The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of t
The cruiser HMCS Rainbow was the first ship commissioned into the service.
CGS Margaret (renamed HMCS Margaret) was one of several ships pressed into naval service at the outbreak of the First World War
The light cruiser HMCS Aurora was decommissioned in 1922, along with a number of other ships as the RCN scaled-back after the First World War.
The frigate HMCS Inch Arran was one of many ships commissioned during the Second World War. The RCN expanded substantially during WW2, becoming the fourth-largest navy in the world at the end of the war.
At the onset of Confederation in 1867, political planners in Canada and Great Britain realized that Canada had substantial maritime interests to protect. Boasting the fourth largest Merchant Marine in
HMS Charybdis, commissioned by Marine and Fisheries in 1881, was Macdonald's attempt at the formation of a Canadian naval service.
CGS Canada. Built by Vickers Sons and Maxim at Barrow-in-Furness in 1904, was 200 feet (61 m) in length and could steam at 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph).
CGS Vigilant. Built by Polson's at Toronto in 1904. She may be regarded as the first "modern" warship to be built in Canada.
HMCS Niobe, with a displacement of 11,000 tons and a length of 450 feet (140 m), was a substantial asset for the fledgeling RCN of 1910.