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History of the CHS
Did you know?...
- John Cabot made his first North American landfall at either Newfoundland
or Cape Breton in 1497.
- The Canadian Hydrographic Service, under the name of the Georgian
Bay Survey, funded by the government of the Dominion of Canada, was
established on August 13, 1883 under the command of Staff Commander
John George Boulton.
- The primary focus in 1883 (when the Georgian Bay Survey was first
established) was to systematically survey and chart the navigable waters
of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, but was eventually extended to include
all of Canada's inland waterways and coastal regions.
| Whether
you're venturing out into new waterways, or enjoying your usual
harbour, it's important to have up-to-date official nautical charts.
They could save you from grounding your boat, which could leave
you lost and disoriented. More importantly, they could save your
life. |
- Hydrographic charting was extended to the Pacific Coast as early
as 1891, and in the waters of the St. Lawrence River below Quebec by
1905.
- The tidal and current metering program began in 1893 and the precise
water level gauging of the Great Lakes in 1912.
- In 1904
Order-in-Council
broadened the Georgian Bay Survey's responsibilities, but not its basic
function and changed its name to Hydrographic Survey of Canada.
- Unofficially the new name (Hydrographic Survey of Canada) was changed
to the Canadian Hydrographic Survey and it was not until 1928 that the
present name Canadian Hydrographic Service was officially adopted.
- Charting the long rugged coastlines of Newfoundland and Labrador only became the
responsibility of CHS following the Second World War when Newfoundland
and Labrador joined the Confederation in 1949.
- The demand for Arctic surveys reached a peak during 1954-57 when
the Distant Early Warning (DEW line) system was built across Canada
with many stations in the Canadian Arctic.
- The supplies for the Distant Early Warning system (DEW line) had
to be brought in by sea through waters that were for the most part uncharted.
Arctic surveys were accelerated in 1959, the first year of the Polar
Continental Shelf survey, when CHS commenced over ice spot sounding
surveys. They were discontinued in 1997.
- Early hydrographers positioned their survey vessels by shore markings
while close to the land and by quadrant or sextant when surveying offshore.
- These hydrographers measured water depths by
leadline, a long labourious process.
- Today's hydrographer employs a precise DGPS
(Differential Global Positioning System) to position the survey vessel
and multibeam
echo sounders to survey the entire sea floor.
- While paper charts are still in use, the increasing trend for modern
shipping is to employ ENCs
(Electronic Navigational Charts) that form part of ECDIS
(Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems).
- Approximately one third of Canada is underwater. Official CHS nautical
publications, including nautical charts (in both paper and digital formats),
Sailing Directions, bathymetric maps, and Tides and Current Tables,
are a key to safe and efficient navigation of commercial, recreational,
and defence shipping in Canadian and adjacent waters.
- Because of Canada's immense coastline and its abundance of navigable
inland waters, about 1000 nautical charts are published and maintained.
This is more than any country in the world, not including those that
maintain worldwide coverage.
- Nautical charts show hazards, aids to navigation, features along
the shoreline and the seafloor, as well as man-made and natural features
of the area.
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