Jproc.ca



HAIDA TOUR INTRODUCTION

By Jerry Proc

Revision Date: April 23, 2014

This introductory slide show features HAIDA’s history, a virtual tour of the ship, restoration examples and what Parks Canada has done since taking ownership of the ship. If read out loud, the narration takes about 55 minutes to complete.

The numbers in red indicate the Power point slide number in the file called “haida_tour_intro.pps”. If slides are added or deleted, the PPS presentation must be recompiled and the numbering in this document must be edited to reflect the insertion or deletion. So its best to leave it as is.

LET THE SHOW BEGIN

2 At the beginning of WWII, the Royal Canadian Navy only had 13 ships on strength. Six of these were old destroyers and the rest consisted of four mine sweepers and three auxiliary craft. The Government wanted to upgrade the navy so they approached the UK to purchase state-of-the-art Tribal class destroyers. A deal was cut in which the UK built four Tribals to Canadian specifications. Canada in turn, would then build ten corvettes for the Royal Navy.

HAIDA was one of 27 Tribals built for the Royal Navy, RCN and RAN. She was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard in Newcastle-On-Tyne England in Sept 1941, launched August 1942 and commissioned on 30 Aug 1943. Her length is 377 feet with a beam of 37.5 feet, and a draught of nearly 12 feet when fully loaded. HAIDA’s standard displacement is 2,200 tons and 2,700 tons loaded. A pair of Parsons turbines, producing 22,000 hp each, could propel the ship at 36 knots (67 kph) . Original cost to build HAIDA was $3.4 million in 1943 dollars (about $45 million in 2013 dollars) . The wartime crew consisted of 235 men plus 14 officers.

3 As built, HAIDA’s major weapons were six 4.7 in guns on three mounts of 2 barrels each; one 4 in (HA/LA) double barrel mount; four 21 inch torpedoes; four QF 2 pounders; twelve 20 mm Oerlikons on 6 mounts of 2 barrels each. During D-day, HAIDA was not part of the attacking force. Rather, she and other ships of the 10 Destroyer flotilla were assigned to guard the western flanks of the main invasion force some 70 miles to the west. Post D-Day, HAIDA spent most of her time patrolling the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay guarding the supply lines against attack by the Germans either from the sea or air. Once the English Channel was secured, HAIDA was assigned as an escort to the ships providing war material to Murmansk Russia. During WWII, HAIDA sunk 11 enemy ships. Each time a ship was sunk Harry DeWolf carved a notch in wooden handrail on the bridge. There were 11 notches in total.

4 After WWII, HAIDA went into reserve status during 1946 then re-commissioned in 1947. One of her main duties was to be a plane guard for the aircraft carrier Magnificent. A plane guard sailed in close proximity to the aircraft carrier ready to rescue any pilot who had to ditch at sea. Other activities consisted of participating in the usual Atlantic fleet exercises. In November 1949, HAIDA succeed in picking up the crew of a ditched B-29 bomber. Since the copilot of the B29 was a Texan, he made the captain and crew of HAIDA honorary Texans.

5 During the Cold War, the Royal Canadian Navy's priority became anti-submarine warfare

As part of the move to specialization, all the Tribals, including Haida, were converted to destroyer-escorts. This involved a major transformation with the fitting of the Squid anti-submarine weapon, new gun armament and more sophisticated detection systems. During the conversion of HAIDA between 1949 and 1951, the forward 4.7-inch guns were replaced with the twin 4-inch gun mountings, while the 4 inch mounting aft was replaced with the three-inch fifty-calibre gun. The after 4.7 inch mounting and the depth charge racks were removed and the squid anti-submarine mortars installed. The 20 mm Oerlikons were replaced with the single 40 mm Bofors guns. The two pounder pompoms were removed.

After being recommissioned, HAIDA did two tours of duty in Korea - one combat tour in 1952 and another in 1954 but this time as a peacekeeper. Since the North Koreans did not have a navy, let alone submarines, the anti-submarine weapons installed during the modernization were of no use in that theatre of war. Instead, HAIDA and other ships would sail up and down the Korean coast shelling enemy positions and trying to blow up trains. HAIDA became a member of the Trainbusters club and was credited with 2 engines. Out of the twenty-eight kills officially tallied by the Trainbusters Club, the RCN accounted for eight.

6 After Korea, numerous exercises, port visits, rescues and refits occupied the rest of HAIDA’s service life. In March 1958, the top of HAIDA’s foremast snapped off during bombardment exercises. It was repaired in Miami but in December of that year HAIDA was returning from a Mediterranean cruise when the foremast toppled again. Repaired again, the splice plates can still be seen today. This 1960 photo depicts the final configuration of the ship.

7 By February 1963, HAIDA was breaking down too often and repair costs were deemed to be uneconomical. The navy decided to retire HAIDA and then dispatched her for a final cruise on the Great Lakes in the summer of 1963. In this photo, HAIDA has berthed in from of naval reserve unit HMCS Star in Hamilton. HMCS Sioux is to HAIDA’s left. Little did anyone know that this would be HAIDA’s permanent home some 40 years later.

8 HAIDA was finally paid off in October 1963. She was then acquired from the Department of National Defense by a group of Toronto businessmen and former naval officers, supported by then-Premier John Robarts, himself a former naval officer. This group, called HAIDA INC, wished to see Canada's most famous warship preserved. She was brought to Toronto in 1964 opened as a museum ship a year later. By 1969, HAIDA INC could no longer manage the ship financially so she was transferred to the Province of Ontario and moved to Ontario Place in 1971. In 1984, on the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Haida was declared to be a National Historic Monument.

A TOUR OF THE SHIP

10 HAIDA’s 4 inch guns had an 8 nm range. Rate of fire is 15 rounds per minute. Barrels can be elevated to +80 or -10 degrees which was ideal to shot at enemy aircraft. For the crew below decks, the firing of the guns could be best described as "being inside a 45 gallon drum and having someone pound it on the outside with a sledge hammer.

11 Rear view of 4 inch gun. The fuse setting mechanism is at the right. A practice shell laying in the fuse setter.

12 The two forward 4 inch magazines have a capacity to hold 1,120 rounds. Ammo is lifted from the magazine via hoist to deck below the gun, than hand carried to the gun or the ready use locker.

13 An example of an ammo hoist. It transported ammunition from the magazine to the deck below the guns. Ammo was then hand carried to the gun or the ready use locker.

14 Admiralty Fire Control Clock. It is situated in the compartment called the Transmitting Station. Designed around 1935, this is a mechanical analog computer which provides the fire control solution to the 4 inch guns when firing at surface targets by providing bearing and elevation values to the gunners. For airborne targets, the forward Mk 63 Fire Control System provided the Fire Control solution to both A and B mounts.

15 This is how the AFCC looked in actual use.

16 Three in 50 gun. Rate of fire: 40 rounds per minute per barrel. Magazine had a capacity of 1,518 rounds. In the RCN, 10,000 yards (5.6 miles) was the minimum horizontal engagement range for this gun. The Fire Control was solution provided by the aft Mk 63 Fire control system. Target was acquired and tracked with the aft Mk 29 gunsight. This gun was manned by a crew of 15.

17 Aft view of 3”50 gun. Shells were manually delivered from the ready use compartment to the four lazy susans on the back of the gun. The shells would then be taken off the lazy susan and placed into the clips which feed the breech of the gun.

18 Ready use compartment for 3in 50 shells.

19 Armourer’s workshop. Components of the ships guns would be repaired here.

20 Forty mm Bofors . This was an antiaircraft gun with h a rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute and a maximum vertical height of 23,300 feet. In the RCN, a 40 mm Bofors mounted on a 20 mm Oerlikon base was called a Boffin.

21 Boffors gun crew shelter. Guns crew could huddle here while awaiting the “all hands to battle station” order.

22 Forward Mk 29 gun sight. An aimer would follow an airborne target by maintaining visual contact in the optical sight. The 4 in guns would then train and elevate in sync with the aimer’s movements. Another Mk 29 gunsight, mounted aft, controlled the 3 in 50 gun.

23 20 mm Oerlikon example. Rate of fire of 480 rounds per minute and a maximum vertical range of 6,000 yards. These were all removed during the 1950-52 mid life modernization.

24 Torpedo tubes. HAIDA carried four Mk 9 torpedoes which had a 21 inch diameter and a 300 pound warhead. There was no provision to reload torpedoes at sea once they were ejected. Torpedoes were launched from the tubes using the “spitball and straw” principle. Powered by a 4 cylinder diesel engine, they could achieve a speed of 45 knots and had a 5 mile range. Torpedoes were normally fired from either the port or starboard Torpedo Firing Stations on the bridge or if the bridge was out of action, they could be fired locally. Torpedoes were generally used to finish off an adversary ship once it was crippled but not yet put out of action. .

25 A Torpedo Firing Station on the bridge.

26 Controls for firing the torpedoes locally.

27 The breech on the Torpedo Firing Pistol has been opened to illustrate the Torpex charge..

28 Squid Launchers - These mortars launched 400 pound bombs over top of the ship and some 200 to 300 yards ahead of it. They could be launched in patterns in order to crush the pressure hull of an adversary submarine.

29 Squid Hoist – Squid bombs are brought up from the magazine to the Squid Handling Room via this hoist.

30 Squid Handling Room. Squids were stored here until needed.

31 Squids were manually passed through this bulkhead in the Squid Handling Room unto the loading trolley on the other side.

32 Front of a boiler. HAIDA has three Admiralty Type 3 drum boilers which produced both saturated (wet) and superheated (dry) steam at 300 psi. Boiler Room 1 houses two boilers which feed the common forward funnel. Boiler Room 2 contains one boiler which connects to the smaller aft funnel. Both Boiler Rooms were positively pressurized to ensure a positive draft for the boilers . Entry was through air locks.

33 Each boiler had 8 fuel sprayers. These could be removed for individual cleaning even if the boiler was still flashed up. Since HAIDA Burned Bunker C oil, the sprayers had to be cleaned frequently.

34 Engine Throttles . – Control the admittance of steam to the high and low pressure sections of the turbines plus forward/reverse functions.

35 Front view of one Parsons steam turbine. Each turbine produces 22,000 hp.

36 Engine gauge panel. Key engine parameters were monitored from this panel,

37 Gearing Room – Two gearboxes reduce the high rpms of the turbines to low rpms for the propellers. The front of the gearbox has two inputs. One is from the high pressure turbine and the other from the low pressure turbine. These gearboxes are about the size of a compact car.

38 Propellors – They have been removed to prevent cathodic interaction between the alloy in the propellers and the ship’s steel hull.

39 Tiller flats – This compartment houses two hydraulic motors which control the rudder. If the wheelhouse and emergency position were put out of action, the rudder could still be manually operated from Tiller Flats.

40 Aft Gennie – This is the 3 cylinder GM diesel which drives a 100 kw DC generator. There was another identical unit situated in Boiler Room #1. It was restored to working order by Margaret Mathers, HAIDA’s Master Volunteer Stoker.

41 Aft Gennie – This is the actual 100 kw DC generator.

42 Battery bank for starting the diesel. Originally ten 6 volts batteries wired in series to produce 60 volts at 800 amps. It was rewired to use easy obtainable 12 volt truck batteries.

43 AFT KVA Compartment – . HAIDA was originally designed with a 225 volt DC electrical system only. When North American electronics found their way into the ship, it became necessary to generate alternating current to power this equipment This motor-alternator provided 440 volt power which was then stepped down by transformers to 120 volts.

44 Pictured is the 50 kw motor alternator. This compartment was restored in 2010. There was another unit in the forward KVA compartment

45 Aft Electrical switchboard.

46 Forward, high power, electrical switchboard located midships.

47 Low power (24VAC) motor alternator sets.

48 Low power electrical switchboard.

49 Bridge – Command, control and communication best describe the bridge functions. Command was exercised by the Captain, either personally or through the Officer of the Watch. HAIDA was designed with the open bridge in order to make it easier to detect surface targets visually. In newer ship designs, as more and more electronics found its way to the bridge, it became necessary to enclose the bridge to protect the equipment from the elements. Most prominent in the picture is the magnetic compass with its green and red compensating balls.

50 Emergency Steering Position - If the bridge was put out of action, the ship could be steered (conned) from this position which is located midship. Instructions would be given by a voice powered telephone.

51 Catwalks – A pair of these catwalks were added during the 1944 refit in order to make it safer for crew to traverse between the forward and aft superstructures during heavy seas.

52 Radar antennas – Bottom left– Sperry Mk2 navigation radar. Range 30 nm; Top left AN/SPS-6C air search radar . Range 200 nm. Type 293 (High Definition Warning Set) is sitting on the teardrop. Range 15 nm. Used during WWII and Korea. It was removed around 1960.

53 Operators PPI display console for Sperry MK II navigation radar.

54 One of two plotting tables in the Operations Room. Space was very tight in here.

55 Sonar Control Room. – Sonar operators manned the various sonar recorders or displays. The transducers for the sonars were mounted in a dome at the bottom of the hull. The dome would be raised when not needed or lowered during action stations. The sonar equipment itself was located elsewhere in the ship in its own dedicated space.

56 The Wheelhouse was occupied by one helmsman and two engine telegraphists. Orders for engine movements were issued form the bridge and relayed to the engine room via the port and starboard engine telegraphs. The helmsman did not require a forward visual view since his only job was to keep the ship on the bearing requested by the bridge via a voice pipe..

57 Damage Control Headquarters – Located midship, this was the central communication point for any emergency. It was always manned when the ship was at sea, usually with a crew of two.  While awaiting any potential emergency, they would update the engineering log books, the fuel consumed per watch, scheduled routine maintenance for the day crew and other engineering type duties to keep themselves busy .

58 Captain’s Day Cabin. Here, the Captain managed the affairs of the ship. This space consists of a Day Cabin, a bedroom, and a washroom complete with tub. The Captain used this cabin while the ship was in harbour.  At sea, he lived in the Captain's Sea Cabin which was close to the Bridge and Operations Room. In case of medical emergency, the Day Cabin could be used as an operating room by the ship’s medical articifer.

59 This is a settee and electric fireplace within the Captain’s Day cabin.

60 Ship’s bakery. – Fresh, delicious bread was baked here daily.

61 Ship’s canteen. Here, the crew could buy various sundries such as pop, snacks or shaving supplies.

62 Main galley – forward view. Parks Canada did a remarkable job of interpretation here.

63 Main galley – aft view.

64 Upper forward Mess area. – The Messdeck is the term given to the area where the sailors ate and slept and lived. Along the sides of the Messdeck are grey, wooden lockers for the sailor's personal possessions. These also doubled as Mess seating and were the only space that a sailor had to store his clothing or 'Kit'. Up to 130 men could be accommodated in the upper messdeck while the lower mess deck accommodated another 90. At mealtime, someone at each table would be designated as “Cook of the Mess”. He would then go to the galley and bring back enough portions of food for everyone at his table. Hammocks for sleeping were also slung in this area.

65 A Tribal messdeck.

66 The Chiefs and Petty Officers ate their meals in their own separate messdeck. They also slept in bunks instead of hammocks.

67 Captains and Officers Galley. Here, food was prepared for the Captain and the Officers. For the Officers, a steward would bring their food to the Wardroom Pantry where it was portioned for each person. The Captain’s food was delivered to either his Sea Cabin or Day Cabin by a stewart.

68 Wardroom Port Side view – The Wardroom was the home of the ship’s officers. Here, the Officers could relax without being under the scrutiny of the Captain. The Captain himself was not a member of the Wardroom. He could only enter upon invitation for such things as movies, socials or a mess dinner. The table and chairs in this particular photo are not original but the cabinetry is original.

The wardroom could also be used to care for injured crew if there was more than a few of them. When HAIDA picked up the oil soaked survivors of the Athabaskan sinking in April 1944, the deck in the Wardroom was just covered in oil.

69 Wardroom Starboard Side view– The glass coffee tables and framed pictures would not have been there when the ship was in service. Otherwise, it’s all original.

70 Wardroom Table – HAIDA’s original wardroom table was located in Halifax and repatriated around 2010 . Shortly after this photo was taken, the original metal framed chairs were reupholstered and installed in the Wardroom.

71 Officers Cabins – Located on the Wardroom Flats are Officers cabins. Two Officers to each cabin except for the Executive Office who had his own cabin.

72 Sick Bay – Is the ship’s Infirmary. Depending on the severity of the problem, crew were either treated here, transferred to a larger ship with better medical facilities or sent ashore.

73 Wash basins and shower. Water for showering was rationed. To ensure the evaporator could keep ahead of demand, makeup water for the boiler was given first priority.

74 Motor cutter (aka workboat). HAIDA had two. These were used to ferry crew and supplies when the ship had to anchor off shore. This boat as restored twice but is now permanently retired and is on display in HAIDA’s Gift Shop/.

75 Radio 1 starboard view. Up to 2 or 3 operators would sit at these consoles copying the Morse code broadcast sent from Halifax at 25 wpm. HAIDA had 4 radio rooms, all serving a different purpose.

76 Port side, aft end view of Radio 1

77 Port side forward view of the slide switches (CSU) used by the ship’s radio remote control system. In the RCN, it was affectionately called “The Bread Slicer”. The remote control system required nearly 4,000 wiring splices and connections in order to restore it back to working order. It worked the first time it was turned up.

78 Message Centre – Part of Radio 1. Nearly all of radioteletype equipment was housed here

79 Radio 2 – Provided additional Morse transmitting capability if Radio 1 was overloaded with traffic. Equipment in this room was remotely operated from Radio 1 but someone had to be in that office to change frequencies and retune the transmitter.

80 Radio 3 – Housed four of the ship’s seven UHF voice channels and all equipment here was operated by remote control. The other three voice channels were in Radio 1.

81 Aft corner of the Electronics Maintenance Room

RESTORATION EXAMPLES - BEFORE and AFTER

83 Radio 4 before restoration. This was the ships Electronic Warfare Room as found in 1993. Because the door seal was deteriorated , a lot of sand got into this compartment during the 1982 hull/superstructure sandblasting

84 Radio 4 after restoration. Entry was restricted to crew with a security clearance. Not even the Captain could enter this compartment without pre-authorization. One of the primary functions of this office was the identification and bearing of adversary ships based on radar signatures only.

85 This low-power AN/SRC-501 radiotelephone used in Radio 4 could not be found even to this day.

86 A partially functional mockup was therefore constructed to fill the missing position . The original radio had AM broadcast band capability and so does this one but that’s where it ends.

87 Before photo of the PA amplifier located in the Electronics Maintenance Room.

88 After photo of the PA amplifier. Just the way they would have done it on the TV show “American Restorations”.

89 This is a before photo of a badly deteriorated Sound Powered Telephone found in Radio 3.

90 This is the after photo of the Sound Powered telephone after several hours of labour.

There are other restoration examples by other HAIDA volunteers but too numerous to show in a presentation such as this.

THE FUTURE

92 HAIDA’s future – By the late 1990’s HAIDA’s future started to look very uncertain. Some of her hull plates were thinning out due to corrosion. When HAIDA was first brought into the lagoon at Ontario Place, the channel though which she came was backfilled with dirt and later a parking lot was built on the reclaimed land. No one ever thought that HAIDA would ever need to be drydocked periodically to have her hull serviced. Her paint was also looking very tired having been last repainted in 1982. Funding from the Province of Ontario continued to dwindle with each passing year. A search for new ownership started around 1999. The City of Toronto was not interested since the ship wasn’t even included in the master waterfront plan. Had the ship remained in Ontario Place, the closure of the park in Feb 2012 would have certainly doomed her future.

In 2002, Sheila Copps, federal Minister for Culture and Heritage and representing the riding of Hamilton East was most interested in acquiring HAIDA for the City of Hamilton as a tourist attraction. Negotiations commenced and on 13 November 2002, Sheila Copps hosted a ceremony at HAIDA to announce the formal transfer of ownership of the ship from the Provincial government to the Federal government.  HMCS HAIDA was now owned by Parks Canada.

93 Contracts for dredging were signed quickly and the excavators started to dig a channel which was essentially completed on Dec 4th. . After a short delay to further deepen the channel after a storm lessened the depth, HAIDA finally departed Ontario Place on Wed Dec 11 for the trip to the Port Weller drydock in St. Catharines, Ont,.

94 Free at last. HAIDA was towed with a tug attached to the bow and another on her stern as to prevent weathervaning in the wind. Leaving Ontario Place at around 1:30 PM, she finally arrived at Port Weller around 11: 00 pm on a cold, wet night.

95The drydock has been drained and HAIDA is now sitting on blocks. A survey of the hull indicated that 42 hull plates were too thin and had to be replaced. The estimated cost for this work was $5 million.

96 One of the first tasks at hand was to power wash the zebra mussels which had proliferated on HAIDA’s hull.

97 This is how the hull looked after power washing. Several cubic yards of mussels were collected from the bottom of the drydock.

98 The replacement of the deteriorated plates has commenced. . Replacement plates were welded in place instead of riveted due to a number of reasons too long to list here.

99 A closer view of the plate replacement.

100 HAIDA’s restoration has been completed and here she is being towed through the Burlington Canal on Aug 28/2003. She remained berthed at the eastern end of Burlington Bay for two days in preparation for her official entry into Hamilton. Because the plate replacement was not asymmetrical, HAIDA developed a 3 degree list to port which was corrected by placing concrete deadweights on the starboard side. These were spray painted grey in an effort to make them look less conspicuous.

101 It is now Aug 30. HAIDA is towed in front of the Bayfront Park in Hamilton on the 60th anniversary of her commissioning. The official welcome to Hamilton is about to begin. Sheila Copps and other dignitaries were on hand to participate in the ceremonies which followed.

102 Because it was also HAIDA’s 60th anniversary of her commissioning, it was befitting to have a cake for the occassion. Here, Sheila Copps cuts the first slice of cake.

103 With the official ceremonies completed, HAIDA was towed and then moored to Pier 9 in front of naval reserve unit HMCS Star.

104 This aerial view illustrates HAIDA’s new home. Not only is the ship historically significant, but she is a cultural asset representing a life style of more than a generation of Canadians who served in Canada's Navy between 1943 and 1963.

CONCLUSION OF PRESENTATION

It is difficult to tell HAIDA’s complete story in a short presentation such as this . For more information about the ship and her history, please visit for more details.

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