This deal fell through and the boat, along with HMCS CC-1, was offered to British Columbia's premier Sir Richard McBride, just nine days before the United Kingdom's declaration of war in 1914.

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.

[4][5] The boats could dive 200 ft (61 m) and unlike modern submarines, the main ballast and trim tanks were located internally.

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.

[11] 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.

Under the Anglo-Japanese alliance Britain left the defence of British Columbia to the Imperial Japanese Navy's North American Task Force.

Off Cape Blanco, the fleet ran into a gale and CC-2 rolled heavily in the seas, seawater contaminating the sub's batteries.

Confined to port-hopping down the coast and passing through the Canal Zone, the fleet had to stop at Kingston, Jamaica to make repairs.

They left again and hit a storm, the fleet limping into Norfolk, Virginia, where the submarines spent two weeks in the US Navy dockyard.

The group arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 October 1917 for preparation to send the two subs to the Mediterranean and Europe.