Guardians of the North
Richard H. Gimblett and Karl Gagnon
Dundurn Press, 2025, 400 pg, ISBN 1459755553
C$60.00
Canadian Warships and Maritime Aircraft, 1910-2025
Fifteen years after the Naval Centennial, the team of Richard Gimblett (RMC ’79, 12173) and Karl Gagnon have again teamed up for an addition to their previous work on Canadian Naval history.
This new offering is a volume of surpassing beauty, both in the crisp book design and layout of the text, and especially in the painstaking detail of Karl’s drawings. The compilation of a complete series of profile views of all classes of ships having served the RCN and its predecessor fleets, as well as supporting auxiliaries, is a magisterial accomplishment. That this includes the associated aircraft of the RCN and RCAF, embarked as well as shore-based maritime patrol, means that this is a visual collection of unparalleled breadth.
But this book is much more than just pretty; it is a salient reminder (instruction) on Canada’s lengthy and laborious attempts to manage its maritime security, through the material development of its naval (and maritime air) fleets. It is a design history of the RCN, implicitly answering the questions “how did we get here, and where are we going?” It covers the difficult years of dealing with Royal Navy hand-me-downs, through the rapid expansion – retrenchment and – revival due to geopolitical cycles, to the notable successes of distinctively Canadian ship designs. Amply celebrated are the novel developments of variable-depth sonar, haul-down helicopter recovery systems, “one-stop shopping” for replenishment at sea (RAS) with associated quick-release couplings, pre-wet systems and rounded deck-edges for nuclear contamination wash-down, and gas-turbines with controllable-pitch propellors, etc. … indeed, too many important innovations to detail here.
All this earned Canadian ships of various classes the well-deserved monikers as “Rolls-Royce destroyers”, “Cadillacs”, and “Sisters of the Space Age.” The Canadian Patrol Frigates (Halifax Class), at their introduction, were rightly recognized as world-leaders in the effective integration of sensors and weapons in a hull optimized for stormy Canadian conditions. At the same time, historically and currently, such accolades of excellence ran up against the shifting shoals of financial, domestic and geo-political realities, and the suspicion that the RCN has always aimed for gold-plated solutions. The authors have done an excellent job of tracing these trends also. Accordingly, we learn about the repeated processes of “Canadianization” (treading a narrow path between RN, USN and indigenous sources of naval materiel), the constant struggle to modernize, and the recurrent conundrum of diversity and quality versus quantity in the fleet mix. The authors rightly acknowledge the dedicated, determined and inspired senior officers of the RCN (and supporting services and enterprises) that navigated this sometime difficult passage. Appropriately, the book finishes with the RCN’s current attempts to stay ahead of a complex world in which the post-Cold War “peace dividend” has been well and truly expended.
A final point: as a former naval person (I served in 16 of these named ships and sailed in many more), I found this book intensely satisfying. The drawings and names (of ships and significant persons) were warmly reminiscent, and they reminded me of many of my own experiences in trying to match operational aspirations to means. Which brings me to personnel: a consistent thread running through this story is the struggle to “man” the fleet. This will become no easier with the current competition for talent and the RCN’s ambitious plan for new classes of ships. Hopefully, therefore, this book will appeal not just to old salts and history buffs but to a younger crowd who will see in it a record of a proud and capable service that promises a rewarding professional future.
This is, in fact, a very accessible and digestible book, and I have no doubt in its imminent popular appeal. BZ Rich and Karl.
Nigel S. Greenwood
RAdm, RCN (Ret’d)
RRMC ’79, 12286