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.

F.L. Houghton aboard HMCS Vancouver

Lieutenant-Commander Frank Houghton, commanding officer of the destroyer HMCS Vancouver, poses aboard his ship in the early 1930s.

Houghton, who commanded Vancouver between 1933 and 1934, wears rain gear on this obviously rainy day, and an awning has been rigged above the destroyer's deck to provide some additional shelter. One of the destroyer's 4-inch guns is visible on the left, while drum-shaped depth charges sit on racks at the right. Vancouver was one of a number of British destroyers transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy during the interwar period.

VRP 991.38.55
CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum