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First World War (1914-1918)
The Home Front

The war at sea affected Canadians in a variety of ways. While extensive recruiting efforts at home sought men to become sailors in the Canadian and British navies, Canadian shipyards built warships and merchant ships to expand Allied navies and to replace vessels lost to submarine attack.

Anchored Naval Mine Model
Anchored Naval Mine Model

This is a design concept model for a device that prevented minesweepers from cutting loose anchored sea mines.

The inventor of this device, Eugène Bédard, offered it to the Canadian government as a means of protecting mines against the cables and cutting equipment towed by minesweepers. The minesweeper's cables would be obstructed by the two wire projections (left) shielding the mine, and would then pass over the mine without having severed its cable. Alternately, a cutter just below the mine would sever the minesweeping cable. The wire projections and the cutter rotated around the mine's anchor cable in order to provide protection from all angles.

Anchored naval mine model
CWM 19810033-002





Recruiting Poster, Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve
Llewellyn and Joseph Lush, 1914, Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve
Victory Bonds Will Help Stop This
Boy's Civilian Sailor Suit, RMS Missinabie
Ship Building, J. Coughlan & Sons Shipyard, Vancouver
Merchant Ships under Construction, J. Coughlan & Sons Shipyard, Vancouver
Launching of the SS War Camp, J. Coughlan & Sons Shipyard, Vancouver
SS War Camp at Sea
Shift Change at J. Coughlan & Sons Shipyard, Vancouver
Polsons Iron Work Yard, Ship War Hydra on Stocks
Starting the Freighter
Cargo Ship Half Hull Model, Canadian Vickers
Submarines at Canadian Vickers Shipyard, Montreal
Anchored Naval Mine Model