Birth of the Navy (1910-1914)
HMCS Niobe

HMCS Niobe, one of the Naval Service of Canada's first two ships, was intended in part to train Canadian sailors. A large, obsolescent cruiser, Niobe required many crew and was expensive to operate. Lengthy repairs after it ran aground in 1911, and subsequent budget cutbacks, limited the ship's activities.

Two Stokers, HMCS Niobe

Two stokers enjoy a few moments on deck, away from feeding coal to the boilers used to power HMCS Niobe's two large steam engines.

Niobe's 30 boilers needed large gangs of stokers to keep them supplied with coal. Covered from head to foot with soot and coal dust, these two stokers in their ragged overalls bear evidence of the arduous and demanding nature of their work, shovelling coal out of storage bunkers and into the boilers' hot fireboxes deep within the ship.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 20030174-074