"The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-2002"

Throughout the 1950s and '60s, the number of books available on the Canadian Navy was quite small. There were a few memoirs: Gates and Gaiters, and, Saints, Devils and Ordinary Seamen. For actual history, the books were few. Spending hours in the local library reading The Far Distant Ships and the various editions of Jane's, I waited impatiently for the next edition of The Crowsnest. These limited sources of historical information often raised more questions than they answered.

Then in 1981 came The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces (SOCNF). This remarkable work by Ken Macpherson and the late John Burgess, contained photographs of almost every ship, plus lists of commanding officers, operational charts, short histories, and lists of statistics by class of vessel. SOCNF became the standard work that seemed to trigger the muse in other authors, myself included, and lead to the large number of historical books we enjoy today.

In 1985, an updated version I referred to as SOCNF² came out. In 1993, a 3rd edition appeared, SOCNF³. And now we have the 4th edition of this work, SOCNF⁴. This edition features some minor changes to the introductions to Parts I through III. But the major changes are in the layout. As before, there is a photograph of each ship but the same page now contains her commanding officers, a short operational history, her builder and relevant dates. And a nice touch, there is a footer near the outside edge of each page to let you know what section you are in.

Part III has been expanded to cover the years 1945 to 1990, and included here for the first time is the navy's oldest commissioned ship, ORIOLE. Part IV of SOCNF⁴ covers from 1990 to mid-2002, with an introduction by Rich Gimblett, PhD, LCdr., CF (Ret'd). Part IV deals with the Halifax, Kingston and Victoria classes, plus major auxiliary vessels.

Throughout Parts I to III, the photographs have been reworked to improve the contrast. A large number have also been re-cropped. Of interest to collectors and others, some of the b/w photographs in Parts I, II and III are new, e.g., GRILSE 1st, ALGONQUIN 1st, and IROQUOIS 2nd. In Part IV, most are in colour. Consequently, the photographs in this edition are generally excellent, the one exception that caught this reviewer's eye was one of TERRA NOVA on page 225, which is out of focus.

As SOCNF⁴ is about half the weight of the original SOCNF, it is much easier to handle. This has been accomplished by reorganizing the information, compacting the tables, and using a lighter weight paper stock. The drawback with the latter technique is that photos and text tend to bleed through to the other side. This is a minor inconvenience.

But don't throw out your copy of SOCNF! The most noticeable down side of SOCNF⁴ is the elimination of SOCNF's Appendix 8, the Operations Status Charts. These eleven pages were invaluable to historians and will be greatly missed. In my opinion, Appendix 8-compiled by John Burgess-was a most valuable contribution to Canadian naval history. When reading the histories and memoirs, it was easy to track a vessel's progress by reference to these charts.

On the plus side, Appendix 2 in SOCNF⁴ updates the Special Assignment lists from Appendix 3 of SOCNF. Included here are the two sanctions ops that commenced in 1993, and a list is started of HMC Ships assigned to Operation Apollo since August 2001.

Inevitably, there are typographical errors. Some of the errors worth noting are that the pages listed in the index do not always agree with the page on which the ship actually appears, e.g., VICTORIA states page 211, and should read 210; and neither CORMORANT nor ORIOLE are correctly listed. Further, the historical data for BITTERSWEET states she commissioned in the RCN on 23 January 1941. Actually she commissioned in the RN on that date, and in the RCN on 15 May 1941. The other flower-named Flower-class corvettes are generally noted as first commissioning into the RN, but no note is made of their commissioning in the RCN.

There are also some errors in dating photographs. On page 236, my last ship, BONAVENTURE, is shown with her forward 3/50 gun still on the starboard side and without the outboard, enclosed bridge access ladder. The navy deleted the gun and added the latter during the refit of 1966/67, making the 1968 date of this photograph inaccurate. The photograph of CHALEUR on page 271 is new, but the caption date is old: 7 November 1959. Here she is clearly wearing the maple leaf flag, showing that this photo was taken after February 1965. On page 274, the same thing happens with FUNDY, but the inaccurate year is an error repeated from SOCNF.

And two minor points: dates are written in two different styles, e.g., 19 March 1941 and March 19, 1941. I also did not like the abbreviation of COM for Commodore used on page 238. What is wrong with Cmdre.?

The largest problem however, occurs in the pendant number list, Appendix 3. There are at least twenty errors in the Second World War section, e.g., COMOX 1st is listed as J65 vice J64, and FRONTENAC is listed as K334 vice K335. This mix-up should be good for lots of discussion around the bar and may generate wagers on who is correct!

I hope in the near future Vanwell Publishing will publish an errata sheet to correct such errors.

In my opinion, this is a great book, one that we naval historians have waited for since 1993. If you are interested in the Canadian Navy, this book is the book to invest in. It is available for the suggested retail price of $75.00 plus applicable taxes at bookstores, and also at a lower price direct from Vanwell Publishing.