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Interwar Years
Imperial Adventure: HMCS Thiepval

In 1924, one of the few ships in the post-First World War Royal Canadian Navy, the Battle-class trawler HMCS Thiepval, became the first Canadian warship to visit the Soviet Union and Japan when it provided support for a British attempt to fly around the world.

Red Army Guards aboard HMCS Thiepval
Red Army Guards aboard HMCS Thiepval

Two Soviet soldiers on the deck of HMCS Thiepval, the first Canadian warship to visit the Soviet Union.

Despite the Canadian government's diplomatic efforts, Thiepval was greeted with suspicion by Soviet officials in Kamchatka, and the local governor insisted on two soldiers sailing with the ship to Petropavlovsk. Only five years before, Canada's military had been part of an international military intervention against the Bolshevik Revolution, a war that ultimately created the Soviet Union.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19710050-001_38





HMCS Thiepval in Nazan Bay, Atka Island, in the Aleutians
12-Pounder Cannon, HMCS Thiepval
Coastal Schooner Everett Hays, Alaska
Red Army Guards aboard HMCS Thiepval
HMCS Thiepval Officers with Japanese Naval Lieutenant, Hakodate, Japan
Loading a Propeller, HMCS Thiepval
HMCS Thiepval Crew Members
Bruno the Brown Bear, HMCS Thiepval
Vickers Vulture Flying Boat in Petropavlovsk, Soviet Union
Soviet Soldiers and HMCS Thiepval Lieutenant
HMCS Thiepval's Lieutenants and the British Flight Crew, Petropavlovsk
The End of the Voyage