"A Pill for Kaiser Bill", HMCS Niobe

Three sailors aboard HMCS Niobe pose with a 6-inch shell inscribed for Germany's Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Niobe, one of Canada's two warships in 1914, formed the core of the navy's early response to German naval activity. Assigned to the British Atlantic squadron, Niobe was employed in coastal patrols and blockade work in an attempt to prevent the shipment of war goods to Germany from the then-neutral United States. An obsolete vessel even before the war, Niobe had by September 1915 become a depot ship, staying in Halifax for the remainder of the war.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19830056-005