Niobe Day – October 21

HMCS Niobe was an 11,000-tonne armoured cruiser purchased by Canada from the Royal Navy. The warship entered into Halifax Harbour on October 21, 1910, having steamed across the Atlantic from Portsmouth, England.

The date of arrival of Niobe was carefully timed to coincide with the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, in order to symbolize the transfer to the Naval Service of Canada the intangible and priceless winning tradition of the parent Royal Navy. It was natural for the new navy to model itself after the preeminent fighting service of the day.

Then Minister of the Naval Service, the Honourable Louis-Philippe Brodeur (father and grandfather of two future admirals of the Naval Service of Canada) welcomed Niobe and her complement with the proclamation:

Two weeks later would see the arrival of HMCS Rainbow in Esquimalt on November 7, 1910. Rainbow actually was the first ship to be commissioned as one of His or Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships on August 4, 1910. Her arrival in Canada came later as the ship had to sail south of the Americas and around Cape Horn in the era before the Panama Canal.

The arrival of Niobe and Rainbow was the manifestation of the decision of Parliament on May 4, 1910 to establish the Naval Service of Canada. It was a defining moment for the still-young dominion.

HMCS Niobe was built by Vickers Limited in Barrow-in-Furness, England and launched on February 20, 1897, entering service in 1898.

Before being sold to Canada, Her/His Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Niobe served with the Royal Navy during the Boer War, being sent to Gibraltar to escort troop transports ferrying reinforcements to the Cape.

On December 4, 1899 HMS Niobe and HMS Doris rescued troops from the SS Ismore, which had run aground. She saw further action in the Boer War, escorting troops to Cape Town. The Queen’s South Africa Medal was subsequently awarded to the crew. She returned to the English Channel, but later escorted vessels as far as Colombo in Ceylon.

In March 1901, HMS Niobe was one of two cruisers to escort HMS Ophir, commissioned as a royal yacht for the world tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George and Queen Mary), from Spithead to Gibraltar. In September of the same year she again escorted the royal yacht from St. Vincent to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Niobe continued to serve in the RN until 1910, one of eight sisters of the Diadem class.

Upon transfer to the Naval Service of Canada, HMCS Niobe, along with HMCS Rainbow, became the first two in a long and illustrious line of HMC ships and submarines that have served and continue to serve Canada with excellence at home and abroad.

Niobe was commissioned in the RCN on September 6, 1910 at Devonport and arrived at Halifax on October 21st. Niobe was almost lost during the night of July 30-31, 1911 when she went aground off Cape Sable, necessitating repairs that were not completed until the end of 1912. In the fall of 1914, after the ravages of two years’ disuse had been made good, she joined the RN’s 4th Cruiser Squadron on contraband patrol off New York.

She returned to Halifax on July 17, 1915 and was paid off on September 6th and became a depot ship. Her upper works were wrecked in the Halifax explosion of December 6, 1917, but she continued to serve as a depot ship until 1920.

• Commander W. B. MacDonald, RN – September 6, 1910 – June 20, 1913
• Lieutenant-Commander C. E. Aglionby, RN – June 20, 1913 – August 15, 1914
• Captain R. G. Corbett, RN – August 15, 1914 – September 1, 1915
• Acting/Commander P. F. Newcombe, RN – October 16, 1916 – December 22, 1917
• Commander H. E. Holme, RCN – December 22, 1917 – June 1, 1920