to her hull, which had been superficially damaged in the St. Lawrence grounding of 23 August. Aircraft contin-ued their training from the RCAF station4 at Patricia Bay and on 31 January a Firefly was lost off Portland Island about four miles north-east of the flying field.
Shortly after the plane had been seen in difficulties an explosion was heard in the direction she had gone, but snow-storms hampered the search and no trace was found of the crew of two.
This sad event was a particularly hard blow as the pilot was Lieutenant-Commander O. W. Tattersall, DSC, RN, Commanding Officer of 825 Squadron, who had commissioned the unit and done much to help in its development along the right lines.
Commodore DeWolf was also appointed as Senior Canadian Naval Officer Afloat (Short Title: SCNOA).
While Warrior was under refit at Esquimalt important decisions were being made in Ottawa as to her future. During the previous summer, when Magnificent’s com-missioning date had been set provisionally for July 1947 the ambitious plans made prior to the end of the war for the manning of two light fleet carriers had had to be re-vised owing to the manpower ceiling imposed on the RCN.
The navy could only contemplate manning one carrier at a time and the suggestion was therefore made to London that Warrior be returned in mid-1947 for lay-ing-up in a British yard “pending modernization or pos-sible replacement in 1948.”5 Also shorthanded and beset with difficulties over maintenance and berthing facili-ties, the Admiralty regretted that it could not undertake this commitment.
As the year drew to a close Canadian naval authorities proposed that the ship should pay off in October 1947 and be placed in reserve at Esquimalt until such time as she could be manned for active service.
6 Warrior’s fate was finally sealed early in 1947 when very substantial reductions were made in the armed forces estimates for the forthcoming fiscal year and the Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Brooke Claxton, was given permission by the Cabinet Defence Committee to discuss with United Kingdom authorities the question of returning her when Magnificent “was placed in operation with the RCN.”7
The main objection to Warrior, at this time, was that she had not been “arti-cized” and was thus unsuitable for year-round duty in Canadian waters. With less money available for the Ser-vice her retention, even in reserve, could not be justified.
Having undocked Warrior continued the commission by steaming over to Vancouver, where she received a rousing welcome, for a week’s visit in early February 1947.
The Fireflies returned to the ship later in the month and the carrier started on the long voyage to Hali-fax in company with Uganda and Crescent.
This was a fruitful cruise in respect to exercising and the efficiency of all ships had been considerably raised by the time they reached Balboa on 9 March, after calling at San Pedro, California.
Warrior bade farewell to the West Coast squadron and passed through the Panama Canal to Colon, where Nootka and Micmac were awaiting her
The destroyers took up screening positions on the carrier and the three headed for the Greater Antilles and the island of Cuba.
At 0800 on Saturday, 15 March Warrior fired a National Salute, which was replied to by Forteza de la Tebana, as she passed Morro Castle, Havana. In-side the harbour Commodore DeWolf’s Broad Pennant was saluted by the Cuban cruiser Cuba as the carrier returned the compliment gun for gun.
After the echoes had died away Warrior moored ship in the middle of the port and the two destroyers berthed alongside Muelles Paulla Pier.
This peace-time visit of Canadian warships to Havana
Cuban capital in 1929. The Commodore, accompanied by the Commanding Officers of Nootka and Micmac, laid wreaths at the foot of two plaques which commemo-rated Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d’Iberville, and on 17 March did the same at a monument to Cuba’s national hero, José Martí.
After a pleasant three-day stay the ships departed for Grassy Bay, Bermuda, where it was hoped to have a further training period. Strong winds and high seas made it necessary to cancel the pro-gramme and Warrior returned to Halifax on 27 March.
HMCS Warrior in dry dock, Esquimalt.
The two air squadrons, 803, which was now modified
The two air squadrons, 803, which was now modified for carrier service, and 825 were formed into the 19th Carrier Air Group and until Warrior sailed again they were exercised in dummy deck landings from Dart-mouth.
The group was embarked in the carrier by lighter and, with Nootka in attendance, Warrior steamed south to Bermuda.
On arrival off the island six aircraft of 825 Squadron were flown ashore to the U.S. Army Base at Kindley Field to provide radar tracking and height-finding targets for forthcoming fleet exercises.
A salute to the Commander-in-Chief America and West Indies Station, Vice-Admiral Sir William Tennant, KCB, CBE, MVO, was fired by Warrior as she passed Spanish Point into Grassy Bay, where it was replied to by the cruiser HMS Kenya, lying at anchor with the other ships of the squadron.†
Operations with the British squadron were divided into three, weekly periods. The first was given over to harbour drills including exercises with the Canadian air-craft based at Kindley Field.
The second period con-sisted of individual ship exercises at sea, with Warrior supplying aircraft requirements. For the period 5 to 8 May, the Commander-in-Chief went to sea in Sheffield and the programme included tactical manoeuvres, day and night, with all ships participating; for the first time since the formation of the air branch, planes made night |
deck landings. Admiral Tennant embarked in the carrier and personally conducted one night’s shadowing exer-cise from Warrior’s operations room.
Experience was gained in all these drills and on the lighter side plenty of sporting fixtures were arranged between ships’ compa-nies on shore. Warrior and Nootka returning to Halifax were joined by the destroyer, HMCS Haida and, on arri-val off Chebucto Head, 11 Fireflies and one Seafire were flown off to the Dartmouth shore station.
Repairs to a main manoeuvring valve kept Warrior alongside until the first week in June. After that she went on two short cruises along the east coast, returning to Halifax to give leave on the 24th.
Preparations were made for a trooping trip to the United Kingdom and on 2 August merchant ships in harbour, the Dartmouth ferry, and even the gas works joined in giving Warrior a rous-ing send off.
On board were 27 officers and 179 men of the 19th CAG going for course and re-equipment with Firefly Mark IV’s and Sea Fury fighters. In addition to another large party of naval personnel going for service there were also embarked 25 sea cadets accompanied by their officers, and 32 boy scouts with three scout mas-ters.
The former were visiting Britain as guests of the Navy League, the latter en route to attend an Interna-tional Jamboree in France.
A smooth sea was enjoyed for the whole voyage and in pleasant sunshine the ship secured to a buoy off Greenock on 8 August. All pas-sengers disembarked and the ship’s company was given 60 hours leave in three watches before the carrier slipped and steamed down the Clyde for home. The sea cadets and boy scouts were back aboard and deck cargo now included two RN aircraft for cold weather trials at Na-mao, Alberta.
Warrior arrived home on 28 August.
826 and 883 Squadrons had reformed at Dartmouth on 15 May, 1947, to become the 18th Carrier Air Group. Equipped with Seafires and Fireflies, formerly flown by the 19th CAG, they were ready for sea training by mid-November and a rendez-vous was made with Warrior off Halifax.
Deck landing and pilot navigational exer-cises continued until the 21st, whenever weather permit-ted. On that day the ship completed her flying commit-ments for the Royal Canadian Navy, her aircraft return-ing to Eastern Passage.
Until the end of the year hands were occupied in storing and provisioning and finally with the embarkation and stowing of some 3000 packing cases for Magnificent.
All this work had been finished by 6 January, 1948, and the next day Warrior and Haida sailed for Bermuda, encountering north-westerly gales and a quartering sea on the way. The ships arrived off the Narrows and Warrior secured to the Flagship buoy in Grassy Bay while Haida went alongside the Clock Tower Jetty.
The carrier swung five weeks to her moor-ing, during which time progress was made in the work of cleaning in preparation for paying off. In leisure hours the football enthusiasts disported themselves on the Boaz Island playing field.
On 6 February, the new Tribal Class destroyer, HMCS Cayuga, which was en route to the Pacific, called at the island and handed over a quan-tity of victualling stores from Halifax.
Magnificent’s completion date had finally been set for March, 1948, and the non-winterized Warrior was being sent to Bermuda to await the event.
tity of victualling stores from Halifax.
A naval and military draft was brought out to Warrior on 12 February and shortly afterwards she slipped from the buoy.
A southerly route had been chosen and fine weather was experienced over most of the voyage. The high ground on Flores Island, Azores, was sighted four days out and on 20 February Warrior steamed into Bel-fast Lough to be welcomed by eight Sea Furies of 803 Squadron with a display of formation flying.
As soon as the ship had secured, arrangements were made for the transfer of stores to Magnificent; the work was com-pleted on the 27th, when an advance party of 76 men was drafted to the new carrier.
On her last voyage as a Canadian warship Warrior passed through the Needles Passage on 1 March and came to anchor off Spithead, where aviation fuel was pumped out.
An RN advance group joined and on St. Patrick’s Day Warrior was moved into dry dock. The main draft for Magnificent consisting of five officers and 238 men left the ship and at 0800 on 23, March the Broad Pennant of Commodore DeWolf was struck.
With the hoisting of the Colours of the Royal Navy, the carrier became HMS Warrior and was accepted by her new Commanding Officer, Com-mander R. Casement, OBE, RN.
The first Canadian carrier had had a short commission but the spirit of co-operation developed in her be-tween the ship’s company and the air personnel estab-lished the air branch on the right footing with the fleet.
Feelings of superiority and jealousy on both sides, which are inevitable when the old order comes into contact with the new, were harnessed into a team spirit which is now an accepted fact. Captain Houghton had proposed the very suitable motto, “Haul Together”, for the ship.
This was a paraphrase of the famous exhortation of Sir Francis Drake: “I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner and the mariner with the gentle-man.” In the case of Warrior the motto referred to the seamen and the airmen.8
After reverting to the Royal Navy, Warrior served with the British Fleet and in 1956 was completely mod-ernized, including the adoption of the angled flight deck principle, the fitting of a steam catapult, improved radar and new communication systems.
In 1957 she sailed as flagship of a Special Service Squadron and took a lead-ing part in Britain’s first full scale hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific. On 4 November, 1958, the Republic of Argentina took possession of its first aircraft carrier, Warrior, and renamed her Independencia.
Whatever her fate the old Warrior will be remem-bered with pride and affection by the RCN, particularly those who served in the ship, on whose battle scroll were carved the honours:
The Saints 1782
Copenhagen 1801
Jutland 1916 |
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