USQUE AD MARE
A History of the Canadian Coast Guard and Marine Services
by Thomas E. Appleton

The Staff Afloat

From 1850, when the Trinity House of Quebec purchased the paddle steamer Doris in England, successive ships officers and crews were engaged in a government service which eventually developed into the Canadian Coast Guard. Nothing is known of the crew of the Doris except that they were employed by Trinity House until the vessel was chartered to Francois Baby for his towing and contract work. As the Doris was sold in 1855 and wrecked the following year, she was soon eclipsed in our annals by the schooner La Canadienne and the Napier steamers.

We have already mentioned Dr. Pierre Fortin as the founder of the fisheries protection service and the magistrate who brought law and order to the Gulf of St. Lawrence; he deserves also to be remembered for his contribution to the purely marine side of our history. Although not signed on as master, for La Canadienne was officially under the charge of Napoleon Lavoie, the sailing master, Pierre Fortin was the leader of the party and was referred to as the commander of the ship. Altogether he spent some sixteen seasons afloat in his beloved schooner, from May till November each year, from the time of her building until Confederation. As might have been expected from such a man, he was a first-rate practical seaman of great determination. When La Canadienne was driven ashore in 1863, the magistrate transferred to the steamer Napoleon III for the remainder of his three months tour of duty, returned to the wreck and, against all advice, lightened her by salving the heavy gear and had her towed back to Quebec where he persuaded the government to completely rebuild her. Not for nothing was he known as "Le Roi du Golfe". Bernier, the great Arctic leader, served with Fortin for a time in his young days, in La Canadienne, and the government schooner, with her crew of 24 uniformed and armed seamen, must have inspired many a Canadian boy brought up in the seafaring tradition of the lower St. Lawrence. In those days smuggling and pillaging of wrecks was commonplace and the magistrate and his crew acted as detectives, police, and court of law. As a medical man Dr. Fortin was able to give skilled help to many a scattered community and he had, in his time, taken a part in helping to defeat the most terrible scourge against public health ever to be experienced in Canada, the typhoid epidemic which decimated the immigrants of the early forties. Pierre Fortin had been one of the doctors who risked their lives continuously in the quarantine station of Grosse Isle, a place which was deservedly looked on with horror by the general public.

Hard work in the boats. The crew of the Aberdeen manhandle a six-ton boiler to the lighthouse at South Point, Anticosti, about 1895.

After Dr. Fortin retired from the sea service in 1867, he retained a strong public voice in shipping matters and did much to encourage the use of the electric telegraph for reporting ship movements in the Gulf. It was due to him that a signal station was established on Bird Rocks with a submarine cable to the mainland. Without doubt Pierre Fortin remains a prominent figure of pre Confederation marine services which, for all practical purposes, centred on the St. Lawrence trade.

The advent of the Napier ships provided, for the period, a well equipped government fleet, and many officers who later rose in Marine and Fisheries commenced their service in them. With the loss of the Queen Victoria, the Napoleon became the flagship and her first master, Captain Eugene Gourdeau, served in her from the time of her commissioning in 1856 until his health began to fail in 1871. His chief engineer, William Barbour, had an even longer connection; as one of Napier's foremen he had helped to build the twin sister ships before taking over the Napoleon and sailing for Canada where he remained to make his career with the Department.

When Captain Gourdeau left the Napoleon in 1871, he was relieved by Captain Marmen to whom we are indebted for an excellent report of conditions at the time.

"The building of so many new lighthouses . . . upon points of the most dangerous character, where no sailing vessel should venture, in fact the lighthouses being put to warn them away, none but powerful steamers, commanded by prudent and experienced masters, and manned by good crews, should undertake the duties. The supplies at Anticosti and other points are landed in ships boats, manned by six men, and rowed from on to three miles from where the steamer is obliged to lay to, requiring from six to ten trips, frequently through very rough seas; twelve to fourteen strong men with two good boats are needed for the purpose. It has sometimes happened that a sudden storm has sprung up, with a strong wind blowing on the land, and so rapidly increasing in strength as to prevent the boats returning to the steamer, and she had been compelled to run far out to sea to get away from the treacherous neighbourhood, some days elapsing before she could take off the men. Before a sailing vessel could get her men on board, and sails and anchor up, she would be driven among the breakers."

Marmen took over the Napoleon in time to experience a terrible autumn in 1871, when the light- ships came adrift in the ice. He left an account of an incident which illustrates the difficulties of the early engineers:

"The immense amount and strength of the ice since we left till we returned, I have never before experienced. Nothing but the great power of the Napoleon saved her from being numbered among the unfortunate vessels now abandoned in the ice. Her supply pipes became completely stopped up and clogged by ice, so that Mr. Barbour was obliged to fill the engine room compartment with water for the condensers."

On board, the CGS Alert engaged in lighthouse supply work about 1893. The deck cargo comprises lumber for construction work, bales of hay for livestock, crates of live chickens and onion shoots for the lighthouse families.

With the condenser intakes choked, the only way to keep the main engines running was to open the sea valves in the bottom of the ship, well below the ice, allow the engine room to flood, and to circulate free water through the condenser by opening the emergency bilge suction to the main circulating pump. The procedure is hardly likely to be emulated today and one can only imagine what it was like. It must have been an eerie scene as the chief sloshed around the floor plates balancing the pumping and the flooding. Outside, heavy ice could be heard scraping past the iron plates of the hull; inside, in the dimly lit engine room of the Napoleon, the yellow light of oil lanterns would reflect on the rods and valve-gear of the oscillating cylinders, panting rhythmically upwards to the shining crankshaft. Dominating the gloom of the after end, the great gear wheel with its four rows of wooden teeth rumbled to the shaft which disappeared from view in the darkness of the tunnel. In the fifteen years which had elapsed since William Barbour left the employment of Robert Napier, this must surely have been one of his more anxious moments and must have brought to mind the last sad struggle to pump the sinking Queen Victoria. But it was the age of steam, and by steam all things were accomplished.

The way of life on board these early ships was very similar to that of today. Uniform was worn from the beginning and, although little is known of pre Confederation uniforms except that they followed the naval style of the period, photographs and records exist from the last decade of the nineteenth century onwards.

Seamen, firemen and trimmers were square rigged, that is to say they wore a blue serge jumper and collar, with lanyard and silk for official occasions or a woollen Guernsey for ordinary wear, together with the round cap of naval pattern which is described in Marine and Fisheries records as the tourmaline cap.

A deck scene in the Lady Laurier as a Sable Island pony is put ashore at Halifax.

The petty officers and catering staff wore double-breasted suits, usually with waistcoat, and all hands were issued with working clothing and heavy weather gear. Cooks and stewards wore white when on duty.

The dress for officers consisted of the current version of the four button jacket, then cut rather high by modern standards to form a chest protector, which was known as a monkey jacket in distinction from the knee length frock coat worn by captains. The frock coat, perhaps somewhat theatrical nowadays, was then regarded in the Royal Navy as an undress style of uniform full dress being a much more elaborate affair with epaulettes and cocked hatband was much favoured in passenger liners as Sunday best for senior officers. In civilian life, well dressed professional men then wore the frock coat, or the cut-away morning coat, so that the masters of Marine and Fisheries ships were appropriately dressed for that day and age. When employed on Fisheries Protection duties the commanding officer was issued with a sword in token of his enforcement role. An illustration shows Captain Walbran of the Quadra in frock coat, sword and white gloves, the proper dress for formal and official occasions. Walbran had received his early training as a Royal Naval Reserve cadet in HMS Conway and he wore his uniform in the relaxed and confidant manner of a well dressed officer. This attitude was in keeping with the status of the Quadra in the marine life of British Columbia. Sometimes Captain Walbran would read divine service on Sundays to the assembled ships company. But there was nothing pompous about the captain of the Quadra, he was a man of warmth and charm who was welcomed wherever he went. Appropriately enough, and certainly in the spirit of his life and times, Walbran had the motto of British Columbia, Splendor sine occasu, emblazoned on the life rings of the Quadra. Splendour without ceasing; the smart little Quadra was a worthy medium for the message.

The crews of the Marine Service ships were rated in three categories, chief petty officers, petty officers, and seamen. The senior grade included chief stewards and cooks, carpenters and boatswains, while boatswains mates, quartermasters and officers stewards were rated as petty officers. In the fisheries cruisers which, by reason of their armament were more closely akin to naval organization, the gunner and engine room artificers, not carried in the Marine Service, ranked as chief petty officers. All others, above decks or below, were the equivalent of seamen.

Captain John T. Walbran.
1848-1913

(B.C. Archives)

Officer ranks were indicated by the traditional gold lace on the sleeve three rings for the captain, two for the chief officer and one for the second officer. All deck officers displayed a triangle of gold lace above the ring, third officers being designated by the triangle only without gold ring. Engineer officers wore straight gold lace with purple cloth between the bands, those below the rank of third engineer wearing the purple cloth ring only. Pursers, who were carried in the larger ships, wore two silver rings. The general standard of dress in the Marine and Fisheries service was good, in which it reflected the style of the period.

The accommodation in ships of the Canadian government was fitted out to a high standard. Food and living conditions were equally good, far ahead of the average merchant ship, and the equal of anything to be found at the time. The catering department made sure that everyone was well fed, the bill of fare was similar in all messes, and the day began with a hearty breakfast. In 1911, for example, the Aberdeen was serving steak or black pudding, with corn cakes, fried potatoes and the usual breakfast table accompaniments, to be followed at midday dinner by soup, roast pork and strawberry pie. Supper might consist of beef hash and toasted hotcakes and marmalade. The galley was always able to produce tea and coffee and, in general, few non-government ships in 1911 were favoured by catering on this scale.

Captain M. P. McElhinney with officers and crew of the CGS Aberdeen. This group went to Scotland to take delivery, sailed from the Clyde on August 26, 1894, and arrived at Halifax on September 7. Captain McElhinney became nautical adviser to the Department of Marine and Fisheries shortly afterwards.

CGS Canada.

Captain Charles T. Knowlton and officers of the Marine and Fisheries cruiser, taken at Bermuda about 1905 when on naval training. Captain Knowlton was born at Advocate Harbour, N.S. in 1849 and joined the Department in 1887.

Domestic refrigeration for ships stores began to come in before the first world war, but this was confined to cold and cool rooms. Some ships had iceboxes, the pantry refrigerator was unknown, and considerable reliance was placed on dry staples. In the schooners employed to protect the Atlantic fisheries, conditions were of necessity simpler, but standards were as high as could be attained. An invoice of the summer of 1900, charged to the Marine and Fisheries schooner Osprey, shows a surprising range of ships stores. This account from McDonald and Westaway of Georgetown, Prince Edward Island "highest prices paid for all kinds of country produce includes potatoes of course, canned beef and Pilot biscuits the hard kind but also fresh butter, eggs and mackerel. Interspersed with stewards stores are entries for kerosene, cotton waste, manilla rope and varnish. A list of two closely written pages, all supplied between June and August, and sufficient to outfit any schooner, cost only $189.53. All betokens simple plenty.

While the living conditions in Marine and Fisheries vessels were generally good, it was not always possible to reach these standards. In the Arctic, Neptune and Alert, engaged in lengthy voyages to Northern waters, conditions were necessarily different and, in some ways, had changed but little from the days of Franklin. Captain Bernier, only sixty years ago, used a daily ration for use in sledging parties which would nowadays be considered sadly deficient, if not at starvation level. Briefly it comprised 1 lb. of pemmican and 3/4 lb. of biscuit per man per day, with small quantities of tea, sugar, chocolate and tobacco. Pemmican was a cake of dried and pounded meat, mixed with melted fat, which could be stored without deterioration. For the rest, the small quantities were very small½ oz. of tea and sometimes 2 oz. of potatoes. This meagre ration, standard fare in exploration, was considered ample for men working away from the ship in the Arctic ocean; ample or not, it was the best which could be done and no-one died from malnutrition.

Bernier expedition of 1910-11.

First Officer Octave J. Morin of L'Islet, P.Q. and Third Officer Edward MacDonald of P.E.I. of the CGS Arctic. Mr. Morin, who made several important sledge journeys, was 27 when this photograph was taken. Mr. MacDonald had fought in the Boer War.

(Public Archives)

Yet it was a near thing at times. Two officers of the Arctic, messrs O. J. Morin and Charles W. Green, recorded the progress of sledging operations from the ship in Winter Harbour to explore the vicinity of Mercy Bay, on Banks Island, where McClure's expedition had come to grief. Both these journeys took place in the spring of 1909.

Captain J. E. Bernier, F.R.G.S.
1852-1934

A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Captain Bernier was awarded the Back grant of the Society, in "recognition of exploration carried out over a long term of years in Arctic waters", in 1925. Other Canadians to be awarded the Back grant were Captain R. A. Bartlett in 1918, and Captain O. C. S. Robertson R.C.N. in 1955. In this photograph Captain Bernier is seen at work in the chartroom of the CGS Arctic.

(Public Archives)

On May 9th, Morin's party were trudging back across the sea ice after 33 days of sledging and camping. They had no drinking water, snow made them ill and, as for food, the second officer logged:

"I do not need to mention hunger that made the journey with us in a very intimate fashion, never leaving us except to catch up with us again in a very short time."

On May 5th.,

". . . . not being able to resist our thirst any longer, I made up my mind to sacrifice our sledge in order to make a fire to melt snow. We had only four biscuits left, so I considered we did not need the sledge to carry them . . . ."

Thus lightened, and all but starving, they managed to struggle 32 miles to a cache of food at Cape Bay, Melville Island, and make the final 37 miles to the ship in 25 hours.

On the way, Morin fell in with the third officers party. Greene was another resourceful and courageous man. On May 29, his men were exhausted and their entire stock of food was down to one tin of biscuits with a little Bovril and tea.

"As our dog was beginning to feel hungry and snapped at anyone going near him, I shot him and cooked the best of him, and all hands made a hearty meal of the meat."

Eleven days were yet to elapse before Charles Green and his sailors arrived alongside the Arctic in Winter Harbour. At the last they were greatly helped by Mr. Koenig, the chief engineer, whom Bernier had sent out with a party bearing extra food for the returning expeditions.

Resourceful as they were, these officers were inspired by Bernier who was, without doubt, a great leader. By the time that Bernier had realized his ambition to explore the northern regions of Canada, and had been appointed to the command of the Arctic, he was too old to take a personally active part in these sledge journeys; he was, however, a man of exceptional physical stamina who had the faculty of exacting the best efforts from all on board. Nothing was too much trouble to ensure their health and fitness and, in this, Bernier was helped by his medical officers. Notable among these was Dr. L. D. Livingstone who sailed in the Arctic in the expeditions of 1922-23-24-25.

If Bernier had the faculty of attracting and holding the admiration and affection of those who sailed under his command, none were more inspired than Leslie Livingstone, himself a very remarkable man. When he joined Marine and Fisheries for this series of post war voyages, the beginnings of a regular Eastern Arctic Patrol, Dr. Livingstone was about to open up a concept of Northern medical administration which had never before existed. Bernier was seventy when his thirty-four year old medical officer first came aboard at Quebec, but retaining those qualities which led him to forsake the prospects of retirement for the deck of the Arctic, he cast his spell immediately on Dr. Livingstone.

Older than was usual for a doctor on taking up his first medical appointment, Livingstone could look back on an unusual apprenticeship. Setting out to become a mining engineer, he had combined practical experience in Northern Ontario with seven intermittent years in engineering and arts at Queens University before making up his mind to enter medicine. He underwent professional training at St. Lukes Hospital in Ottawa, now the Ottawa Civic Hospital, after which he joined the Arctic at a time when medical services in northern regions were virtually non-existent.

As a result of his work with Bernier, Dr. Livingstone grasped the enormity of the problems facing the Eskimo people and, from countless medical forays on the Eastern Arctic Patrol, he became one of the leading men in this field. From 1926 onwards, during which Livingstone covered 2,500 miles by dog team in Baffin Island while working on a research station at Pangnirtung, he became chief medical officer for the Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch of the Department of the Interior, and served for many years in the Mackenzie River area and the western Arctic. In 1934 Dr. Livingstone married Miss Mabel Anderson of Ottawa and they took up residence at Chesterfield Inlet at a time when few women from the south were prepared to live in the Arctic. After extensive medical service to Canada in the then undeveloped northern areas, including appointments to the old Nascopie in her patrol work. Dr. Livingstone retired in 1961 and died in 1964. Today he is recognized as a great figure in the establishment of northern medical services.