In 1911, the government of Chile ordered two submarines from the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company. They were constructed using machinery and drawings provided by the Electric Boat Company of New Jersey and were known in the shipyard as Chile 1 and Chile 2, or C1 and C2 for short. When they were launched, they were given the names of two major Chilean cities - C1 became the IQUIQUE and C2 became the ANTOFAGASTA. Following trials, Chilean naval officials declared that the boats had failed to meet contract specifications. The purchase was put on hold and the Chilean government stopped making payments to the builder.
In 1911, the government of Chile ordered two submarines from the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company. They were constructed using machinery and drawings provided by the Electric Boat Company of New Jersey and were known in the shipyard as Chile 1 and Chile 2, or C1 and C2 for short. When they were launched, they were given the names of two major Chilean cities - C1 became the IQUIQUE and C2 became the ANTOFAGASTA. Following trials, Chilean naval officials declared that the boats had failed to meet contract specifications. The purchase was put on hold and the Chilean government stopped making payments to the builder.
At the same time, the premier of British Columia, Sir Richard McBride, was quite concerned about the lack of naval defences on Canada's west coast. Sensing an opportunity for a quick sale, the owner of the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company, J. V. Paterson, opened a series of clandestine negotiations with the provincial government. After some discussion, the sale was quietly concluded on the day war was declared. During the day, a contractor's steaming crew unobtrusively slipped aboard the boats, topped up the fuel tanks, and made ready for sea.
On the evening of 4 August 1914, under cover of darkness and a light fog, Paterson spirited the submarines out of the shipyard on their silent electric motors. This was only hours before war was declared and the United States formally declared its neutrality. It was even before approval for the actual purchase was received from Ottawa. Early the following morning, Lieutenant B. E. Jones, a former RN submarine CO, and an inspection party boarded the tug Salvor and met the two boats in the Straits of Juan de Fuca in neutral waters. After a very thorough inspection of both submarines, he handed Paterson a British Columbia provincial government cheque for $1,150,000. The two submarines arrived at Esquimalt later that morning.
Their appearance off Esquimalt put the wind up the locals, and they narrowly escaped being shelled by the militia guarding the harbour approaches. The two boats arrived only hours ahead of an American cruiser that had been dispatched to stop the transfer. Some hours after their arrival, Premier McBride received a telegram from Ottawa authorizing him to proceed with the purchase. When it came to naming the two boats, the naval authorities at Esquimalt suggested calling them after the two principals in the deal, McBride and Paterson, but Ottawa had its own ideas about names. A few days later, on 7 August, they were commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy as HMC Submarines C1 and C2. The names were later changed by the addition of the word Canadian to CC1 and CC2.
Two crews were assembled from a mixture of regular and reserve volunteers. Only the two captains, one of the coxswains and a stoker petty officer had any previous experience in submarines. However, what the remainder lacked in knowledge, they made up for in eagerness and hard work. One of their first jobs was the changing of hundreds of Spanish tally plates for English ones. Within a few weeks, the decommissioned RN sloop, HMS Shearwater, was converted into a depot ship for the two submarines and recommissioned in the Canadian navy. The little flotilla was now complete.
In 1917, the Admiralty asked that CC1 and CC2 be sent to the Mediterranean. Accompanied by Shearwater, the two boats undertook the seven-thousand-mile voyage to Halifax. During the voyage, they became the first ships flying the White Ensign to pass through the recently opened Panama Canal. The trip was fraught with hardships. Heavy seas, constant mechanical and electrical breakdown and blistering heat all contributed to the misery. That the boats made it as far as Halifax is a tribute to the sheer doggedness of the crews and the ingenuity of the engineers. However, by then it was obvious that the primitive diesel engines were too badly worn to make the rest of the long journey.
The boats were refitted and retained at Halifax for local defence while Shearwater was re-armed for use as a patrol vessel. After the war, both boats were paid-off for disposal on the 13th of December, 1918 and laid-up, their crews dispersed to Canada and the United Kingdom.
