CSS Acadia is a former hydrographic surveying and oceanographic research ship of the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and its successor the Canadian Hydrographic Service.

Acadia served Canada for more than five decades from 1913-1969, including being commissioned twice into military service for the Royal Canadian Navy during both world wars. She is currently a historic museum ship stationed in Halifax Harbour at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic; she is the only ship still afloat that served the Royal Canadian Navy in both World Wars.

Retaining her original engines, boilers and little-changed accommodations, she is one of the best preserved Edwardian ocean steamships in the world and a renowned example of Canada's earliest scientific prowess in the fields of hydrography and oceanography.

History

Acadia was designed in Canada for the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Newcastle-on-Tyne in England. She was launched in May 1913 and made her first voyage in July 1913. She saw extensive use prior to 1917 surveying the waters along Canada's Atlantic coast, including tidal charting and depth soundings for various ports. Her first two season were spent in Hudson Bay, along with the first Canadian surveys of notorious Sable Island. In her first year she rescued the crew of a steamship crushed by ice in Hudsons Bay, the first of many rescues the rugged steamship would make. Among her more enduring work was a survey of the Bay of Fundy which became her longest assignment prior to entering military service.

Bow of CSS Acadia with dory lowered on her starboard davit

World War I

CSS Acadia was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy in January, 1917 as a patrol vessel, replacing the CSS prefix with HMCS, thus becoming HMCS Acadia. From 1917 until March 1919, she conducted anti-submarine patrols from the Bay of Fundy along Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast and through the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. On December 6, 1917, less than 12 months into her war-time service, HMCS Acadia survived the disastrous Halifax Explosion. Acadia was serving as guard ship at the entrance to Bedford Basin but suffered only minor damage. Near the end of the war she served as a platform for experiments with anti-submarine balloons.

Inter-war period

Following the armistice, HMCS Acadia was returned to the Hydrographic Survey of Canada (renamed the Canadian Hydrographic Service in 1928) where she regained her original name CSS Acadia and resumed hydrographic survey work throughout the inter-war period of the 1920s-1930s. Lack of survey funds suspended her operation in 1924 and 1925. In 1926 she resumed surveys and became the first Canadian research vessel to be fitted with an echo sounder. A major achievement were surveys to establish the port of Churchill, Manitoba. Acadia also performed pioneering Canadian oceanographic research.

HMCS Acadia's badge, designed during her World War II service

World War II

CSS Acadia was recommissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy in October 1939, once again becoming HMCS Acadia. She was first used as a training ship for HMCS Stadacona, a shore-based facility in Halifax. From May 1940 to March 1941 she saw active use as a patrol ship off the entrance of Halifax Harbour, providing close escort support for small convoys entering and leaving the port from the harbour limits at the submarine nets off McNabs Island to the "Halifax Ocean Meeting Point". After a refit, HMCS Acadia was assigned in mid 1941 for use as an anti-aircraft training ship, serving as a gunnery training vessel for crews onboard the Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) fleet. In June 1944, HMCS Acadia was assigned to the training base HMCS Cornwallis and stationed at the nearby port of Digby, Nova Scotia where she was used for gunnery training for recruits and advanced gunnery training for petty officers and officers.

Later years

Starboard bow of CSS Acadia, with dory lowered on davits

With the end of the war, HMCS Acadia was paid off by the RCN on November 3, 1945 and returned for the second time to the Canadian Hydrographic Service as CSS Acadia. A major post-war assignment was updating and expanding the nautical charts of Newfoundland and Labrador after the province joined Canada in 1949. In 1962, Acadia rescued hundreds of people from forest fires in Newfoundland, evacuating two towns. In addition to her work with the CHS, CSS Acadia participated in military survey missions for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and United States Navy. By the end of her career, Acadia had charted almost every region of Atlantic Canada as well as much of the Eastern Arctic.

Museum Ship

She was retired from active service on November 28, 1969 and was transferred to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) for use as a museum ship. On February 9, 1982, BIO transferred the CSS Acadia to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic for preservation and interpretation. She is moored at the Museum's North Wharf and open to visitors from May to October. In September 2003 she rode out Hurricane Juan with ease, despite being the oldest vessel in Halifax Harbour. In the summer Acadia is joined at the Museum wharves by HMCS Sackville, operated by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust. The two nearly identically sized ships present a contrast in shipbuilding eras and offer an ironic comparison as Sackville is a warship which became a part-time hydrographic ship and Acadia is a hydrographic ship which became a part-time warship.

Acadia is currently the only known vessel still afloat to have survived the Halifax Explosion.

Crew

Most of Acadias crew came from the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. Many served their entire careers aboard, an indication that she was regarded as a "happy ship". Many of her officers were from Newfoundland. As a hydrographic ship, the Hydrographer in Charge was the senior officer, deciding where Acadia went and what she did, while the Captain ran the ship's day to day operations. In wartime, naval officers took over.

Hydrographers in Charge

Starboard view of CSS Acadia

• Capt. Frederick Anderson 1913-1916, 1919-1923
• R.J. Fraser 1926
• J.U. Beauchemin 1927-1939
• H.L. Leadman 1946-48
• S.R. Titus 1948-1950
• C.H. Martin 1950-1955
• H. Furuya 1955-1962
• J.E.V. Goodwill 1962-1964
• L.P. Murdock 1965
• R.C. Amero 1966, 1969
• P.L. Corkum 1967
• T.E. Smith 1968

Captains

• Capt. S.W. Bartlett 1913
• Capt. W.A. Robson 1914-1924
• Capt. J. Roach 1926
• Capt. F.V. Ryan 1927-1939
• Capt. D.M. Snelgrove 1948-1949
• Capt. R.J. Bell 1949-1952
• Capt. E.A. Codner 1953
• Capt. W.N Kettle 1954-1957
• Capt. J.W. Taylor 1958-1969^[1]

Naval Commanding Officers

• LT J.O. Boothby, (RCN) 20/2/1940 - 1/4/1940
• LCDR H.G. Shadforth (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 12/4/1940 - ?
• LT S. Henderson (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 29/4/1941 - 11/11/1941
• LCDR J.L. Diver (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 12/11/1941 - 19/9/1943
• LCDR R.V. Campbell (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 20/9/1943 - 15/12/1943
• LCDR J.C. Littler (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 16/12/1943 - 30/3/1944
• LCDR R.A.S. MacNeil (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 31/3/1944 - 6/6/1944
• Skipper/LT F.W. Durant (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 7/6/1944 - 4/3/1945
• Skipper/LT C.C. Clattenburg (RCNR-Later renamed RCNVR) 5/3/1945 - Decommissioning^[2]

References

• Maritime Museum of the Atlantic CSS Acadia web page
• Friends of Canadian Hydrography - CSS Acadia page
• Canadian Navy Heritage - Acadia Photo Archive and Specs
• Haze Grey and Underway - Converted civilian vessels