HMCS Haida

While HMCS Sackville in Halifax serves as a memorial to Canada's naval contribution in World War II, and in particular to one battle, the Battle of the Atlantic, HMCS Haida exemplifies Canada's naval experience for much of this century: from the years preceding the war when the tiny Royal Canadian Navy struggled for existence, through the war years when Canada made a global contribution to the war at sea, to the Cold War when Canada, as a member of NATO, deterred aggression on the seas. In terms of operational experience, national and naval policy, technological development, historic personalities, and the cultural experience of Canadians at sea, Haida reflects important elements of our maritime experience.

Since its founding in 1910 the Canadian Navy has primarily been a destroyer navy. This type of warship has been best suited to our naval requirements: flexible, sufficiently small to work inshore for coastal defense yet sturdy enough and with enough endurance to survive the harsh conditions of the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and strong enough in terms of armament to defend against the type of threat we are most likely to encounter. They are capable of being built in Canadian shipyards and, always an important consideration, they are relatively inexpensive.

Until Canada began to design her own destroyers in the 1950's, Canada either acquired ships from the Royal Navy or built British designs in Canada, though with modifications to suit Canadian conditions. In 1938, when the RCN was looking to expand, the Tribal Class destroyers then under construction for the Royal Navy were state-of-the-art in terms of British destroyer design. Larger and more heavily gunned than traditional designs, their purpose was to counter the powerful destroyers coming into service in the German, Japanese and Italian navies. The RCN saw the Tribals as the key to its survival: after World War I the Navy's fleet of obsolescent major warships and minor vessels was struck from strength in a cost-cutting move. Learning from that experience, the RCN wanted more substantial, modern vessels, too valuable to scrap.

Moreover, the Tribals seemed ideally suited to Canada's requirements. When defense spending began to increase in the late 1930's, the Mackenzie King government placed the priority on home defense. With the power and flexibility needed for the Navy's coastal defense role, the Tribal Class destroyers had the gun and torpedo strength to challenge surface raiders, which had posed the greatest threat in Canadian waters during the first war, while also possessing significant anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capability.

Nonetheless it took plenty of persuasion, and the onset of war, to obtain government approval but in March 1940, after complex negotiations with the British, who were reluctant to devote scarce shipyard resources to building for other countries, it was agreed that Britain would build four Tribals for Canada in exchange for ten corvettes to be built in Canadian yards for the Royal Navy. Haida was the final of the four British-built ships, although eventually another four Canadian Tribals were built in Halifax. Although in all 27 Tribals were built - 16 for the British, 3 by the Australians and 8 for Canada -the Canadian ships were known from the outset as Improved Tribal Class Destroyers. Design and construction of the Canadian Tribals took advantage of the early lessons of the war. For example, their air defense capability was improved, and they were "arcticized" to suit Canadian conditions.

It is not by accident that Haida is known as "Canada's Fightingest Destroyer" as she earned an impressive war record. Commissioned in August 1943, she initially took part in air operations off the Norwegian coast, and in escort duty on the famous Russian convoys. Her experiences here were far from unique, for several other Canadian ships, as well as hundreds of Canadians serving in British ships plus Canadian naval airmen, participated in this campaign. This was tough duty: convoys were run in the darkness of the harsh Arctic winter, base facilities were poor, and the Germans put up tough resistance in the form of U-boats and major surface ships. One such convoy should be mentioned. In December 1943, the Germans sent the battle cruiser Scharnhorst to attack convoy JW55B, whose escort included the Canadian Tribals Haida, Huron and Iroquois. Haida's captain, Harry DeWolf, was in command of the destroyers and merchant ships at the rear of the convoy and had the difficult task of making sure that the merchant ships kept station in the worst conditions, of chasing down U-boat contacts and on the two occasions when Scharnhorst approached, marshaling the escorts to drive her off. The Scharnhorst never got that close to the convoy and the outcome was the sinking of the Scharnhorst by HMS Duke of York.

It was in the English Channel in 1944 that Haida and DeWolf achieved almost legendary status. Attempting to wear down German destroyer strength prior to the invasion of Europe, the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, which at one time or another included all four Canadian Tribals then in commission, fought a series of battles against German destroyers. In these, Haida was the major player, participating in the sinking of three German destroyers as well as several coastal vessels. In the three battles culminating in the loss of German destroyers, including the April 1944 battle which resulted in the loss of HMCS. Athabaskan, DeWolf in Haida was either in command of the entire force involved or had command thrust upon him during the battle. In each case, the combination of his leadership and tenacity, and the skill and determination of Haida's sailors, were the key to victory. These successes, and perhaps primarily Haida's efforts to rescue the Athabaskan's survivors, won the admiration of fellow professionals and the Canadian people. No other warship made a greater contribution to Canada's naval traditions than did Haida.

The success of the Tribals during the War has overshadowed their post-war record, but until their final decommissioning in the mid-1960's the Tribals continued to make important contributions. Six of the Tribals saw duty in Korea, including two tours by Haida. Destroyers played an important role in this first United Nations peacemaking operation; blockading the enemy coast, defending friendly islands against amphibious assault, protecting the coastal flanks of UN armies, bombarding enemy positions, preventing the movement of enemy supplies by rail, and screening UN aircraft carriers flying off missions inland. Usually the Canadian destroyers operated in joint task forces with ships of other UN navies, experience which paid great dividends in the later ColdWar years when such was normal practice.

During the Cold War, the Royal Canadian Navy's priority became anti-submarine warfare, and the Navy earned a reputation as one of the finest anti-submarine forces, if not the finest, in NATO. As part of the move to specialization, the Tribals, including Haida, were converted to destroyer-escorts. This involved a major transformation through the fitting of the Squid anti-submarine weapon, new gun armament, sophisticated surveillance systems. This is the version of Haida that today's visitor sees. In many ways she was the precursor to the sophisticated vessels that have followed her in the Navy, and as such she serves as a tribute to the technological prowess of the RCN during the Cold War.

Finally decommissioned in 1963, Haida was acquired from the Department of National Defense by a group led by prominent Toronto business men and former Naval Officers, supported by some Ontario politicians, including then-Premier John Robarts, himself a former naval officer, who wished to see Canada's most famous warship preserved. She was brought to Toronto and opened as a museum ship in 1965, and was moved to her present berth at Ontario Place in 1971. In 1984, on the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, HMCS. Haida was declared to be of national historic and architectural significance.

While Haida's outstanding war record is unique among Canadian ships, she is also symbolic of Canada's naval experience for much of this century. Designed in the mid-1930's, Haida's post-war modifications influenced ships that still serve in the Canadian Navy. So too the people who served in her shared the same experiences of thousands of other Canadians who have served in the Navy. They may not have served in Tribals, but they fought in World War II or Korea, they stood watch in NATO exercises and on UN missions, and they represented Canada to the world.

It is this combination of the unique and the typical which is Haida's historic legacy.

Michael Whitby is the Chief Naval Historian at DND's Directorate of History and Heritage

More information about HMCS Haida as a national historic site can be found at: http://www3.sympatico.ca/hrc/haida