The Sea Is at Our Gates: The History of the Canadian Navy

Sidney Allinson is the editor at the Royal Canadian Military Institute
and author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

This book delivers no less than its subtitle “The History of the
Canadian Navy” promises. German sets the scene by first sketching the
early days of sail in North America, when Canada’s very existence
resulted from Britain’s maritime power. He succinctly covers conflicts
with the French, and two wars with a young United States, during which
decisive battles were fought afloat. We learn that those now-forgotten
actions on the Great Lakes included some vessels larger than Nelson’s
“Victory,” and had higher casualties than Trafalgar.

German describes the rcn’s founding in 1910, in the image of the
Royal Navy. Between 1914 and 1918, our sailors served all over the
world, mainly aboard rn vessels, but also, closer to home, building an
effective anti-U-boat force in the St. Lawrence.

German’s pride shines through his exciting account of the rcn’s
prowess during World War II. He recounts a score of naval actions and
plenty of high-seas peril, supplemented by useful maps and battle plans.
He limns our bitter war afloat, mainly fought to maintain the vital flow
of food and military equipment supplied by merchant ships to Britain. In
fact, the Royal Canadian Navy was largely formed by this Battle of the
Atlantic. By 1943, the rcn provided over half the convoy escort duty
across the North Atlantic. From a token force with 1800 personnel and 13
ships in 1939, the rcn grew in five years to muster 100,000 men and
women, 400 fighting ships, and 900 vessels in all—the third-largest
Allied navy.

The story of the years following 1945 is less buoyant, though no less
creditable to the personnel involved. During the Korean War, the rcn had
more than its share of derring-do. We meet the fantastical Waldo DeMara,
the American imposter who shipped as a naval doctor aboard a Canadian
destroyer, and performed miracles of surgery before being unmasked. The
rcn’s brief, expensive flirtation with a Fleet Air Arm is also
covered, in the shape of the aircraft carrier hmcs Bonaventure.

As a former naval officer, the author naturally has some pungent things
to say about the role of the Minister of National Defence, Paul Hellyer,
and about the rcn’s amalgamation into the Canadian Armed Forces.
However, German firmly avoids sounding like a reluctant dinosaur. He
ends his fine 80-year history with some thought-provoking predictions of
where the Royal Canadian Navy may be headed in the next century.