St. Roch (ship)

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St. Roch wintering in the Beaufort Sea.
St. Roch wintering in the Beaufort Sea, 1948.
Career Canadian Red Ensign 1921-1957.svg
Name: RCMPV St. Roch
Builder: Burrard Dry Dock Shipyards
Launched: 7 May 1928
Fate: Designated a National Historic Site of Canada at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1962
General characteristics [1]
Type: Auxiliary Police Schooner
Displacement: 323 long tons (328 t)
Length: 104 ft 3 in (31.78 m)
Beam: 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
Draft: 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion: Sails
150 hp (112 kW) diesel engine[2]
Official name: St. Roch National Historic Site of Canada
Designated: 1962

RCMPV St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second sailing vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage. She was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the direction west to east, going the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel Gjøa went east to west, 38 years earlier.

The ship was most often captained by Henry Larsen.[2] The ship can now be found at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is open to the public for scheduled visits.[3]


St. Roch was made primarily of thick Douglas-fir, with very hard Australian "ironbark" eucalyptus on the outside, and an interior hull reinforced with heavy beams to withstand ice pressure during her Arctic duties. St. Roch was designed by Tom Hallidie and was based on Roald Amundsen's ship the Maud.[4]

Service history[edit]

St. Roch was constructed in 1928 at the Burrard Dry Dock Shipyards in North Vancouver. Between 1929–1939 she supplied and patrolled Canada's Arctic.

In 1940–1942 she became first vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage in a west to east direction, and in 1944 became first vessel to make a return trip through the Northwest Passage, through the more northerly route considered the true Northwest Passage, and was also the first to navigate the passage in a single season. Between 1944–1948 she again patrolled Arctic waters. In 1950 she became first vessel to circumnavigate North America, from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Vancouver via the Panama all she sailed 3 voyages. Finally in 1954 she returned to Vancouver for preservation. In 1962, St. Roch was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.[5]


See also[edit]


  1. ^ "Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide - RCMPV St. Roch". Retrieved 2009-08-29. 
  2. ^ a b "Henry Larsen and the St. Roch". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-08-29. 
  3. ^ James P. Delgado (2003). "Arctic workhorse: the RCMP schooner St. Roch". Torchwood Publishing. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
  4. ^ "Archaeology Reports-PWNHC". Retrieved 2009-08-29. 
  5. ^ St. Roch. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 30 January 2012.

Further reading[edit]

  • Thompson, John Beswarick. "The more northerly route : a photographic study of the 1944 voyage of the St. Roch through the Northwest Passage" (Ottawa, ON, Canada, Parks Canada. 1974)

External links[edit]