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.

SS Stanley Park's Swimming Pool

Two of the SS Stanley Park's crew pose in their ship's improvised swimming pool on Christmas Day 1944.

In hot, tropical weather, open swimming pools on deck allowed sailors to bathe and to cool off. Behind the two men is one of the ship's large rectangular life rafts, mounted on an inclined plane that will allow it to be launched quickly in case of emergency. The complex mesh of the ship's anti-torpedo nets, intended to protect against enemy torpedoes, is visible in the background.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19860141-042