RCMPV ''St. Roch'' is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, the first ship to completely circumnavigate

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. She was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the west to east direction (Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean), using the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel '' Gjøa'' had traversed east to west, 38 years earlier. The ship was most often captained by Henry Larsen. Liverpool-born Sgt. Fred S. Farrar RCMP (1901-1954) was a crew member of ''St. Roch'' for various voyages including the 1950 voyage that circumnavigated North America; he wrote the book ''Arctic Assignment: The Story of the St. Roch'' which was published posthumously in 1955. The

Stan Rogers Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter. Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and th ...

song " Take It From Day To Day" is the lament of a crew member on ''St. Roch''. The ship is located at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is open to the public for scheduled visits.

Construction

''St. Roch'' was made primarily of thick

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

, with very hard Australian " ironbark" eucalyptus on the outside, and an interior hull reinforced with heavy beams to withstand ice pressure during her Arctic duties. ''St. Roch'' was designed by Tom Halliday and was based on Roald Amundsen's ship ''Maud''.

Service history

''St. Roch'' was constructed in 1928 at the Burrard Dry Dock Shipyards in

North Vancouver North Vancouver may refer to: *North Vancouver (city), a city in British Columbia, Canada * North Vancouver (district municipality), a district municipality in British Columbia, Canada * North Vancouver (electoral district), a federal electoral di ...

. Between 1929 and 1939 she supplied and patrolled Canada's Arctic. In 1940–1942 she became the first vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage in a west to east direction, and in 1944 became the first vessel to make a return trip through the Northwest Passage, traversing the more northerly route considered the true Northwest Passage, and was also the first to navigate the passage in a single season. Between 1944 and 1948 she again patrolled Arctic waters. On May 29, 1950, she became the first vessel to circumnavigate North America, travelling from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver via the Panama Canal. In all she made three arctic voyages.

Exhibition

In 1954, the ''St. Roch'' was decommissioned in Halifax and returned to Vancouver. In 1958, she was placed in

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

at Kitsilano Point for restoration, partly inspiring the location of the planned Vancouver Maritime Museum, which opened the following year.The St. Roch Research Collection
Vancouver Maritime Museum Archives In 1962, ''St. Roch'' was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Although the ship was placed indoors in an A-frame building adjoining the museum, it remained formally under the control of

Parks Canada Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...

. In 1995 Parks Canada handed over full control of the ''St. Roch'' to the museum.

Images

File:StRoch - VMM.jpg, ''St. Roch'' at Vancouver Maritime Museum File:St roch vancouver 2.jpg, ''St. Roch'' at Vancouver Maritime Museum File:St roch vancouver 3.jpg, ''St. Roch'' at Vancouver Maritime Museum File:St roch vancouver 4.jpg, ''St. Roch'' at Vancouver Maritime Museum

References

External links

St. Roch Research GuideVancouver Maritime Museum

Remembering Constable Albert Chartrand, crew member on board the St. Roch from 1938 - 1942

RCMP Museum

360° Virtual Tour of RCMP's ''St. Roch''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Roch Exploration ships Maritime history of Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Individual sailing vessels Ships built in North Vancouver Museum ships in Canada Museum ships in British Columbia National Historic Sites in British Columbia 1928 ships Schooners Sailing ships of Canada Police vehicles