Canadian Naval Technical History Association

This page has been developed to list publications, papers and presentations of interest to those wishing to learn more about Canada’s Naval Technical History. Visitors are encouraged to check back from time to time as additional publications, papers or presentations may have been posted while you were away.

Publications

1. “A History of the Canadian Industry Warship Design Capability 1945 to 2002”, researched by the late Jim Williams, a member of the Canadian Navy Defence Industry Base (CANDIB) sub-committee of the Canadian Naval Technical History Association (CNTHA).

Canadian Navy personnel, both active and retired, formed a group to collect various historical details of the technical content of the Canadian Navy under the banner of the CNTHA. During its initial deliberations the CNTHA members defined that Canadian Industry had a major role in the areas of design, build, outfit, equipment, etc, and the CANDIB sub-committee was organized in 2002 named  to research these aspects of purely indigenous Industry contribution. The Navy had previously bought and operated warships of foreign design and, in most cases, then modifying those warships to better withstand the Canadian operating environment. This publication is the basis of the resulting Section of the CANDIB Report dealing with the indigenous Warship Design capability.

The publication has been broken down into sections so that they can be posted to this website. There are seven segments to this posting:

1. Introduction up to Chapter 3.1
2. Chapter 3.2 Part 1
3. Chapter 3.2 Part 2
4. Chapter 3.3 to 3.5
5. Chapter 4.1 to 4.3
6. Chapter 4.4 to 4.6
7. Chapter 5 to the end

Visitors to this website are invited to review the very detailed research into Naval ship design in Canada carried out by someone very familiar with the Naval ship design business.

2. “Shipbuilding in Canada and the Development of an Industrial Base in the early 20th Century”, a publication for which Michael Young, a retired RCN officer, is the author. This is the first part and may lead to a longer publication in due course.

Papers

1. A general overview of events leading to the very significant Canadian material contribution to World War II and the Cold War - by Rolfe Monteith - received in the summer of 2009.

2. The Story of the Tribal Class Update and Modernization Project.

3. The DDH 280 Story, prepared for CANDIB by the late Douglas Hearnshaw. This is a work in progress as CANDIBers and others contribute to this very informative paper.

4. Basement Project turns up in Museum of Science & Technology by Tom Bennett extracted from a fax of a page taken from De Havilland’s “Plane Facts” publication - the 3 September, 1995 edition - provided by Tom Bennett.

5. “HMCS BRAS D’OR - The Ship that Flew”, recollections from Tom Bennett, De Havilland engineer and one of the key personnel involved in the design, build and trials of Canada’s ocean-going hydrofoil.

6. “The Multi-Ship Refit Program for Steam Destroyers, a Review of Recent Experience” a report by Captain(N) D.H. Benn, Commander R.E. Chiasson and Lieutenant Commander R.J. Houle from 2 Canadian Forces Technical Services Agency, Montreal dated 22 September, 1980 - provided to CNTHA/CANDIB by Captain(N) R.E. Chiasson (Ret’d).

7. “Shipboard Tactical Data Systems - A Personal History” by Captain (N) (Ret’d) Jim Carruthers PhD, PEng. This paper was presented at the Dalhousie Centre for Foreign Policy Studies’ June 2010 Naval Centennial Conference. The Conference sub-title was “The Canadian Navy yesterday, today, and tomorrow: the ships, the sailors, their equipment, and what they did”. Jim’s presentation was one of many very well-received at this conference.

8. “The Navy’s Technical History: Should the Past Guide the Future?”. This paper was presented at Mari-Tech 2012, an annual Marine conference hosted this year by the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineering’s Ottawa Branch and the Eastern Canadian Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers held in Ottawa April 10/11, 2012. The paper was authored by Jim Dean, assisted by a number of his CNTHA colleagues.

9. “HMCS HURON - a partial history” by Captain (N) (Ret’d) Don Wilson,CD P.Eng, commissioning Engineering Officer of HURON in 1972, reflects on some events in the life of HURON, including her sinking and a visit in July, 2012 to her port propeller display in Calgary’s Military Museum.

10. “Its Own Worst Enemy: Ship Advocacy in the RCN, 1963-1964”. A paper written by Richard Mayne, a product of ongoing research conducted for the Official History of the RCN, 1945-68. This article originally appeared in Canadian Naval Review, Vol. 2, No 3 (Fall 2006) and is reprinted with permission.

11. A shipyards narrative, authored by J. Douglas Hearnshaw, entitled “Shipyards of the Canadian Naval Shipbuilding Program 1939-2000”.This paper provides a great deal of information regarding Canadian shipyards - many of them no longer in business.

12. “A Report on the Accomplishments of the Canadian Naval Defence Industrial Base (CANDIB) Project” by Tony Thatcher, Executive Director, CNTHA presented at the CNTHA meeting 2014-03-12.

13. An extract from the October, 1972 issue of “Sentinel” with an article entitled “Chiefs Aboard Iroquois”.

14. A paper entitled “UK Navy surface warships engines exhaust emissions study 1988-2006”.

15. Three papers on the subject of SHINPADS: [“SHINPADS - Shipboard Integrated Processing and Display System - June 1978”](/static/documents/papers/SHINPADS - Shipboard Integrated Processing and Display System - June 1978.pdf), [“SHINPADS - A New Ship Integration Concept”](/static/documents/papers/SHINPADS - A New Ship Integration Concept.pdf)] and [“Ship Systems Integration and Local Communication Networks - Oct 1980”](/static/documents/papers/Ship Systems Integration and Local Communication Networks - Oct 1980.pdf).

Presentations

1. A presentation on the Canadian Naval Defence Industrial Base (CANDIB) by the CNTHA Chairman, presented on 15 April, 2004.

2. A presentation by the CNTHA Chairman to NOAC Ottawa Branch Members in the HMCS BYTOWN Crowsnest, 3 November, 2008.

3. A presentation to interested parties in HMCS BYTOWN, 15 April, 2004, presented by the CNTHA Chairman. Here is the report with an internal link to the presentation.

4. A presentation. Unfortunately, there are no slides to accompany the text, but the text is quite comprehensive and provides some interesting insights into the multi-ship refit concept.

5. A presentation to the Canadian Nautical Research Society Conference in May, 2011, prepared by Executive Director Tony Thatcher. Both he and CNTHA Chairman Pat Barnhouse attended the Conference. The presentation was entitled “Capturing Canada’s Naval Technical History”.

6. A presentation to DGMEPM October 14, 2011 by Chairman Pat Barnhouse and Executive Director Tony Thatcher. The subject was "DGMEPM “Fire Side Chat”.

7. A presentation at Mari-Tech 2012 held April 10/11, 2012. See Paper item #8 above.