GENERAL

From "Ships of Canada's Naval Forces" :

"HMCS Labrador's design was adapted from that of the US Coast Guard's Wind class of icebreakers. Seven ships of the class were built in the United States, and one modified version,  namely, HMCS Labrador, was built in Canada. She was built for power rather than speed, with her six diesel- electric engines driving her at 16 knots maximum. Heeling tanks connected by reversible-propeller type pumps enabled water ballast to be hurled from side to side at 40,000 gallons a minute, so that she could rock herself free when trapped by ice. She was fitted  with  two helicopters.

Commissioned on 8 July 1954, Labrador sailed that summer on the first of four voyages she would make to the Arctic as a naval vessel. On that initial voyage she became the first warship to negotiate the Northwest Passage across the top of the continent and returning to Halifax via the Panama Canal,

 On her second voyage, in 1955, she transported personnel and equipment for the construction of the eastern portion of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line. That summer and next, she also carried out extensive hydrographic    surveys in the eastern Arctic , spending five and a half months there in 1956 alone. A departure from custom in 1957 found her paying visits to
 to Portsmouth, Oslo, and Copenhagen, and on 22 November,  she was paid off for refit as a CNAV. (CNAVS are not commissioned. They are manned with  civilian masters and crews).

She was slated not to fly the White Ensign again, for it was decided to transfer her to the Department of Transport. When transferred in 1957, she would have been CGS – Canadian Government Ship. She would have had a black hull, a white superstructure and a buff coloured funnel. She would have been painted Coast Guard colours after 1962 when the coast guard was created - red hull, white superstructure, white funnel with a red maple leaf and ended her days in that colour scheme.

As CCGS Labrador, she was used for ice breaking in the lower St. Lawrence river and on occasion, embarked scientists for summer studies in the Arctic until being paid off on 28 May 1987. Labrador was later towed to Taiwan and broken up".
 

HMCS Labrador as she appeared in March 1957. She was both an icebreaker and a Arctic Patrol vessel. Click on image to enlarge, (Ships of Canada's Naval Forces)  Displacement:: 6490 tons full load Propulsion: Twin screw, diesel-electric; 12,000 HP Length: 269 feet; Draft:27 feet loaded; Beam: 63 feet Speed : 16 knots Hull plate thickness: 1 5/8 inch tempered steel. Helicopters:  Two Bell HTL-4 single-rotor helicopters, and one Piasecki HUP 3 (aka Retriever)  twin-rotor helicopter. The US Navy version of the Bell 47 was designated as the HTL-4. It dispensed with the fabric covering on the tail boom. All three choppers could be stored as a result of having an enlarged flight deck and hanger.

Labrador flew the Bell HTL-4.   (Photo by Aerospace Technology)

This image is included to show the markings on the Bell HTL4 pontoons. (PeriscopeFilm.com)

Piasecki HUP3 helicopter.  (Photo by Wings of Freedom Aviation)

Piasecki HUP3 helicopter in flight. (Screen snap from the video "Conquering the Arctic").

Closeup of upper mast.  #1 - Sperry Mk 2 navigation radar. Maximum range: 30 miles  9375 Mcs +\- 45 MHz #2 - AN/SPS6-C air search radar. Maximum range: 200 miles  5450 MHz variable to 5825 MHz #3 -AN/SPS-10 radar antenna. Maximum range: 50 miles . C-band 500 to 1000 MHz #4 -Likely a  VHF homing beacon antenna ? .. #5 -Unknown

Closup view of the antenna atop the pole.  (RCN photo)

This view the upper foremast was taken on Labrador's maiden voyage through the north west passage.  (PeriscopeFilm.com)

Cutaway view of HMCS Labrador. Click on image to enlarge. Note the gun mount in front of and below the bridge. It was roughed in but  never received a gun. (IDND DHist)  Labrador was more of a research vessel than a warship with a photo lab, mimeograph and printing capabilities, hydrographic and biological labs, etc..

RADIOS

 LABRADOR may have had several radio rooms while in the  RCN but the Upper Bridge was not one of them. A pipe fitted between the Upper Bridge and the Bridge permitted the transfer of paper messages through the deck to the bridge using a can and  a string.

This is just a portion of the radio equipment fitted in Labrador and the way it looked on her maiden voyage through the north-west passage, In the background are two Canadian Marconi CSR5 receivers. At the left is a Hammarlund SP600J receiver with a FAX machine below it. (PeriscopeFilm.com)

Although the weather chart in this K649 is dated Aug 1985, the K649 MuFAX was used aboard Labrador as early as 1956. Click on image to enlatge. (Photo by Jerry Proc)  Manufactured by Muirhead, UK, this chart recorder was used for the reception of meteorological weather maps and wire photos by radio. In the MUFAX, audio was converted to current pulses which passed through a helix, across the paper to the writing edge. Chemically treated paper would be marked each time a current pulse was applied to the helix. When scanning was completed, a viewable picture was produced.  Because the MUFAX paper was impregnated with chemicals, it was sometimes stored in the cook's refrigerator abroad ship. This would prevent the paper from deteriorating. This machine was widely used in the Canadian Forces and the Coast Guard.

The historic RCMP St. Roch is alongside HMCS Labrador. Taken at Esquimalt in 1954. Click on image to enlarge. (Esquimalt Naval Museum photo VR995.11.01)

 
RADIO CALL SIGNS

As pendant AW50, it was CGVM
Voice call sign was Oberlin Q
As CCGS Labrador , it was  CGGM.

HOMING BEACON

In the paper titled  “Rotary Wings Over the Arctic”, page 14, Don MacNeil offers a tantalizing clue in the July 31 diary entry which  says:

 Saturday, July 31, 1954
The ship [presumably Labrador] arrived in ice-filled Resolute Bay  at approximately 0200. At 0900 the helicopter was required to find a suitable landing place for the LCVP10 ashore. Fog caused the helicopter to divert to the local airfield, as there was a breakdown in the ship’s Radio Finding (RF) beacon transmitter, preventing it from homing.

So this must prove that  (presunably) Labrador carried a VHF  homing beacon (item 4 above)  rather than a  VHF radio direction finder. Any thoights on this?  Contact: jerry.proc@sympatico.ca

ARMAMENT

Labrador was fitted  with two, single barrel 40 mm Bofors A/A guns located on either side of the bridge. This is supported by the bridge inset in the Labrador cutaway drawing. These A//A guns would have been removed prior to the transfer of the ship to DOT or well before then.

RADAR

See closeup of upper mast photo for radar identification.

SONAR

In the You Tube video titled "Through the Northwest Passage" narrated by Commodore O.C.S.. Robertson, he says that Labrador was fitted with sonar whose job it was to locate icebergs beneath the surface of the water.  (The mass of an iceberg is nine tenths under water and one tenth above  the water).

But the existing evidence does not seem to support this statement. In the cutaway drawing of Labrador, there is no sonar compartment, no sonar dome and certainly no sonar console on the bridge.

CREW

Labradors's normal crew complement was around 220. Of special interest, was the presence of two rates from the Communications Supplementary (CS) branch when the ship sailed east to west through the Northwest Passage in the summer of 1954. One of these was Bryce "Bennie" Eckstein.  He was employed with radio station CHAK at Inuvik and later went with CBC Regina. The other CS rate was  Bill Hillaby.  He was in the Beaufort Sea in August when the Soviets detonated a hydrogen bomb on Wrangel Island, (part of Russian territory).

At the time when there was tremendous SIGINT interest in the Soviet Arctic.  Canada and the U.S. began assessing intercept sites, including Nuuk Greenland and Alert shortly after the Labrador circumnavigation.

CONVERSION

During the RCN era, the radio room was situated under the stack. When the ship was transferred to DOT/Coast Guard, the radio room was moved to the Upper Bridge. It was then was fitted with a Marconi Globespan transmitter and two Marconi  Atalanta receivers. Also, the ship had to have several doors cut through various compartments in order for the  civilian  crew to operate and move from one compartment to another It is believed the hole in the deck from the radio room to the bridge was installed after the transfer to DOT.

This is typical of  the station fitted in LABRADOR right after she transferred from the navy. This station was fitted in most Canadian government ships of  that period. (Credit: : GEC Marconi Electronics Limited, England. Turners (Photography) Limited, Newcastle Upon Tyne) The equipment is identified as follows. Left cabinet:  Globespan Transmitter Middle cabinet:  Antenna Selection Unit, Atalanta Receiver, Atalanta Receiver; Coaxial Antenna selection panel for receivers.  Right Rack Top to Bottom: Emergency Transmitter - 25 watts in the MF marine band; . Alert Receiver in the left half of the rack and the Auto Key on the right half.. The Auto Key would transmit a distress signal - 12,  four second dashes with 1 second spacing  then SOS SOS SOS de SHIPS CALL SIGN. It was called the Alarm Signal, This was repeated then followed a 10 second dash for D/F purposes. If left on and with the  Emergency Transmitter flashed up, it will repeat this sequence every 14 minutes but without the 4 second dashes until the battery goes dead. Lifeguard Auto Alarm - will ring a bell in the Radio Room, on the Bridge and at the Radio's Officers bunk on the receipt of the auto alarm signal from another ship;  Fuse Panel. Normally when the ship received two Atalanta receivers she was fitted with the Alert Receiver, a fixed tuned 500 kilohertz receiver. The ships with one Atalanta receiver were fitted with the Monitor Receiver.

CCGS Labrador in St. John's (Nfld) Harbour in 1982. (Photo by G. Bouchard /Wikipedia)

If anyone knows more  about the radio fittings aboard Labrador, please contact: jerry.proc@sympatico.ca

Credits and References:

1) Ships of CAnada's Naval Forces 18=910 to 2002. Ken Macpherson and Ron Barrie ;Vanwell Publishing;
2) Rob Martin [rob_martin1(at)me.com]
3) Spud Roscoe
4) Conquering the Arctic  video   https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hmcs+labrador
5)Bell 47 helicopter  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_H-13_Sioux
6) HUP helicopter  https://wingsoffreedommuseum.org/wp/aircraft/piasecki-hup-2-retriever/
7) Periscope Films  #PF22164 Through the Northwest Passage
8) ADF 320 info   https://www.cryptomuseum.com/df/adf320/index.htm

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Oct 2/24