Canada's Naval History

The Second World War
The Merchant Navy - SS Stanley Park: Merchant Ship

David McMillan's photographs capture wartime and early postwar merchant navy scenes and experiences, mainly aboard the Canadian merchant ship SS Stanley Park. Completed in mid-1943, the Stanley Park was one of around 400 merchant ships built as part of Canada's war effort; postwar, it served with a number of foreign owners until its 1969 scrapping in Italy.

Fireman, SS Stanley Park

One of Stanley Park's firemen poses on the ship's deck in October 1945.

Also often called stokers, firemen were responsible for maintaining the fires in the ship's boilers. In "North Sands" type merchant ships like the Stanley Park, with three coal-fired boilers, this arduous task required constant watchfulness and physical effort to make sure the fires in the boilers were evenly spread and efficient, and to add coal and remove ashes.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19860141-040