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.

On Stanley Park's Flying Bridge

David McMillan (centre) poses aboard the SS Stanley Park's open "flying bridge" with officer cadets Doug MacPherson (left) and Bob Pethick (right).

In this photograph taken in the South Atlantic, all three wear short-sleeved tropical uniforms of tan cotton. The flying bridge, an open area for commanding the ship in fair weather or at times when good visibility is necessary, includes the equipment necessary for controlling and navigating the ship. Visible in the background are the binnacle (centre), which houses the ship's magnetic compass, and a repeater (right), which displays information from a centrally mounted gyroscopic compass, or gyrocompass.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19860141-034