The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-02-10

Ships on Alert for Enemy
Submarines and Raiders
Navy Consisted Of Six Dsstreysrs.
Five Mine weepsss il 1889

ships, cruisers or aircraft-car-
riers, and therefore seldom gets
. chance TO participate In ex-
PLOTS Of offensive sec warfare.
The Royal Canadian. Nays
big job ID defensive-mainly. the
conveying Of merchant ships
across the Atlantic. or TO q point
in mid-Atlantic where British
warships take over the CONVOY.
They leave IN unidentified
Canadian port ut IN -unannoGncs
ed time for an undisclosed desti-
nation, travelling rough seas In
small ships without lights: and
the folks 1t home have to be glad
when the radio silence Is unbrok-
en!-for no news is good news,
80 long A. the period OF waiting
finally produces two words:
safe arrival" 4
During 1910 the small, silent
navy quietly conveyed some s.
700 vessels across the North
Atlantic, carrying q deadweight
tonnage of more than $4,000, 900
tons.
But all this time the navy was
doing other things, too.
II was patrolling the seacoasts
of Canada, on the alert for long
range enemy submarines or sur
face raiders.
And 1t was trying desperately
to grow. Like q boy suddenly
thrown into q man-sized job, it
was doing the job and trying
to grow up to 1t at the same
time.
When the war began In Sep
TENDER. 1899. Canada's navy
consisted of six destroyers, five
mine-sweepers and several small
auxiliary vessels; It's personnel
numbered 10000 officers and
men.
Today 1t has more than 100
vessels and nearly 10000 officers
and men. Some Of the new ships
were built under q naval con-
struction program calling for
1870 vessels of various sizes and
categories--most of which are
still under construction and
therefore will add to the size of
the fleet-some of them were
freighters or passenger liners or
yachts converted to naval uses,
and seven of the navy's IL de-
stroyers were obtained from the
United States in the British
American destroyer deal.
BY next autumn Navy Minis
ter Angus L. MacDonsld hopes
to have $50 vessels and %, 200
men in the nations sea forces.
There have been losses, too.
One destroyer, the Saguenay,
was badly damaged and lost Fl
men in an encounter with q Ger
man submarine; two others, the
Fraser and the Msrgaree, sank
after collisions in the black out,
crowded waters off Britain.
On the other hand, Canadian
warships have inflicted their
share Of damage on the enemy.
The flotilla leader Assiniboine
assisted Q British cruiser in the
capture of the German freighter
Hanover, early in the war. The
Italian freighter Capo Noli was
captured in the st. Lawrence by
a Canadian ship. and the Ger
man freighter Weser became 4
Canadian prize off the Mexican
coast.
While trying to build up its
own strength, the navy also has
contributed officers apd men to
the British navy. About 1000
Canadians are serving on var
ious British warships in various
parts of the war zone.
Recruits offer themselves to
the Canadian navy faster than
new ships can be built or other
. wise obtained; skilled workers
for certain types of service,
however, are not 50 plentiful,
and an intensive campaign to
enlist such men is in progress>
In addition to building up hef
own navy, Canada has contri-
buted largely to Britain's war
effort on the seas. Many ships
in the Canadian trade at the OUT
break of war were sailing UNI
. der British registry. Most Of
these were taken over by the ad.
miralty.
For instance. most of the
Canadian Pacific's Atlantic and
Pacific fleet, which segregated
, about 800. 900 tons when the war
began, passed under admiralty
, control. Some of these ships be-
came troop-ships or supply.
ships; others were converted In
. to armed cruisers. Several Ca
. madam National Railway liners
also were Communicated snd
, converted to war uses. Twenty
, nine merchant vessels built for
! service on the Great Lakes were
/ sent across the Atlantic during
the good-weather season to aug
| ment the British coastwise fleet.
Canadian ship-building plants
meanwhile are busy, not only on