HMCS CC-2 was a used by the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship was launched in 1913 in Seattle, Washington as the submarine for Chile. This deal fell through and the boat, along with , was offered to British Columbia's premier Sir Richard McBride, just nine days before the United Kingdom's declaration of war in 1914. On 4 August 1914, the day war was declared, the boat departed at night (to maintain secrecy from the Chilean, German, and U.S. governments) for handover to British Columbia authorities near Victoria, British Columbia. The Dominion Government of Canada later ratified the sale although there was a Parliamentary investigation of the cost of both boats, over twice the annual budget for the entire Royal Canadian Navy in 1913–14. CC-2 served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1914 to 1920, when the submarine was discarded and broken up in 1925.
Design
The two submarines of the CC class were not identical, with the Electric Boat Company employed two separate designs with the same internal machinery for the submarines. CC-1 was built to the design 19E and CC-2 was built to design 19B. CC-2 was armed with three torpedo tubes of the same size, two forward and one astern. This gave CC-2 a tapered bow. Both submarines used Whitehead Mk IV torpedoes that had a range of at . The only source for these torpedoes in Canada was 's stock and it took some time before they were shipped to the submarines.
CC-2 displaced surfaced and submerged and had a length of , a beam of and a draught of . The boats could dive and unlike modern submarines, the main ballast and trim tanks were located internally. The boats were powered by MAN 6-cylinder diesel engines constructed in the United States under licence. The CC class could carry of diesel fuel. The two submarines were designed to make surfaced and submerged. CC-2 had a complement of two officers and sixteen ratings.
Construction and acquisition
Ordered by the Chilean government from the Electric Boat Company, the submarine was constructed on the east coast, broken down into component parts and shipped across the country to Seattle to be reassembled by the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company. Named Antofagasta, the submarine was launched on 31 December 1913. The deal with Chile fell through after the Chilean government grew unhappy with the submarine's capability. After meeting with Canadian officials in Victoria, British Columbia, a planned was hatched to sell the submarines to Canada. Sir Richard McBride, the Premier of British Columbia did not wait for approval of the deal from the national government in Ottawa and authorized the purchase of the submarines.
On 3 August 1914, Antofagasta and sister boat Iquique left Seattle in secrecy and sailed for Canada. Meeting British Columbia officials outside Canadian waters, the transfer was made with British Columbia paying $1.15 million for the two submarines. The two subs were taken to British Columbia to await federal approval of the deal. On 7 August, the Government of Canada passed an Order in Council assuming responsibility for and purchasing the two warships from British Columbia, the only province of Canada to have owned warships. In keeping with an earlier Australian practice when two British E-class submarines had been renamed AE 1 and AE 2 by adding the "A" in front of the class to denote Australia, the two submarines purchased by Canada, resembling British C-class submarines, had two "C"s placed in front of their names to denote Canada and their apparent class.
The acquisition of the submarines faced serious scrutiny, undergoing a Royal Commission and investigation. The submarines faced criticism from Royal Navy experts and even the Electric Boat Company. However, the Royal Commission later found in favour of the decision to acquire the submarines.
Service history
Commissioned on 6 August 1914 as CC-2, the submarine was assigned to the west coast in the home port of Esquimalt, British Columbia, and conducted training operations and patrols for three years. Together with the cruiser , CC-1 and CC-2 were the only Canadian or British ships defending the west coast of Canada between 1914 and 1917. Under the Anglo-Japanese alliance Britain left the defence of British Columbia to the Imperial Japanese Navy's North American Task Force.