Park ships were merchant steamships constructed for Canada’s Merchant Navy during the Second World War. Park ships and Fort ships (built in Canada for operation by the British) were the Canadian equivalent of the American Liberty ships. All three shared a similar design by J.L. Thompson and Sons of Sunderland, England. Fort ships had a triple expansion steam engine and a single screw propeller. Fort ships were ships transferred to the British government and the Park ships were those employed by the Canadian government, both had the similar design. Park ships were named after local and National Parks of Canada. A few Park ships were launched as "Camp ships", named after Canada military camps, but were quickly renamed after Parks. SS Jasper Park was the first Park ship lost to enemy attack, in the Indian Ocean after a torpedo attack from U-177 in the Indian Ocean, South of Durban, South Africa.

Park Steamship Company

The Allied merchant fleet suffered significant losses in the early years of the Battle of the Atlantic as a result of U-boat attacks. The Park Steamship Company was created by the Canadian government on April 8, 1942 to oversee construction of a merchant fleet to help replace the lost vessels and to administer the movement of materiel. This was part of a coordinated Allied effort that saw the construction of British, American and Canadian merchant ships using a common class of vessel known as the North Sands class (named after a beach near the J. L Thompson yard on the River Wear).

Vessels

Over the next three years, the company ordered approximately 160 bulk cargo ships and 20 tankers that would all fly the Canadian flag. Ships at 10,000 tons deadweight were known as Park class. 43 smaller vessels, at a nominal 4,700 tons, were at first designated Grey class but were later called Park ships as well and were commonly known as the 4700 tonner Park ships. All the Park ships were powered by coal driven steam engines. All but two vessels launched were named for federal, provincial or municipal parks in Canada. Some were armed with bow guns and anti-torpedo nets. Two of the Park ships were lost to natural hazards and four were lost due to enemy action. One, SS Avondale Park, built at the Pictou Shipyard in Pictou, Nova Scotia was one of two Allied ships destroyed by enemy action in the North Sea in the last hour of the war in Europe on 7 May 1945. At the same time, Canada produced 90 additional vessels for the American government which were turned over to the British Merchant Navy under a lend-lease agreement. Built to the same design but designed to burn oil instead of coal, these vessels were known as Fort ships, and they took their names from forts. Notable ships of this type included Fort Cataraqui, RFA Fort Rosalie, and RFA Fort Charlotte. Like many of the Fort ships, Fort Charlotte was launched as a Park. The hull of the Park ships were riveted, not welded. After the war, by 1948, all the Fort ships had been sold to private companies all around the world. The new owners gave the ships new names.

Crew

Park ships were armed. There were merchant seamen gunners. Also many British and Canadian merchantmen naval gunners as Defensively equipped merchant ship (DEMS). The guns were operated by Royal Navy or Royal Artillery Maritime Regiment personnel with the civilian crews trained to aid in passing ammunition and loading. The American ships carried Naval Armed Guard gunners. Merchant seamen crewed the merchant ships of the British Merchant Navy which kept the United Kingdom supplied with raw materials, arms, ammunition, fuel, food and all of the necessities of a nation at war throughout World War II literally enabling the country to defend itself. In doing this they sustained a considerably greater casualty rate than almost every branch of the armed services and suffered great hardship. Seamen were aged from fourteen through to their late seventies. The lost are remembered in The Royal Canadian Naval Ships Memorial Monument in Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, Ontario.

Shipyards

The shipbuilding program was not easy to implement as Canada had only four operational shipyards with nine berths in 1940. By 1943, there were six additional shipyards and a total of 38 berths. These were all private shipyards located across Canada - on the East Coast at Pictou and Saint John, in Montreal, Sorel and Lauzon on the St. Lawrence River, at Collingwood on Georgian Bay, and Victoria, Vancouver and Prince Rupert on the Pacific Coast. Only the yards at Montreal, Saint John, Victoria and Collingwood had existed before the war. By 1945, there were 57,000 men and women employed in building or repairing merchant ships in Canada and several thousand more were employed building ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. The table shows the name of the shipyard and city, and the number of vessels launched by each yard. Eventually thousands of Canadians and British would serve aboard these Canadian Merchant Navy ships.

Ships in class

Park-type cargo ships

• Albert Park • Alder Park • Alexandra Park • Algonquin Park • Atwater Park • Banff Park • Beaton Park • Belwoods Park • Bowness Park • Bridgeland Park • SS Buffalo Park • Champlain Park • Chippewa Park • Connaught Park • Cornish Park • Coronation Park • Cromwell Park • Crystal Park • Dentonia Park • Dominion Park • Dorval Park • Dundurn Park • Dunlop Park • Earlscourt Park • Eastwood Park • Elgin Park • Elk Island Park • Elm Park • Fairmount Park • Frontenac Park • Garden Park • Gaspesian Park • Gatineau Park • Glacier Park • Goldstream Park • Grafton Park • Green Gables Park • SS Green Hill Park • Hampstead Park • Hastings Park • High Park • Highland Park • Hillcrest Park • SS Jasper Park • Kawartha Park • Kildonan Park • Kitsilano Park • Kootenay Park (I) • Kootenay Park (II) • La Salle Park • Lafontaine Park • Lakeside Park • Lakeview Park • Laurentide Park • Leaside Park • Louisbourg Park • Mewata Park • Mission Park • Mohawk Park (I) • Mohawk Park (II) • Montebello Park (I) • Montebello Park (II) • Mount Douglas Park • Mount Orford Park • Mount Robson Park (I) • Mount Robson Park (II) • Mount Revelstoke Park • Nemiskam Park • Noranda Park • Outremont Park • Parkdale Park • SS Point Pleasant Park • Port Royal Park • Portland Park • Prince Albert Park • Princeton Park • Queens Park • Queensborough Park • Richmond Park • Rideau Park • Riding Mountain Park • Riverdale Park • Rocky Mountain Park • Rondeau Park • Rosedale Park • Runnymede Park • Rupert Park • Salt Lake Park • Sapperton Park • Seacliff Park • Selkirk Park • Seven Oaks Park • Sibley Park • Simcoe Park • Stanley Park • Strathcona Park • Sunalta Park • Sunnyside Park • Tecumseh Park • Temagami Park • Tipperary Park • Tobiatic Park • Tuxedo Park • Tweedsmuir Park • Wascana Park • Waverley Park • Wellington Park • Westbank Park • Westend Park • Westmount Park • Weston Park • Westview Park • Whiterock Park • Whiteshell Park • Windermere Park • Winnipegosis Park • Winona Park • Withrow Park • Yamaska Park • Yoho Park (I) • Yoho Park (II)

Modified Scandinavian-class cargo

• Ainslie Park • Argyle Park • Ashby Park • SS Avondale Park • Baldwin Park • Bell Park • Beresford Park • Bloomfield Park • Cartier Park • Cataraqui Park • Chignecto Park • Confederation Park • Crescent Park • Dartmouth Park • Dufferin Park • Evangeline Park • Fawkner Park • Hamilton Park • Hector Park • Kelowna Park • Kensington Park • Lansdowne Park • Liscomb Park • Lorne Park • Maisonneuve Park • Manitou Park • Mayfair Park • Montmorency Park • Mulgrave Park • Oakmount Park • Rockcliffe Park • Rockland Park • Rockwood Park • Shakespeare Park • Sunset Park • Sutherland Park • SS Taber Park • Taronga Park • SS Victoria Park • Wentworth Park • Westdale Park • Willow Park • Woodland Park

Park-type tankers

• Brentwood Bay Park • Clearwater Park • Cypress Hills Park • Mount Maxwell Park • Mount Royal Park • Point Pelee Park

Park-type tankers, Great Lakes Trading

Tankers for World War II, converted to cargo after war: • Arlington Beach Park • Eglington Park • Millican Park • Moose Mountain Park • Mount Bruce Park • Nipiwan Park • Norwood Park • Otterburn Park • Quetico Park • Springbank Park • Silver Star Park • Wildewood Park • Willowdale Park

Lost in action

Notable incidents

Park Ships sank or damaged: