Canadian Armed Forces Merchant Navy Blazer Crest

An informal merchant navy appeared in 1914 at the start of World War I and was renamed Canadian Government Merchant Marine (Marine marchande du gouvernement canadien) in 1918, but slowly disappeared by 1930.^[1]

Within hours of Canada's declaration of war on September 10, 1939, the Canadian government passed laws to create the Canadian Merchant Navy setting out rules and controls to provide a workforce for wartime shipping. The World War II Merchant Navy greatly expanded the similar World War I effort. The Canadian Merchant Navy played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic bolstering the Allies' merchant fleet due to high losses in the British Merchant Navy. Eventually thousands of Canadians served aboard hundreds of Canadian Merchant Navy ships, notably the "Park ships", the Canadian equivalent of the American "Liberty ships". Royal Canadian Navy Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray reported,