The Royal Canadian Navy is the naval force of Canada, and one of three environmental commands of the Canadian Armed Forces. The command's official strength includes 8,400 Regular Force sailors, 4,100
An RCN sailor at a gun aboard HMCS Assiniboine, while escorting an HX convoy, 1940
F2H-3 Banshees fly overhead HMCS Bonaventure aircraft carrier, c. 1950s
A CH-124 Sea King helicopter landing on HMCS Assiniboine with a beartrap on its deck, 1964
A CH-124 Sea King of Maritime Command's Maritime Air Group, flies towards HMCS Skeena, 1972. In 1975, control of the Maritime Air Group was transferred to Air Command.
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.