page_title: Origins of the Royal Canadian Navy
section_title: The Canadian Navy
hierarchical_section_title: Origins of the Royal Canadian Navy / The Canadian Navy
caption_attribution_description: English: HMCS Niobe
context_page_description: 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 the world, and deriving the majority of its foreign capital through maritime trading should have been enough to persuade the Canadian government of the strategic importance of the seas. Adding the fact that Canada was one of the great shipbuilding and ship-owning countries of the world, and it soon made the need for maritime protection obvious.
  For Britain's Royal Navy, the Canadian merchant fleet represented a ready supply of vessels that could have been converted to auxiliary warships, with some help to procure the necessary armament should a crisis arise. Soon enough, though, sail gave way to steam, and Canada's mercantile fleet became inadequate to complement the British Navy. In 1865, the British Parliament had passed the Colonial Naval Defence Act 1865, which enabled colonies to establish and maintain naval forces for home defenses. Canada's maritime interests needed to be safeguarded, and Britain wanted Canada to assume its fair share.
context_section_description: The Naval Service Act establishing the Canadian Navy became law May 4, 1910. In addition to a Regular Force, the Act included a Reserve and a Naval Volunteer Force, and a Naval College located in Halifax. The administrative and discipline regulations adopted were the same as those of the British navy, the "King's Regulations and Admiralty Orders" (KR&AI), and the British Naval Discipline Act of 1866. These two key documents would remain in practice for the next forty years. Training was to be conducted to standards that coincided with those of Britain; pay, promotions and service experience were to be transferable, and a common promotion list was adopted.
  The Admiralty proved reluctant to allow the Canadian government to exercise full control over its fleet. This contentious issue of jurisdiction beyond the three-mile limit was resolved at the Imperial Conference of 1911, with the formation of the Canadian Atlantic and Pacific Stations, covering the waters North of 30°, and ranging from 40° to 160° West. It was also decided that the new colonial navies, Canadian and Australian, although exclusively controlled by their respective governments, would act on behalf of the British Government on occasions when on foreign stations. If and when the Dominion ships were placed at the disposal of the Imperial Government by the Dominion authorities in times of war, they would form part of the British Royal Navy and remain under control of the Admiralty for the duration of the war. It was up to the Dominions themselves to decide what naval assets were placed at Britain's disposal, as Laurier had pledged.
  The first warships of the RCN were the cruisers HMCS Niobe and HMCS Rainbow, acquired from Britain. Niobe, an 11,000 ton Diadem-class protected-cruiser, had been launched in 1897. Although relatively young, she had been deemed obsolete by the British because of her lack of side or deck armour; she did possess an armour belt over her vital installations amidships.  She reached Halifax 21 October 1910. Rainbow, much smaller than Niobe at 3,600 tons, was herself an Apollo-class cruiser launched in 1891. She was dispatched from Britain bound for Canada two months before Niobe, but because the Panama Canal had yet to be completed, did not arrive in Esquimalt until 7 November.
  Newspapers of the day were quite critical of this embryonic service. A Toronto Tory newspaper indicated Niobe was on her way to the scrap heap, while Bourassa's Le Devoir proclaimed her canadienne en temps de paix, impériale en temps de guerre (Canadian in peacetime, Imperial in wartime). The Mail and Empire called Niobe a cruiser which the Royal Navy has discarded. The Naval Service of Canada was eventually given Royal consent on 29 August 1911, and was from then on officially designated as the Royal Canadian Navy.
caption: Figure 5: HMCS Niobe, with a displacement of 11,000 tons and a length of 450 feet, was a substantial asset for the fledgeling RCN of 1910.
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