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The University Naval Training Division (UNTD)

For twenty five years the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve University Naval Training Division (UNTD) trained university students and turned them into naval officers.

Life at the basic training base at Cornwallis NS was rigorous and exhausting. Here is a detailed look at the minute by minute schedule that drove every day of training.

Bill Clearihue has taken on the daunting task of tracking down all the former members of the University Naval Training Division – 8,000 young Canadians who trained with the Canadian naval reserve from 1943’1968. He has created a Nominal List which begins the process of sharing the huge body of information on this little–known unit that he has uncovered. He also shares a list of examples of former members who achieved career successes (which many of them attributing it to a good grounding gained during their naval training).

Hugh Williamson (UNTD Scotian 1966) found two original documents relating to the UNTD that members will find interesting. The first is the recruiting booklet that many members will have referenced when they made the decision to join. The second document is a rare copy of the ‘official history’ which was supposed to help UNTDs understand the genesis of the program. John Scott provided one from his collection from much earlier.

A personal experience in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve University Naval Training Division (UNTD) in the last intake serving 1966–1968.

Bill Clearihue has developed and updated a Nominal List of the University Naval Training Division (UNTD) of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve which contains the names of more than 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. Bill Clearihue will update these lists from time’to’time and they will be updated on this site.

Nauticapedia

Site News: November 2, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,538 vessel histories (with 16,140 images and 13,887 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3989 images). Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 35,000 processed so far this year.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia's floating heritage.

My very 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 accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who continues (almost every day) to proof read thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 14,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.

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