navy were to receive many ships considered surplus to the RN's needs, with the end goal being a powerful
Commonwealth fleet of Australian, British, Canadian, and New Zealand ships alongside the United States Navy. As in the First World War, the war ended before these plans came to fruition. With the dropping of two
nuclear bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's surrender was effected. With the end of the war, the RCN stopped expanding. A planned transfer of two light
aircraft carriers from the Royal Navy, and was slowed, and when
Warrior was found to be unsuitable for a North Atlantic winter, she was sent to the west coast and the next year was replaced by
Magnificent, with
Warrior being returned to the Royal Navy. Canada still had two light cruisers, and
HMCS Uganda (later HMCS
Quebec), a number of and other destroyers, and a mass of frigates, corvettes, and other ships, the majority of which were mothballed by 1947.
1949 'mutinies' In the late winter of 1949, the RCN was shaken by three almost simultaneous cases of mass insubordination variously described as "Incidents" or "Mutinies": • On 26 February, when the destroyer was on a fuelling stop at
Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, ninety
Leading Seamen and below—constituting more than half the ship's company—locked themselves in their
messdecks, and refused to come out until getting the captain to hear their grievances. • On 15 March, in another destroyer—, at
Nanjing, China—eighty-three junior ratings held a similar protest. • On 20 March, thirty-two aircraft handlers on the carrier
Magnificent, which was on fleet manoeuvres in the
Caribbean Sea, briefly refused an order to turn to morning cleaning stations. As noted by Dr. Richard Gimblett, researcher and himself a retired naval officer the respective captains in all three cases acted with great sensitivity, entering the messes for an informal discussion of the sailors' grievances and carefully avoided using the term "mutiny," which could have had severe legal consequences for the sailors involved. Specifically, the captain of
Athabaskan, while talking with the disgruntled crew members, is known to have placed his cap over a written list of demands, which could have been used as legal evidence of a mutiny, and pretended not to notice it. Still, the Canadian government of the time—the early years of the Cold War—felt apprehensive of "The
Red Menace," especially since the naval sailors' discontent coincided with a strike among members of the
Communist-led
Canadian Seaman's Union in the
Canadian Merchant Navy. (Also, one of the incidents occurred in China, where Communists were in the process of winning a civil war and gaining power). Defence Minister
Brooke Claxton appointed Rear-Admiral
Rollo Mainguy, Flag Officer Atlantic Coast, to head a commission of inquiry. The Mainguy Report— described by Dr. Gimblett as "a watershed in the Navy's history, whose findings, recommendations and conclusions remain a potent legacy"—concluded that no evidence was found of Communist influence or of collusion between the three crews. The "General Causes Contributing to [the] Breakdown of Discipline" noted by the commission included: • Collapse of the Divisional System of personnel management; • Failure to provide Welfare Committees for the airing of petty grievances, which led to sailors informally adopting a kind of equivalent to a
sit down strike; • Frequent changes in ships' manning and routines with inadequate explanation; • A deterioration in the traditional relationship between officers and petty officers; • The absence of a distinguishing
Canadian identity in the Navy. The last issue—an assertion of "an uncaring officer corps harbouring aristocratic British attitudes inappropriate to Canadian democratic sensitivities"—went beyond the question of sailors' morale and touched on the basic identity of the Canadian Navy and indeed, on the national identity of Canada as a whole. It was to have ramifications in the process undertaken in later decades, painful to many of the officers concerned, of deliberately cutting off many of the British traditions in the matter of ensigns, uniforms and other matters.
Cold War submarine threat grew, the RCN moved to build seven anti-submarine
destroyer escorts. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Canada, like many other countries, dramatically reduced its military expenditures. For the RCN, this meant large cuts to its personnel strength and number of commissioned ships. The emergence of the Cold War and the formation of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), followed by the outbreak of the Korean War, prompted the Canadian government to dramatically increase its military spending. For the RCN, this resulted in increased numbers of personnel, the recommissioning and modification of some Second World War ships held in reserve, the design and construction of new classes of ships, and the upgrading of its recently created aviation capabilities. RCN destroyers formed part of Canada's initial response to the
United Nations' call for assistance during the Korean War, and were sent to Korean waters to join other UN naval forces. The Canadian ships' duties included "exciting but dangerous" shore bombardments and the destruction of North Korean trains and railway lines. Initially dispatched in 1950, Canadian destroyers maintained a presence off the Korean peninsula until 1955. At much the same time, the growing
Soviet submarine threat led the RCN to update and convert existing ships to improve their anti-submarine capabilities. Most notably, 21 wartime River-class frigates were extensively converted to s during the mid-to-late 1950s. The RCN also acquired several new classes of anti-submarine
destroyer escorts (DDEs) to augment its fleet. Built in Canada, these ships pioneered innovative design features, including a distinctive rounded upper part of the hull which helped seawater drain from the deck during the extremely rough weather and also helped minimize winter-time ice buildup. The first of these new ships were the seven DDEs, which were soon followed by the , , and classes with seven, four, and two vessels respectively. Following the construction of these new ships throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the RCN was able to retire most of its remaining vessels dating from the Second World War. The RCN intended to replace some of the capabilities lost with the retirement of those vessels with the
General Purpose Frigate, but after disagreement over the direction of the service, the project was scrapped. operated by the Royal Canadian Navy Seeking to improve its ships' anti-submarine capabilities, the RCN pioneered the use of large ship-borne helicopters on small surface ships like destroyers in the rough waters of the North Atlantic and Pacific. The recovery of helicopters to a wildly pitching flight deck was made possible by the invention of the "Bear Trap", a cable and winch system which hauled a helicopter, hovering at full power, to the flight deck in all manner of conditions. Using this technology, the
St. Laurent-class DDEs were upgraded to destroyer-helicopter (DDH) vessels during the early to mid-1960s to accommodate recently acquired
CH-124 Sea King anti-submarine helicopters. Other ships also received upgrades to increase their anti-submarine capabilities. The RCN was also actively involved in the development of various forms of ship-borne
sonar, most notably the variable depth sonar (VDS), which greatly increased the ranges at which submarines could be detected. The improved capabilities conferred by these innovations contributed to Canada's NATO allies giving the RCN an expanded anti-submarine role in the North Atlantic. Much of the RCN's experimental work in these fields was conducted in conjunction with the
Defence Research Board, and it would later include experiments leading to the development of the fastest warship ever built, the . The RCN also expanded and improved its aviation capabilities during much of this period. While it had provided crews for the British aircraft carriers and during the Second World War, and Canadians had served in the Royal Navy's
Fleet Air Arm, Canada had no carriers of its own until HMCS
Warrior entered Canadian service in 1946.
Warrior proved unsuitable for North Atlantic winters, however, and was replaced by HMCS
Magnificent in 1948. By the mid-1950s,
Magnificent was no longer used as an active aircraft carrier, but was used as a vehicle transport during Canada's peacekeeping response to the 1956
Suez Crisis, before being paid off. Her replacement, , was a more modern aircraft carrier which had been substantially rebuilt to accommodate an angled flight deck and other improvements. During this time, the RCN also used stations at
HMCS Shearwater and to operate carrier-based fighter and anti-submarine aircraft, including the British
Supermarine Seafire and
Hawker Sea Fury, and the American
F2H Banshee, the RCN's only jet fighter. Anti-submarine aircraft included variants of the
Fairey Firefly, the
Grumman Avenger, and a version of the
Grumman Tracker built by
de Havilland Canada.
Unification On 1 February 1968, the personnel of the Royal Canadian Navy, along with those of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Army, were transferred to the new, unified
Canadian Forces, established under separate legislation, the National Defence Act. The naval forces were restructured as
Canadian Forces Maritime Command (MARCOM), with Fleet Air Arm units being transferred to the
Canadian Forces Air Command (AIRCOM). For many of the serving naval personnel, the transition – giving up the old ensigns, and even more the adoption of army-type ranks and green uniforms instead of the distinctive naval ones – was a very painful process. Researcher Alan Filewood recalls: MARCOM was formed on 7 June 1965 as part of the integration reorganization of the services into six functional commands. The Canadian Forces Reorganization Act was given Royal Assent on 1 February 1968 and the Royal Canadian Navy ceased to exist as a separate service. The headquarters for MARCOM was based at CFB Halifax. Canadian sailors exchanged their RCN uniforms for a rifle-green uniform common to all services (known as "CF green") and adopted an army-based rank structure. Only cap and collar badges identified "naval" personnel. These policies were somewhat reversed in the 1970s when MARCOM returned to a naval-based rank structure. In 1985 the Canadian Armed Forces introduced its distinctive environmental uniforms (DEUs) for its three environmental commands. The new naval uniform was broadly similar to the former RCN uniform except that officers' uniforms contained six rather than eight buttons on the front of the tunic and the "square rig" for other ranks was not re-introduced. In addition, the executive curl on officers' rank insignia was omitted and the rank insignia of other ranks continued to follow the pattern used by the army. The 1968 unification of the Canadian Armed Forces was the first time a nation with a modernized military had combined sea, land, and air branches into a unified-command structure. The move also saw the fleet air arm of the RCN become the Maritime Air Group. These air units were eventually placed under the Canadian Forces Air Command (AIRCOM) after that command was created in 1975. In the mid-1990s, MARCOM headquarters were consolidated from Halifax at
NDHQ in Ottawa at the same time that AIRCOM headquarters moved from Winnipeg and LFC headquarters moved from
Saint-Hubert, Quebec.
Re-structure Following the 1968 unification, MARCOM undertook several changes to its force structure. The sole remaining aircraft carrier, HMCS
Bonaventure, was nearing the end of her service life, being a Second World War–era vessel. In the early 1970s, it was decided to pay
Bonaventure off and not find a replacement, instead focusing on the traditional
blue-water navy. The fleet was enhanced in 1972 with the addition of the four new s, also known as the Tribal class. By the mid-1970s, the navy was looking at a new class of frigate-helicopter (FH) vessels to replace the aging
St. Laurent,
Restigouche,
Mackenzie, and
Annapolis classes. This design evolved into the Canadian Patrol Frigate (CPF), which was promised by the government in the early 1980s during a period of increased military spending. By the late 1980s, with construction of the first six vessels underway (by now called the s), construction of six further vessels was announced. Nine of the twelve CPF vessels were built at
Saint John, New Brunswick, and the remaining three were built at
Lauzon, Quebec. The mid-1980s saw the announcement of the Tribal Update and Modernization Program (TRUMP), which saw the four early-1970s
Iroquois-class destroyers updated into area air-defence destroyers. The update saw these vessels become the first non-US ships to carry the
Standard SM-2 anti-aircraft missile. The 1990s saw the addition of the s which enhanced MARCOM's minesweeping and route survey capabilities. Crewed by naval reservists, the
Kingston class is also used for training.
Fleet rationalization In 1977, the Maritime Command recommended structure based on a fleet consisting of 24 destroyers and frigates, three submarines, three support ships, 36 long range patrol aircraft and 45 maritime helicopters. Despite a realistic fleet structure at the time, the Progressive Conservative minority government led by
Joe Clark offered an expensive vision. The Conservative party wanted an expensive fleet structure consisting of 16 destroyers and frigates, 20 submarines, 13 minesweeping vessels, 12 fast attack craft, three escort merchant vessels, 36 long range patrol aircraft, 45 maritime helicopters and 84 shore-based attack aircraft. In 1984, DND requested a revision during the "Capabilities Planning Guide", which included a largely status quo fleet consisting of a 24 destroyers and frigates, four submarines, 12 mine clearance vessels, three support ships, 18 long range patrol aircraft, 18 medium range patrol aircraft and an unspecified number of maritime helicopters. In 1985 the
Centre for Military and Strategic Studies recommended a fleet consisting of four nuclear submarines, three
helicopter carriers, eight patrol vessels, four polar icebreakers and many helicopters and patrol aircraft. In 1987, a defence White Paper suggested Canada purchase nuclear-powered
submarines (SSN) and specifically the . However the plans for the
submarines fell through due to cost. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reorganization of the
Russian Navy in 1991, the Maritime Command plan to maintain the capacity to defend the Canadian interest in the region was based on a fleet consisting of four destroyers, 18 frigates, six submarines, three supply ships and 12 minesweeping vessels. The plan was scrapped and re-evaluated in 1993, since the original plan could not be met with the money the government had provided at the time.
Action post-1968 On 23 October 1969 at 8:21 AM suffered the worst peacetime accident in the history of the RCN during routine full-power trials when her starboard gearbox reached an estimated temperature of 650 degrees Celsius and exploded. The explosion and the ensuing fire killed 9 crew members and injured at least 53 others. MARCOM provides vessels for
Standing Naval Force Atlantic and for exercises off
Norway in support of Canada's defence obligations for northern
Scandinavia under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), patrols the north Atlantic and Pacific oceans in support of Canadian sovereignty, and is tasked by NATO with
anti-submarine patrols for the northwest Atlantic. for the
Persian Gulf as a part of
Coalition forces, August 1990 In August–September 1990, MARCOM hurriedly modernized and deployed the
Restigouche-class destroyer escort , the
Iroquois-class destroyer , and the
replenishment ship to the
Persian Gulf in support of
Operation Desert Shield and later
Operation Desert Storm, where the Canadian Navy led the coalition maritime support operation. relieved the task force and was the first coalition ship to visit Kuwait City at the end of the war. During the mid-to-late 1990s, MARCOM provided vessels for a NATO task force patrolling the
Adriatic Sea off the former
Yugoslavia. As part of
Operation Apollo, Canada's military contribution to the international campaign against terrorism, 20 MARCOM vessels have been patrolling in the
Arabian Sea in recent years. In 1995, Canada was involved in a minor non-shooting skirmish with a few European countries in a conflict over fishing rights that was nicknamed the
Turbot War. On 4 May 2010, Senators William Rompkey and Hugh Segal announced their intention to introduce a motion into the Senate asking the Canadian Government to rename Maritime Command as the Canadian Navy, in order to recognize the Canadian Naval Centennial. As of May 2010, the executive curl on officers uniforms have been restored. and other
U.S. Third Fleet ships participated in the International Fleet Review commemorating the 100th birthday of the
Royal Canadian Navy in
Victoria, British Columbia. The naval review took place 9–12 June 2010, and it involved 21 naval ships and more than 8,000 naval personnel from Canada,
France,
Japan, Australia,
New Zealand, and the United States. Joining
Ronald Reagan for the naval review were the cruiser , the destroyer , and the frigate . On 29 June 2010, the Canadian Navy celebrated its 100th anniversary in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 18 vessels from several countries took part in the celebrations, including and . The warships were reviewed by
Queen Elizabeth II, the
Duke of Edinburgh, and Prime Minister
Stephen Harper. As part of the Canadian navy's centennial celebrations, SONAR, the naval mascot, which is based on a
Newfoundland dog, was "recruited" into the navy in 2010. On 12 May 2011, HMCS
Charlottetown came under fire by small craft off the coast of Libya. This was the first time that a Canadian naval vessel had been under hostile attack since the Korean War.
Legacy What many think of as the modern Canadian Navy became known as the Canadian Forces Maritime Command (MARCOM) from February 1968 until August 2011. It was one of six functional commands which were formed under the integration reorganization of the Canadian services. The Royal Canadian Navy effectively ceased to exist 1 February 1968, when the Canadian Forces Reorganization Act was given Royal Assent. However, MARCOM, being the operational commander of the naval forces of Canada, was unofficially called the "Canadian Navy" and maintained many of the traditions of its predecessor. As the
Canadian Monarch is the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian military, commissioned Canadian naval ships, as units of the Canadian Armed Forces, use the prefix HMCS "
Her/His Majesty's Canadian Ship/Submarine," a unit designation that began with the establishment of the Royal Canadian Navy and continued under the Canadian Forces. On 14 December 2010, the Canadian Senate passed a motion urging the federal government to change the name of Canada's naval force from Maritime Command to a title that included the word "navy." Both "Canadian Navy" and "Royal Canadian Navy" were considered acceptable. The government announced on 16 August 2011, that Maritime Command was to regain its former name, the Royal Canadian Navy (along with the change of name of Air Command to Royal Canadian Air Force). == Decommissioned fleet ==