THE EAGLES OF PROTECTION

摘要

Prior to the United States' declaration of war on Germany on 6 April 1917, Canada's maritime defense beyond coastal waters was the responsibility of the Royal Navy, which maintained the flow of goods and troops from North American ports to the United Kingdom in British or neutral vessels. These ships were, in large measure, protected by the cruisers of the Royal Navy and based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This left the unglamorous yet essential task of coastal patrol and minesweeping to the fledgling Royal Canadian Navy, which, by late 1916, had grown from two obsolescent cruisers and 350 personnel to a rough and ready patrol force composed of Canadian government vessels commissioned into naval service, ships taken from trade and chartered for wartime service, and fast yachts purchased in the United States and converted into warships.