Canadian Navy

Canadian Navy. . , Thunder Bay’s Stone Frigate , Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Griffon was launched modestly, in a leased garage a few blocks from this waterfront with its White Ensign flying from a tree trunk felled in the bush. But from the start, Rear Admiral Nelles of the Royal Canadian Navy and Commander Mainguy of the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve believed a city that built ships and trained Sea Cadets was ripe for recruiting, even if it was 3,220 kilometers from the sea. Nelles and Mainguy spent a week here in May 1937 and signed up 45 men. Four years later, Port Arthur's "stone frigate," as the Navy calls a land-based naval establishment, was commissioned. It was christened in honour of Le Griffon, which sailed the Great Lakes in 1679., Sailors and Civilians in Wartime Port Arthur , Stokers and stewards, cooks and gunners. The 2,400-plus Navy recruits who enlisted through HMCS Griffon during World War II served in many ways on many vessels, from cruisers to aircraft carriers. Most called Port Arthur or Fort William home, but the reserve recruited from Sault Ste. Marie to the Manitoba border. Some recruits had their first experience on the water here. Griffon had three eight-metre whalers and, on Saturday mornings, a 13-metre catch-rig sailboat. It was lent by a civilian in exchange for what was left in the boat's engine, after the morning trainings, of a commodity rationed in wartime: gasoline. Port Arthur's civilians were keen to help the Navy recruits. Since the first home of the frigate was short on barracks, the Port Arthur rooming house offering sailors bed and board was dubbed HMCS Holomego, for the family who ran it. , The Saga of HMCS Port Arthur , In May 1942, the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company completed Hull #59, a fighting ship for the Royal Canadian Navy. Later that summer, movie cameras filmed the ship escorting a convoy in the Atlantic and captured the call for "action stations" as an enemy submarine was detected. In January 1943, with no cameras rolling, the ship sank the Italian submarine Tritome in the Mediterranean. A year to the month the ship was launched, Corvette Port Arthur, a 22-minute National Film Board tribute to the Navy, premiered at the Colonial Theatre in Port Arthur. Arthur Street was closed for the crowds that gathered to watch the naval guard of honour. Planes from the Royal Canadian Air Force roared overhead and the Second Battalion Lake Superior Regiment band played. , , , , , , . , Skills covered in the eight-week basic training in seamanship provided at Port Arthur's naval reserve, HMCS Griffon, in 1941., Parts of ship and Navy dress , Boat pulling and helmanship , Sailing and compass reading Hammock slinging and simple knots, , , , , , . , Fighting ships built between 1940 and 1945 by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company for the Royal Canadian Navy. Some of these corvettes and minesweepers were named for communities in northwestern Ontario., Cobalt . Kenogami . Algoma . Rosthern . Morden . Kamsack . Oakville . Weyburn . Port Arthur . Kenora . Fort William . Milltown . Kentville . Mulgrave . Blairmore . Sault Ste. Marie . Winnipeg . St. Boniface . Portage . Wallaceburg . Border Cities . Middlesex . Oshawa . Kapuskasing . Rockcliffe . Fort Francis . New Liskeard