A History of the Canadian Coast Guard and Marine Services

Post War DevelopmentThe period immediately following the war was one of adjustment and consolidation, and few changes were made until the smoke of strife had cleared away. Thereafter, following the national trend, the Department entered on the most rapid period of development in the history of its long service to the marine life of Canada.

In March 1949, Newfoundland came into Confederation and, with the added responsibility of many thousands of miles of coastline, including the long rocky shore of Labrador, there were extra duties for our ships. Although Canada had maintained some of the main Newfoundland lights since early in the nineteenth century, there were many other Newfoundland lights which had been supplied by schooners and local craft.

CCGS Beauport, a sounding vessel employed in the St. Lawrence ship channel. Note the horizontal bar which is lowered for proof sweeping.

The completion of the Seaway brought about an increased flow of international shipping to the lakes, both in numbers and in size, and a corresponding need for more aids to navigation. The assumption, by Canada, of a share in the cost of ocean weather stations involved the acquisition of special ships in the Pacific, and a growing necessity to modernize the search and rescue organization involved a new concept of marine service.

Undoubtedly, the greatest change of all took place in the Arctic where the great circle route to Russia was overshadowed by liabilities in the period of the cold war and an uneasy contemplation of the dangers of a hot one. The subsequent construction of the Distant Early Warning defenses, and the necessity of a supply system in support, opened up the Arctic to a new technology which was followed by a great wave of interest in location of mineral resources.