List of ships of the Royal Canadian Navy

The Naval Service integrated other marine arms of the government of Canada with which it had a common professional background and the objective of security in the Canadian maritime environment and national sovereignty.

In addition to a combat capability, the naval service included the Fisheries Protection, Hydrographic Survey, tidal observation and wireless telegraph branches.

Initially, eight fisheries cruisers (under the command of Rear Admiral Charles Kingsmill), were brought into the Department of the Naval Service, including CGS Vigilant, the first modern warship built in the country.

The Fisheries Protection, Hydrographic Survey, tidal observation and wireless telegraph branches, along with many ships, were transferred to other government departments and delisted by the RCN.

[18][19] While a large "Fisherman's Reserve" was formed in 1938, at the outbreak of the Second World War, the RCN had been reduced to six River-class destroyers, five minesweepers, two small training vessels bases at Halifax and Victoria, 145 officers and 1,674 seamen.

The RCN ended the war with a fleet of approximately 950 ships, the third-largest navy in the world and an operational reach extending into the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean and Mediterranean.

(The symbol FY in the pennant number denotes fishing vessels of the Fisherman's Reserve which comprised a large portion of the auxiliary fleet throughout the Second World War.