This photograph of a cargo ship was taken from one of Canada's submarines, either CC-1 or CC-2, during a transit of the Panama Canal in mid-1917.

It reveals the low profile of a surfaced submarine against the high-sided potential target of a merchant ship. In the summer of 1917, with the German naval threat in the Pacific long since eliminated, three vessels from Canada's small west coast force, HMCS Shearwater, CC-1, and CC-2, were ordered to Halifax as part of a plan to send the submarines to European waters. The four-month trip took the Canadian vessels through the Panama Canal, which links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19840218-002_9