Submarines across the Atlantic

Canadian Vickers was founded in June 1911 by the British arms giant Vickers, invited by Ottawa to build ships for the new Royal Canadian Navy. Its Montreal yard on the St Lawrence opened a huge floating dock in 1912, and in 1915 it assembled ten H-class submarines for the Royal Navy, the first submarines to cross the Atlantic under their own power. The yard went on to build Flower-class corvettes, frigates, destroyers and icebreakers, and one of its wartime corvettes later became Aristotle Onassis’s yacht Christina O.

Flying boats for the bush

Aircraft came in 1923, with a contract for Vickers Viking flying boats for the young Canadian Air Force. Canadian Vickers then designed its own: the Vedette, first flown on 4 November 1924, was the first aircraft designed and built in Canada for Canadian conditions, a small flying boat for forestry survey and fire patrol. Sixty were built, and provincial governments flew them over the northern forests for years. Licence work followed, including Avro 504Ns, Fairchilds, Bellancas and 40 Supermarine Stranraers, and the Northrop Delta, the first all-metal stressed-skin aircraft built in Canada.

The Canso plant and the birth of Canadair

In July 1941 Ottawa ordered Canso amphibians, the Canadian Catalina, and built a new plant at Cartierville for Canadian Vickers to run on its behalf. By 1944 the company asked to be relieved of the job. A group of former senior Canadian Vickers staff led by Benjamin W. Franklin formed Canadair, which took over the plant on 4 November 1944. Between 1923 and 1944 Canadian Vickers built more than 400 aircraft. The shipyard carried on until 1988.

מפעלים

• Maisonneuve shipyard · Montreal, Quebec — Main works on the St Lawrence
• Cartierville plant · Saint-Laurent, Montreal — Government Canso plant managed for Ottawa; became Canadair

אֲנָשִׁים

• Benjamin W. Franklin · senior manager, Canadair founder
• Frank Ross · owner from 1926–1928 — Merged Montreal Dry Dock into Canadian Vickers

שיאים וראשונות

• H-class submarines built in Montreal were the first to cross the Atlantic under their own power
• Vedette: first aircraft designed and built in Canada to a Canadian specification
• Northrop Delta: first all-metal stressed-skin aircraft built in Canada