The Naval Museum of Quebec is only open during summer and run by the local detachment of the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve. All of the stories told in the museum are of individual sailors during the Second World War. Many of the artifacts were provided by family members of veterans and provides a personal perspective into the impact of war on the individual soldier and their families.
In the 1930s, the Royal Canadian Navy only had twelve ships, but quickly expanded to 400 vessels fielding the world’s third-largest navy after the UK and the US. During the war, Canada escorted 165 million tons of supplies between North American and Europe. The price – the lives of 2,000 navy sailors and 1 in 10 of merchant sailors.
Ships carrying dangerous cargos such as explosives and heavy ores would sink faster if torpedoed, so these vessels were placed in the centre of the convoy where they were safest. Each convoy consisted of five columns of nine ships that zigzagged in formation the whole way across the Atlantic to avoid German U-boats.
The navy also transported prisoners of war from Europe to Canada, unloading them in Quebec City before transporting them to POW camps elsewhere in the country.
