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Interwar Years
The 1930s: Rebuilding the Royal Canadian Navy

Despite the severe financial climate of the Great Depression and political infighting, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) survived mainly as a coastal defence force. This period also saw the delivery of the first major warships designed and built for the RCN.

Model, HMCS Skeena
Model, HMCS Skeena

This model of HMCS Skeena belonged to Victor G. Brodeur, the ship's first commanding officer.

It shows the ship's original armament of four 4.7-inch guns in single mountings (left and right) and the two sets of torpedo tubes behind the funnels. Brodeur, the son of Canada's first minister of the naval service, had been one of the country's original naval cadets. He would command Skeena once more in the 1930s before going on to play an important role as Canada's naval representative in Washington during the Second World War.

Model Ship, River Class Destroyer
CWM 19780631-001

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Launching HMCS Saguenay, July 1930
HMCS Saguenay, 1931
Model, HMCS Skeena
Engineer Captain Thomas C. Phillips
Destroyer Steam Turbine Engine
HMCS Skeena Plans
HMCS Saguenay Entering Willemstad Harbour, Netherlands Antilles, 1934
Torpedo Test Firing
Full-dress Uniform, Commander Frank Llewellyn Houghton
Sun Helmet, Horatio Nelson Lay
Commissioning of HMCS Fraser, February 1937
HMCS Restigouche
Royal Naval College of Canada Third Term Reunion, 1932
Sword of Honour, Robert Montague Powell
Model, HMCS Venture
Calgary Half Company, RCNVR, 1938
"Crossing the Line" Certificate, 1938