The Fleets

Canadian Government Merchant Marine CGMM, Montreal 1918-1928

Early in 1918 there was a serious depletion of world shipping and the Dominion Government decided there was an imperative need for Canada to create, own and operate a strong merchant marine of her own. Consequently under Government appropriations orders were placed with fourteen shipbuilding firms in Canada for the construction of a fleet of sixty three cargo vessels representing six standard types having a deadweight of 380,736 tons. In addition three vessels having a deadweight of 10,476 tons were transferred by the Department of Railways and Canals making a total of sixty six vessels with a total deadweight of 391,212 tons. The Canadian Government Merchant Marine Limited was incorporated under Dominion Letters Patent issued 30 December 1918 and handed the vessels over to the company for operation.
The three vessels transferred from the Department of Railways and Canals were the Sheba, Thomas J. Dummond and J.A. McKee.

It would be operated by the newly formed Canadian National Railway. The CANADIAN VOYAGEUR was the first ship to be delivered in 1919 from Canadian Vickers.
Each vessel on completion was sold to a separate holding company with the same name as the vessel, e.g. Canadian Voyager, Limited. The stock of these companies were turned over by the Government to Canadian Government Merchant Marine, Limited in return for an equivalent amount of its stock. The vessels were delivered between 22 February 1919 and 29 January 1922 with the first sailing on a commercial voyage on 27 February 1919.
Shortly after forming the CGMM regular schedules were set up to Great Britain, West Indies, Australia, South America and the Canadian home trade.
During the years 1919 and 1920, regular sailings were established to the United Kingdom, South America, the West Indies, as well as other sailings to French ports, and in the Newfoundland coastal trade. During these two years there were substantial operating profits excluding interest and depreciation charges.

Their peacetime role was limited. Designed as general purpose cargo ships, they included a mixture of design variations and fully half fell below 5,100 tonnes dead weight (dwt). They were also slow and coal-fired, and few could carry passengers. They were not economical to run.

Sailings to South American ports commenced in 1919 but were discontinued in 1921 owing to the falling off in cargoes. In 1929, at the request of the Department of Trade sailings to South American were resumed with an annual subsidy of 20,000 for guaranteed monthly sailings, but owing to lack of homeward cargoes the service was discontinued early in 1933. The Intercoastal Service, which was commenced in 1924 to develop the British Columbia lumber business in eastern Canada was discontinued at the end of 1932, as the principal supporter had decided to go into steamship operation and there was not sufficient business from other shippers to warrant continuing the service. The service to the United Kingdom from Atlantic ports was maintained till 1929 when it became impossible to operate this service with the obsolete ships at the Company's disposal in competition with up-to-date ships then being operated by other steamship companies. The Pacific Coast Service to California was maintained until 1929, when, paper shippers having made other arrangements, the service had to be discontinued. The Pacific Coast Service to Australia, the Orient and India was commenced in 1920, in order to promote the British Columbia lumber business, but was forced to discontinue some time afterwards because of the low rates on outward cargoes and the lack of homeward cargoes. The service from Eastern Canada with the ten largest ships to Australia and New Zealand was maintained until 1936 when, because of heavy losses and the increasing obsolescence of the ships, an arrangement was made with three British shipping companies (New Zealand Shipping Company, Port Line and Ellerman & Bucknall ) to purchase the 10 ships and take over the service. This transaction liquidated the affairs of the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, Limited and the company became inactive.

There was one notable exception. In 1920, the Canadian government sponsored a steamship service for passengers and cargo between Canada and the West Indies. Initially CGMM ships were used, but they proved unsatisfactory and five new combination passenger/cargo liners were ordered. Built in Britain, these white ships became famous as the “Lady Boats” (they had been named after the wives of famous British admirals) and, in 1928, the Canadian National (West Indies) Steamships Limited was formed to operate them.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for their assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

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