CSS Acadia

CSS ''Acadia'' is a former hydrographic surveying and oceanographic research ship of the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and its successor the Canadian Hydrographic Service.

''Acadia'' served Canada for more than five decades from 1913 to 1969, charting the coastline of almost every part of Eastern Canada including pioneering surveys of Hudson Bay. She was also twice commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) as HMCS ''Acadia'', the only ship still afloat to have served the RCN in both World Wars. Today she is a museum ship, designated as a National Historic Site of Canada, moored in Halifax Harbour at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

History

''Acadia'' was designed in Ottawa by Canadian naval architect R.L. Newman for the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Newcastle-on-Tyne in England. Named after Acadia, the early colonial name for Atlantic Canada, she was launched on May 8, 1913. ''Acadia'' arrived in Halifax on July 8 and was commissioned that July upon her first voyage using the prefix CGS, which stood for "Canadian Government Ship." She saw extensive use prior to 1917 surveying the waters along Canada's Atlantic coast, including tidal charting and depth soundings for various ports. Her first two seasons were spent charting in Hudson Bay at Port Nelson and the entrance to Hudson Bay to open the way for a grain port for Manitoba. In her first year she also made the first Canadian surveys of notorious Sable Island and rescued the crew of the steamship ''Alette'', crushed by ice in Hudson Bay, the first of several rescue operations the ''Acadia'' would perform. Among her more enduring work was a survey of the Bay of Fundy which became her longest assignment prior to entering military service in World War I.

World War I

After the outbreak of war in 1914, ''Acadia'' was among the government vessels used to patrol the Bay of Fundy during the winter months, sailing between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Grand Manan. CGS ''Acadia'' was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on January 16, 1917 as a patrol vessel, replacing the CGS prefix with HMCS, thus becoming .Macpherson and Barrie, p. 17 The vessel was armed with one gun placed forward. From 1917 until March 1919, she conducted anti-submarine patrols from the Bay of Fundy along Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast and through the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. On December 6, 1917, less than twelve months into her wartime service, HMCS ''Acadia'' survived the Halifax Explosion. ''Acadia'' was serving as guard ship at the entrance to Bedford Basin but suffered only minor damage. Near the end of the war she served as a platform for experiments with anti-submarine balloons.

Inter-war period

Following the armistice, HMCS ''Acadia'' was returned to the Hydrographic Survey of Canada (renamed the Canadian Hydrographic Service in 1928) where she regained her original prefix CGS ''Acadia'' and resumed hydrographic survey work throughout the inter-war period of the 1920s and 1930s. Lack of survey funds suspended her operation in 1924 and 1925. In 1926 she resumed surveys and became the first Canadian research vessel to be fitted with an echo sounder. A major achievement were surveys to establish the port of Churchill, Manitoba. ''Acadia'' also performed pioneering Canadian oceanographic research. In 1929 ''Acadia'' rescued the crew of a crashed Sikorsky amphibious aircraft named "Untin Bowler" who were attempting a round-trip to Europe across Greenland and Iceland sponsored by the Chicago Tribune until the aircraft was destroyed by ice off the tip of Labrador.

World War II

CGS ''Acadia'' was recommissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy in October 1939, once again becoming HMCS ''Acadia''. She was first used as a training ship for HMCS ''Stadacona'', a shore establishment in Halifax. From May 1940 to March 1941 she saw active use as a patrol ship off the entrance of Halifax Harbour, providing close escort support for small convoys entering and leaving the port from the harbour limits at the submarine nets off McNabs Island to the "Halifax Ocean Meeting Point". After a refit, HMCS ''Acadia'' was assigned in mid-1941 for use as an anti-aircraft training ship and serving as a gunnery training vessel for crews of the Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) fleet. In June 1944, HMCS ''Acadia'' was assigned to the training base and stationed at the nearby port of Digby, Nova Scotia where she was used for gunnery training for recruits and advanced gunnery training for petty officers and officers. Her wartime name of HMCS ''Acadia'' continues in use today for the Sea Cadet summer training camp held at the ship's old base at Cornwallis.

Later years

With the end of the war, HMCS ''Acadia'' was paid off by the RCN on November 3, 1945, and returned for the second time to the Canadian Hydrographic Service as CSS ''Acadia'', the new acronym standing for Canadian Survey Ship. A major post-war assignment was updating and expanding the nautical charts of Newfoundland and Labrador after the province joined Canada in 1949. In 1962, ''Acadia'' rescued hundreds of people from forest fires in Newfoundland, evacuating two towns. In addition to her work with the CHS, CSS ''Acadia'' participated in military survey assignments for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and United States Navy. By the end of her career, ''Acadia'' had charted almost every region of Atlantic Canada as well as much of the Eastern Arctic.

Museum ship

She was retired from active service on November 28, 1969, and was transferred to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) for use as a museum ship. ''Acadia'' was declared a National Historic Site in 1976. On February 9, 1982, the BIO transferred CSS ''Acadia'' to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic for preservation and interpretation. She is moored at the Museum's North Wharf and open to visitors from May to October. ''Acadia'' is known for being one of the last ships in Halifax that was home to an official ship's cat used for rodent control. ''Acadia'' is dry docked every five years to preserve her hull, formerly at the Dartmouth Marine Slips and at Halifax Shipyard in more recent years.

In the summer ''Acadia'' is joined at the Museum wharves by , operated by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust. The two nearly identically sized ships present a contrast in shipbuilding eras and offer an ironic comparison as ''Sackville'' is a warship which became a part-time hydrographic ship and ''Acadia'' is a hydrographic ship which became a part-time warship.

''Acadia'' is the only known vessel still afloat to have survived the Halifax Explosion in 1917. Every year on the December 6 anniversary of the explosion, ''Acadia'' hoists the same signal flags she flew on the day of the explosion.

Film roles

''Acadia'' has been used in a number of films to depict other vessels. These include:
* A Japanese destroyer in the 1982 Salter Street Film production ''South Pacific '42''
* A Scottish immigrant vessel in the 1990 film ''The Little Kidnappers''
* in the 1992 Halifax Explosion film ''Morning of Armageddon''
* A World War II merchant ship in the 1992 television show ''Lifeline to Victory''
* in the 1996 docudrama ''Lusitania''
* The ocean liner in the 1996 PBS American Experience show ''Rescue at Sea''
* A hospital ship in the 1998 short film ''Halifax 1917''
* A 19th century ocean liner in Alexander Keith's Brewery beer commercials in 2000
* in a 2009 NOVA/ National Geographic docudrama '' Darwin's Darkest Hour''
* A San Francisco ferry and steam-powered sealing ship in the 2009 miniseries ''Sea Wolf''
* As both and the cable ship in the 2011 docudrama ''Waking the Titanic''.

Crew

Most of ''Acadia''s crew came from the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. Many served their entire careers aboard, an indication that she was regarded as a "happy ship". Many of her officers were from Newfoundland. As a hydrographic ship, the Hydrographer in Charge was the senior officer, deciding where ''Acadia'' went and what she did, while the Captain ran the ship's day-to-day operations. In wartime, naval officers took over.

Hydrographers in Charge

*Capt. Frederick Anderson 1913–1916, 1919–1923
*R.J. Fraser 1926
*J.U. Beauchemin 1927–1939
*H.L. Leadman 1946–48
*S.R. Titus 1948–1950
*C.H. Martin 1950–1955
*H. Furuya 1955–1962
*J.E.V. Goodwill 1962–1964
*L.P. Murdock 1965
*R.C. Amero 1966, 1969
*P.L. Corkum 1967
*T.E. Smith 1968

Captains

*Capt. S.W. Bartlett 1913
*Capt. W.A. Robson 1914–1924
*Capt. J. Roach 1926
*Capt. F.V. Ryan 1927–1939
*Capt. D.M. Snelgrove 1948–1949
*Capt. R.J. Ball 1949–1952
*Capt. E.A. Codner 1953
*Capt. W.N Kettle 1954–1957
*Capt. J.W. Taylor 1958–1969

Naval Commanding Officers

* Lt J.O. Boothby, ( RCN) 20/2/1940 – 1/4/1940
* LCdr H.G. Shadforth (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 12/4/1940  – ?
*Lt S. Henderson (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 29/4/1941  – 11/11/1941
*LCdr J.L. Diver (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 12/11/1941  – 19/9/1943
*LCdr R.V. Campbell (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 20/9/1943  – 15/12/1943
*LCdr J.C. Littler (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 16/12/1943  – 30/3/1944
*LCdr R.A.S. MacNeil (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 31/3/1944 – 6/6/1944
*Skipper/Lt F.W. Durant (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 7/6/1944 – 4/3/1945
*Skipper/Lt C.C. Clattenburg (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 5/3/1945 – Decommissioning

Erik the Red

Named after the famous Viking, Erik the Red was a tabby cat, born about 1997, that served on ''Acadia'' as the rodent control officer. He is believed to have been a stray that found his way aboard the ship as a stowaway on Canada Day in 2000. He initially worked alongside the existing rodent control officer, Clara, until Clara's retirement and quick decline in health. Erik the Red survived three abductions or disappearances, which were particularly worrisome for the community because Erik had medical concerns requiring daily medication or he would not eat. Erik became a well known local attraction on the boardwalk near ''Acadia'', welcomed up and down the waterfront and into stores. Erik retired in 2015 during a party in his honor on September 20 and died in July 2017 after a short illness.

See also

* List of museum ships
*Ships preserved in museums

References

Sources

*
*
*
*
*

External links

*

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic CSS Acadia web page



Canadian Navy Heritage – Acadia Photo Archive and Specs

Haze Grey and Underway – Converted civilian vessels


* ttp://www.blurb.ca/b/2416798-grand-old-lady ''Grand Old Lady: A personal tribute to the CSS Acadia''by Rod Desborough (2010), , published by author: an illustrated history written by a former crew member

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acadia
Research vessels of Canada
Museum ships in Canada
Museum ships in Nova Scotia
Ships preserved in museums
History of Halifax, Nova Scotia
Military history of Nova Scotia
Transport in Nova Scotia
Water transport in Manitoba
Military history of Newfoundland and Labrador
Maritime history of Canada
National Historic Sites in Nova Scotia
Steamships of Canada
1913 ships
Acadia
Ships built by Swan Hunter
Halifax Explosion ships
Auxiliary ships of the Royal Canadian Navy
Canadian Government Ship