Through a Canadian Periscope: The Story of the Canadian Submarine Service

Dean F. Oliver is a postdoctoral fellow at the Norman Paterson School of
International Affairs.

This survey begins in 1914, with the extraordinary clandestine purchase
by the premier of British Columbia of Canada’s first
submarines—boats initially deemed unsuitable by their intended
purchaser, the government of Chile. It ends in mid-1995, with the
Chrétien government’s apparent rejection (the issue is still in
doubt) of the excellent British Upholder class as replacements for
Canada’s 30-year-old “fleet” of three Oberons. In between, it
chronicles the submarine service’s changing fortunes, as well as the
lives of Canadian submariners who served in Allied navies during the two
world wars. Most of the book, in fact, is not about the submarine
service (which began in World War I, died shortly thereafter, and was
re-established in 1961) but about Canadian submariners.

The book praises unreservedly the courage, resourcefulness, and
dedication of Canada’s undersea sailors, but it is far from
complimentary to successive generations of officers and politicians.
This critical stance is particularly evident for the post–World War II
period, when Ferguson highlights the irony in an avowedly
anti–submarine warfare navy’s having refused to purchase its own
submarines for training purposes, if not for operational duties. Similar
criticisms emerge in the discussion of the Maritime Command’s recent
flirtation with nuclear-powered boats. It was not the peace movement,
public opinion, or even necessarily fiscal constraints that doomed the
project, Ferguson argues. All of these were important, but absolutely
crucial were the

navy’s inability to guide the proposal through the labyrinthine
policymaking process and the government’s dithering and incoherence in
the Defence portfolio. Having abandoned the idea of more conventional
boats to replace the Oberons during the unsuccessful nuclear debate, for
example, the navy was left poorly prepared to revisit earlier options.
Having heard for so long that “nukes” were essential for the
three-ocean navy, Ottawa was also, by that time, less inclined to
listen.

Ferguson’s book is well-written, filled with first-hand accounts and
anecdotes, and accessible to a popular audience. Although a lack of
documentary evidence weakens the post–1945 chapters considerably,
Through a Canadian Periscope is nevertheless a good survey of an obscure
service.