The Second World War
The Merchant Navy  - SS Stanley Park: Merchant Ship

David McMillan's photographs capture wartime and early postwar merchant navy scenes and experiences, mainly aboard the Canadian merchant ship SS Stanley Park. Completed in mid-1943, the Stanley Park was one of around 400 merchant ships built as part of Canada's war effort; postwar, it served with a number of foreign owners until its 1969 scrapping in Italy.

Gun Crew, SS Stanley Park

The SS Stanley Park's 4-inch gun crew takes a break from practice to pose for the camera, December 1944.

Eight of the ten-member crew are Royal Canadian Navy Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS) sailors; the other two are merchant mariners. The Stanley Park, like most Canadian merchant ships, carried a detachment of DEMS sailors. Forming part of the crews of merchant ships fitted with defensive weapons, they usually operated the heavier weapons. Trained merchant mariners often assisted them in these duties, or operated many of the smaller weapons themselves.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19860141-050