Canadian Coast Guard
<% else %>A History of the Canadian Coast Guard and Marine Services
by Thomas E. Appleton
The Departmental Shipyard
Although most of the seagoing ships of the Department were built by private industry at home or abroad, or purchased outright in the case of a few existing ships of specialized type, some were built by direct labour at the Government Shipyard in Sorel, Que.
Looking back to the early days of the St. Lawrence Ship Channel when the Bayfield survey was being studied to find the best route through Lake St. Peter, it will be recalled that the scheme eventually adopted was carried out by dredges built at Sorel. This entire activity was taken over by the Montreal Harbour Commission under an act of 1850 from whence it passed to the Department of Public Works when they became responsible for dredging and maintenance of the Ship Channel in 1888. In the ensuing years the Government Shipyard turned out floating plant of all kinds for the deepening and servicing of the River and constructed many of the aids to navigation. In 1904 it was decided to place the administration of the St. Lawrence route under the Department which was already responsible for shipping affairs everywhere else in the country, Marine and Fisheries. Now, for the first time, the Department owned and operated a shipyard of its own and inevitably they made wider use of it.
At that time, the Sorel Yard was under the direction of Mr. G. J. Desbarats, a civil engineer of wide experience in the Department of Railways and Canals who had also made a survey of the St. Lawrence for the Department of Public Works before becoming Director of the Government Shipyard in 1901.
George J. Desbarats, to whom we have already referred as Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries at the time of the passing of the Naval Service Act in 1910, was a distinguished civil servant who eventually became Deputy Minister of the Department of National Defence, a position which he held from 1924 until 1932.
This direct production activity of government was a sizeable effort and, in those days when the ramifications of crown companies in specialized industrial fields were unheard of, it was an unusual phenomenon reflecting a policy which neither government nor industry would endorse today. However, for many years the government had been the principal owner of dredges everywhere and the techniques of the business were outside the usual run of work for the commercial shipbuilders in this country.
In 1904, the Government Shipyard employed 600 men who were building a 250-foot twin screw hopper dredger in steel, two wooden tugs and a number of scows and barges, and carrying out the annual docking and repairs of the Ship Channel fleet. In the years following, the yard was modernized by an increasing use of electrical power and heavy rolls were installed for bending ship plates. By 1909 the work force had increased to about 900 and the yard was carrying out refits and repairs to Marine and Fisheries ships from the Quebec agency. It was also in this year that the Sorel plant built the first lighthouse and buoy tenders for other than local use. These were the Montmagny and Lambton for Quebec and the Upper Lakes respectively. At that time the engine shop had not been fully developed and the main machinery for these vessels was imported from Paisley.
The Montmagny was a handsome steamer in the style of the Aberdeen, but somewhat larger, with good passenger accommodation for the conveyance of light keepers and their families. The Lambton, employed in a similar capacity at the Parry Sound agency, was a steam tug with a raised forecastle and a long deckhouse containing the passenger cabins. Both were to come to tragic ends.
Barely three years old, but already a highly regarded and popular ship, the Montmagny left Quebec for her last voyage, a supply trip to Gaspé, Newfoundland and Anticosti, in 1914. Under the command of Captain F. X. Pouliot she had on board, in addition to the regular crew, the wives and families of light keepers, Mrs. Richard and her seven children bound for Belle Isle, and Mrs. Lachance with her family of four who were going to their lighthouse on Flower Island. At 4:15 in the morning of September 18, steaming down river on a quiet night, she had reached the Beaujeu Channel off Crane Island or Ile aux Grues, when she was rammed by the collier Lingan, inward bound from Sydney, Cape Breton, to Montreal with 8,000 tons of coal. All except the duty watch were below and, after a grinding crash on the port side near the engine room, the Montmagny went down in four minutes. In the terrible moments which followed, the second engineer was able to grab who children under his arm but in the confusion they struggled free and others could not be separated from their mothers. The Lingan lowered her boats to search in the darkness and the debris for survivors and the bodies of two children were found in one of the Montmagny's boats. The two women, eleven children and the second mate lost their lives. By a strange coincidence the accident took place in sight of the little town of Montmagny, Que.
Naval trawlers ready for launching by Davie Shipbuilding Ltd. at Lauzon, Que. in 1918. Many were built throughout Canada and, after the war, some were converted to government use as patrol vessels and lightships; others went into commerce as tugs and coasters. Note the gun platform on the forecastle.
(Davie Shipbuilding Ltd.)
At the subsequent investigation, held at Quebec in October 1914 under Captain L. A. Demers the Dominion Wreck Commissioner, it was found that the collision was entirely due to faulty navigation on the part of the pilot and crew of the Lingan. The master of the collier was reprimanded for having left the bridge in narrow waters, the chief officers certificate was suspended for ten months, and the pilot was fined $200 with suspension of licence for the remainder of the season.
The Lambton was in service until 1922 and was lost with all on board near Caribou Island, some 75 miles northeast of Sault Ste. Marie, on April 19 that year. Under the command of Captain Brown, and with a total of 22 crew and light keepers, she left the Sault on April 18 to make her first trip of the season to open the lighthouses of the eastern end of Lake Superior. The weather was very bad, many casualties to shipping were reported, and high winds had driven the ice into Whitefish Bay.
Overdue within a couple of days, enquiries began to be made as to the position of the Lambton. It was reported by a passing ship that she had been seen, apparently with steering gear trouble but not in distress, making slow progress through the ice. Thereafter anxiety mounted rapidly and on the 25th., the first newspaper reports appeared, to be followed next day by a heading on page two of the Globe, "ABANDON HOPE FOR THE LAMBTON". On May 1, after an interview with the marine agent at Parry Sound, the
CCGS Brant.
One of a series of vessels built on steam trawler lines at the Government Shipyard, Sorel. The Brant was the last coal burner in the salt-water fleet.
Globe headlines were reading "ADMIT LAMBTON LOST IN STORM WITH ALL HANDS". The details of the Lambton's final hours were never established. All that is known is that she was overwhelmed by stress of weather and that there were no survivors to tell the tale.
Following the building of the Montmagny, the Government Shipyard reverted to their specialized construction of floating equipment for the Ship Channel and Public Works until the emergency ship-building programme of the first world war demanded the full output of Canadian yards. A notable series of minesweeping and patrol trawlers were then built for the Naval Service, many of which found favour for other government work after the war. These handy single screw steamers of about 130 feet were based on the Admiralty Castle class trawler, a type similar to the best North Sea fishing vessel of the day, which was intended for conversation to fishing after the cessation of hostilities.
In Canada, however the type was unsuitable for commercial fishing, which had not reached the stage of employing large and expensive steamers, but the reliability and excellent sea-keeping qualities were ideal for Marine and Fisheries work. Many variations of the original design continued to appear until about 1930; among well known ships the Bernier and Givenchy (1918) and the second Brant (1928) were good examples of a hardy breed. The Brant was the last coal burner among the salt-water ships of the Canadian Coast Guard.
In 1937, the Government Shipyard was sold to private interests and hence-forward all Departmental vessels were built by private yards. Today the Shipbuilding Branch supervises the design and specifications for construction, the actual design drawings being prepared by commercial naval architects before the contract is placed with the builder. Thereafter ships are built by Canadian shipyards, under Ship-building Branch supervision, to the satisfaction of the Department as owner. The Branch also performs this work for a number of other departments and agencies, for example the patrol vessels of the Department of Fisheries and the passenger and rail ferries of the Canadian National Railways.
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