The Allied merchant fleet suffered significant losses in the early years of the Battle of the Atlantic as a result of U-boat attacks. The Park Steamship Company was created by the Canadian government on April 8, 1942 to oversee construction of a merchant fleet to help replace the lost vessels and to administer the movement of materiel. This was part of a coordinated Allied effort that saw the construction of British, American and Canadian merchant ships using a common class of vessel known as the North Sands class (named after a beach near the J. L Thompson yard on the River Wear).[6][7]
Vessels
Plaque commemorating the Canadian Merchant Navy.
Over the next three years, the company ordered approximately 160 bulk cargo ships and 20 tankers that would all fly the Canadian flag. Ships at 10,000 tons deadweight were known as Park class. 43 smaller vessels,[8] at a nominal 4,700 tons, were at first designated Grey class but were later called Park ships as well and were commonly known as the 4700 tonner Park ships. All the Park ships were powered by coal driven steam engines. All but two vessels launched were named for federal, provincial or municipal parks in Canada. Some were armed with bow guns and anti-torpedo nets. Two of the Park ships were lost to natural hazards and four were lost due to enemy action. One, Avondale Park, built at the Pictou Shipyard in Pictou, Nova Scotia was one of two Allied ships destroyed by enemy action in the North Sea in the last hour of the war in Europe on 7 May 1945.[9][10][11][12]
At the same time, Canada produced 90 additional vessels for the American government which were turned over to the British Merchant Navy under a lend-lease agreement.[13] Built to the same design but designed to burn oil instead of coal, these vessels were known as Fort ships, and they took their names from forts. Notable ships of this type included Fort Cataraqui, Fort Rosalie, and Fort Charlotte. Like many of the Fort ships, Fort Charlotte was launched as a Park. The hull of the Park ships were riveted, not welded.
After the war, by 1948, all the Fort ships had been sold to private companies all around the world. The new owners gave the ships new names.
Park Ship Radio RoomSS Brentwood Bay Park tanker ship in Victoria, Canada in 1945
Crew
Park ships were armed. There were merchant seamen gunners. Also many British and Canadian merchantmen naval gunners as Defensively equipped merchant ship (DEMS) . The guns were operated by Royal Navy or Royal Artillery Maritime Regiment personnel with the civilian crews trained to aid in passing ammunition and loading.[14] The American ships carried Naval Armed Guard gunners. Merchant seamen crewed the merchant ships of the British Merchant Navy which kept the United Kingdom supplied with raw materials, arms, ammunition, fuel, food and all of the necessities of a nation at war throughout World War II literally enabling the country to defend itself. In doing this they sustained a considerably greater casualty rate than almost every branch of the armed services and suffered great hardship. Seamen were aged from fourteen through to their late seventies.[15]
The lost are remembered in The Royal Canadian Naval Ships Memorial Monument in Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, Ontario.[16]
The shipbuilding program was not easy to implement as Canada had only four operational shipyards with nine berths in 1940. By 1943, there were six additional shipyards and a total of 38 berths. These were all private shipyards located across Canada - on the East Coast at Pictou and Saint John, in Montreal, Sorel and Lauzon on the St. Lawrence River, at Collingwood on Georgian Bay, and Victoria, Vancouver and Prince Rupert on the Pacific Coast. Only the yards at Montreal, Saint John, Victoria and Collingwood had existed before the war. By 1945, there were 57,000 men and women employed in building or repairing merchant ships in Canada and several thousand more were employed building ships for the Royal Canadian Navy.[17]
The table shows the name of the shipyard and city, and the number of vessels launched by each yard.[13] Eventually thousands of Canadians and British would serve aboard these Canadian Merchant Navy ships.[18]
SS Jasper Park was the first Park ship lost to enemy action when torpedoed near Madagascar. Four of the crew were killed. HMAS Quiberon and HMAS Quickmatch rescued 45 crew and 6 DEMS gunners.
The SS Avondale Park sank by U-boat on May 7, 1945 while under charter to Ministry of War Transport. Two men were killed and there were 39 survivors. Avondale Park was the last Allied ship lost to German submarines during the war.[20]
Engine Fireman on the deck of a Park Ship in 1945Sign on the SS Stanley Park Merchant Ship at dock in October 1945 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Three officer cadets Bob Pethick (left) and Doug McPherson (right). All three wear white uniforms intended for the tropics or hot summer weather. Ship boards names are hinged in the middle, kept folded while at sea and were opened when ship is at port.
Westmount Park sold in 1950 renamed Nordicstar on 27 Dec. 1956 reported in location as middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, then went missing. Was on voyage from Philadelphia to Le Havre with load of coal.
Winnepegosis Park sold in 1949 renamed Aghia Aanastasia on 22 June 1950 ran aground off Tobago on voyage from Baltimore to Rio de Janeiro. She was refloated but sank on 25th of June.
^Morison, Samuel Eliot (1975) [1947]. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1943. I. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN0316583014. p301
