Canada's Naval History

Home > Explore History > Interwar Years > The 1920s: A Navy Struggling to Survive

Birth Of the Navy

First World War

Between the Wars

Second World War

Early Cold War

Later Cold War
- - From RCN to Maritime Command
  - A Changing Fleet

Navy Today
- - The Gulf War
  - Continuing Commitments

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.

Field Gun Competition, Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, 1924

Personnel from HMCS Stadacona, Halifax's naval barracks, pose with a 12-pounder gun (left) and ammunition limber (right) used in a field gun competition.

Also called a "gun run," the strenuous competition required a team of sailors to transport the gun and limber around an obstacle course. In 1924, Stadacona's detachment competed against detachments from the destroyer HMCS Patriot and from the British battlecruisers HMS Hood and HMS Repulse which were participating in a world cruise. Participation in such events helped the struggling Royal Canadian Navy to maintain a public presence in the interwar era.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19800480-002