Julie H. Ferguson - Through a Canadian Periscope: The Story of the Canadian Submarine Service 2 Edition

CC2 at sea.
Library and Archives Canada: E-41068

Copyright Julie H. Ferguson, 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Dominic Farrell

Design: Jesse Hooper

Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Ferguson, Julie H., 1945-, author

Through a Canadian periscope : the story of the Canadian submarine service / Julie H. Ferguson. -- Second edition.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4597-1055-9 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4597-1056-6 (pdf).--ISBN 978-1-4597-1057-3 (epub)

1. Canada. Canadian Armed Forces. Canadian Submarine Service--History. 2. Submarines (Ships)--Canada--History. I. Title.

V859.C3F47 2014 359.9330971 C2013-907414-7 C2013-907415-5

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J. Kirk Howard, President

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• 1 Commanders of the Canadian Submarine Flotillas and Squadrons

  2 Commanding Officers of Canadian Submarines

  3 Canadian Submariners Who Passed Perisher and Commanded

  Royal Navy Submarines in WWI and WWII

  4 Canadian Submariners Who Have Been Decorated

  5 Canadian Submariners Who Lost Their Lives on Active Service

I n 1995, Canadas submarine service was in a very precarious position; it was a time that our former Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier, called the military Decade of Darkness. Julie H. Ferguson herself recognized this, and stated that the first edition of Through a Canadian Periscope would be either a eulogy of Canadas submarine service or a celebration of the commitment of submariners to their country. She and many others helped us understand the importance of submarines to Canada then, and now her second edition has joined the celebrations in 2014 marking one hundred years of our submarine service.

The decade of darkness existed because the government was seeking a peace dividend following the end of the Cold War. Geostrategic change and fiscal restraint were the Ottawa buzzwords surrounding capital project planning, and all military capabilities came under intense scrutiny to reduce budgets. When Canadas Oberon submarines were reaching the end of their design life, the only way they could be replaced was with another innovative acquisition a familiar story to submariners.

In the context of that period, our submarine service was probably the least understood capability in the inventory, so Julies research, networking, and book came at a fortuitous time. Even the navy needed to better appreciate where submarines fitted into their future force structure and what that capability meant to our three-ocean nation, a nation with the longest coastline in the world. Peter Cairns words from the first editions Foreword were prescient: The operational imperative and the business case cried out for maintaining a submarine capability.

Fortunately, Canadas senior officers, including all the surface pukes, rallied to the call for common sense. The proposed acquisition of Upholder submarines from Britain features briefly in the last chapters of Periscope , but fortunately, it did not become the last chapter for submarines. The Department of National Defence eventually put the Upholder acquisition at the top of its capital priorities. After several years of intense negotiating at all levels, the government decided in 1998 to move forward with the British deal, the story of which is told in Julies book, Deeply Canadian: New Submarines for a New Millennium .

Back in those intense times, when the submarine service was in real jeopardy, I recall many debates about what the service represented for Canada. We always argued the submarine service was one of the few strategic-level capabilities that was best represented by the nature of our people. Canadian submariners were the best of the best. Their professionalism and ability to penetrate the modern battle group at sea was, and is, legendary. As the commanding officer of three major surface ships, I knew that the surface pukes were always at a loss without the synergy of operating together with our own submarines and aircraft.

Today, Canadian submarine stories still need to be told in the centre of the country, to help our citizens understand why Canada must continue to invest in an underwater military capability. Now that Onondaga has retired to Rimouski, Quebec, and Ojibwa to Port Burwell, Ontario, submariners are surfacing to tell their stories that have been hidden for too long.

My signed copy of Through a Canadian Periscope is now dog-eared from being passed around to my colleagues since I accepted the position of Project Coordinator for Project Ojibwa. So, I am delighted to have a pristine new copy and to welcome this second edition marking the centenary of Canadas submarine service.

January 2014

RAdm. Daniel G. McNeil, RCN, CMM, CD2. (Ret)

Commander Maritime Forces Atlantic, 20042006