The next day, the United States Navy dispatched the cruiser to search for the submarines, however by the time the ship reached the area where they had been, the two boats were gone. 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.