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Interwar Years
The 1920s: A Navy Struggling to Survive

Following the end of the First World War, the Royal Canadian Navy faced significant threats to its continued existence. In the face of significant cutbacks, the navy focused on maintaining a small force to train sailors and to protect the country's coasts against enemy ships.

F.L. Houghton aboard HMCS Vancouver
F.L. Houghton aboard HMCS Vancouver

Lieutenant-Commander Frank Houghton, commanding officer of the destroyer HMCS Vancouver, poses aboard his ship in the early 1930s.

Houghton, who commanded Vancouver between 1933 and 1934, wears rain gear on this obviously rainy day, and an awning has been rigged above the destroyer's deck to provide some additional shelter. One of the destroyer's 4-inch guns is visible on the left, while drum-shaped depth charges sit on racks at the right. Vancouver was one of a number of British destroyers transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy during the interwar period.

VRP 991.38.55
CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum





HMCS Aurora
Admiral Jellicoe's Visit to Canada, 1919
HMCS Patriot, around 1922
Canadian Submarines CH-14 and CH-15
Royal Naval College of Canada, Esquimalt, 1920-1921
HMS Raleigh Aground, 1922
Battle-Class Trawler HMCS Ypres
RCNVR Quebec Hockey Team
Field Gun Competition, Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, 1924
Anchor Light, HMCS Patriot
HMCS Vancouver
F.L. Houghton aboard HMCS Vancouver
Canadian Sailors and Sugar
Leonard W. Murray at the Royal Canadian Navy Barracks, Halifax
Lieutenant Governor Tory Taking the Salute
Royal Canadian Navy Barracks, Halifax
Torpedo Lecture Room, Halifax
The Gun Battery, Halifax
HMCS Givenchy's Crew, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1919
HMCS Patriot Towing the Hydrofoil HD-4, September 1921