I am a volunteer producing this nautical heritage site with information on the nautical history of the Pacific coast heritage and other topics of general maritime interest. Click the links on the left side of the page to see the archived articles.

90,000

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

Searchable Vessel Database Vessel Database

Follow this link to find the search portal for the searchable vessel database. This gives access to almost 90,000 vessel histories, many of which are illustrated with an image.


Searchable Biography Database Biography Database

Follow this link to find biographies of mariners, naval personnel and people with associations to the nautical history community.


NEW VIDEOS

Nauticapedia Video Channel Video Collection

Follow this link to find links to YouTube videos related to nautical history.


ARTICLES and IMAGES

Articles Articles Collection

Follow this link to find links to articles on nautical heritage and history.


NEW NAUTICAL HISTORY BOOKS

Book Reviews Book Reviews

Follow this link to find book reviews related to the nautical history of British Columbia.


FEATURED REFERENCE TABLES

The Nominal List of Members of the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR)

29/02/2016 Did your grandfather serve in the Canadian Navy during the First World War? To participate in the First World War naval effort Canada formed the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR) which filled out the forces needed to make the navy operational. This is a nominal list of 7,300 of the more than 8,000 who served as members of this organization. There is no publicly available list of members and this represents the result of more than 25 years of research through publicly available sources to produce this one. Each entry is linked to the biography database so interested viewers can see what we have for each name.


Canada’s Naval Aviators

29/02/2016 Few Canadians know about the Royal Canadian Navy’s contribution to Naval Aviation. More than 2,000 Canadians and some other naval aviators who served in Canada comprised this group. Originally published in hard cover by John MacFarlane and Robbie Hughes more than 25 years ago this list has now revised and available to visitors to The Nauticapedia.


The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve University Naval Training Division (UNTD)

Bill Clearihue has developed and updated the definitive Nominal List for the University Naval Training Division (UNTD) of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve which contains the names of almost 7,000 former members and details of their service. Other lists available from him detail the former members known to be deceased and a list of former members who achieved positions of note in their civilian or military careers. Clearihue will update these lists from time–to–time and they will be updated on this site.


Canada’s Admirals & Commodores

Canada’s Admirals & CommodoresBook Cover

Canada has a rich naval heritage which tends to have a low public profile. To the detriment of the Navy and our awareness of our national culture and history, Canada’s naval contribution in two World Wars, the Korean conflict and the many United Nations and NATO operations is hidden from public view. The great contribution of the navy is both interesting and important – but it is difficult for history lovers to access the information. In 1994 the second edition of Canada’s Admirals and Commodores was published (ISBN #0–09693001–2–3). Since that time we have been maintaining updates to the entries found in that publication as well as tracking names of all subsequent appointments.


Turns 50
Nauticapedia

Site News: March 16, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 91,134 vessel histories (with 15,557 images and 12,826 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,612 entries (with 4,007 images).

In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!

My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 10,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.


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