Aircraft and shipbuilding company that operated in Canada
Canadian Vickers Limited
Founded
1911; 113 years ago (1911)
Defunct
1944; 80 years ago (1944) (aircraft operations) 1988; 36 years ago (1988) (shipbuilding, as MIL Vickers) 1990; 34 years ago (1990) (rail car operations, as Versatile Vickers)
Canadian Vickers Limited was an aircraft and shipbuilding company that operated in Canada from 1911 until 1944. A subsidiary of Vickers Limited, it built its own aircraft designs as well as others under licence. Canadair absorbed the Canadian Vickers aircraft operations in November 1944.
In 1907, British shipbuilding and weapons manufacturing conglomerate Vickers Sons & Maxim began investigating possible locations for a shipyard in Montreal.[1] Vickers Sons & Maxim intended to use the shipyard as a repair facility for transatlantic shipping traffic entering Montreal.[2] Vickers Sons & Maxim was invited by the Government of Canada in 1911 to establish a Canadian division to manufacture vessels for the nascent Royal Canadian Navy. According to naval historian Marc Milner, "the Harbour Commission and the city of Maisonneuve offered Vickers a first-class location" to establish the yard, and "an extended lease on the land and deferred taxes."[3] Vickers Sons & Maxim established Canadian Vickers in June 1911 and constructed the shipyard between Rue Notre-Dame and rue Viau along the Saint Lawrence River (now Viterra Montreal Terminal).[1] Canadian Vickers ordered the construction of a large floating drydock, which was opened in 1912.[1][3] Due to the establishment of Canadian Vickers, Montreal became one of Canada's leading shipbuilding centres.[1] The shipyard's first full year of operation was 1914, a year marked by the beginning of World War I.[2]
Christina O – built in 1943 as HMCS Stormont (K327) and converted as yacht in 1954;[8] renamed as Christina in 1954, Argo in 1978 and current named in 1998
Following World War I, labour militancy grew within Quebec. In June 1919, Canadian Vickers workers led labour action in Montreal as part of larger strike actions within the shipbuilding industry. The labour strike was a result of demands for maximum 8-hour shifts. Employees of Canadian Vickers coordinated with other work forces in Montreal, though shortly after it began, disagreements over a general strike led the labour action to falter.[9] The end of the First World War also saw a reduction of shipping orders and increased competition among shipbuilders. This led to consolidation among shipyards and Canadian Vickers' parent company, Vickers merged with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs. In 1926, Frank Ross of Montreal Dry Dock and two business partners sought to acquire Canadian Vickers from its parent company. Negotiations began in March and were agreed to in November. In 1928, Ross merged Montreal Dry Dock with Canadian Vickers. During the 1930s, the yard survived the Great Depression with repair contracts and constructing manufacturing turbines and structural steel.[10]
The shipyard was reacquired by Vickers in 1956.[11] It was renamed Vickers Canada Limited in 1978 after being sold to Canadian interests and renamed several times again by the last owners Marine Industries, eventually (as Versatile Vickers Inc[12][13] in 1981 and MIL Vickers in 1987). Shipbuiding operations ceased by 1988.[11]
Aerospace
Canadian Vickers ventured into aircraft manufacturing in 1923 when it won a contract to supply Vickers Vikingflying boats to the recently formed Canadian Air Force (Royal Canadian Air Force from 1924). Between 1923 and 1944, Canadian Vickers produced over 400 aircraft, some of which were original Vickers' designs while the remainder were other manufacturers' designs built under license.
In July 1941, the Canadian government awarded Canadian Vickers a contract to produce PBV-1 "Canso" amphibians (a version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat) for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Many of the aircraft were delivered to the United States Navy as the PBV-1; also to the United States Army Air Forces as the OA-10A for rescue work.
To speed Canso production, the government authorized construction of a new manufacturing facility at Cartierville Airport in Ville Saint Laurent, on the north-western outskirts of Montreal, and appointed Canadian Vickers to manage the plant's operation on the government's behalf. Independently Boeing also produced Catalinas in Canada.
In 1944, business pressure compelled Canadian Vickers to ask the government to relieve it of its management responsibilities regarding the Cartierville plant. Ottawa agreed and entered into a management contract with Canadair, a new company founded by a small group of former senior Canadian Vickers personnel headed by Benjamin W. Franklin (no relation to his famous namesake). On 4 November 1944, Canadair took over operation of the plant. In September 1946, Canadair and the plant were acquired by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut.
In 1952, Electric Boat bought Consolidated Vultee and combined it, Canadair, and several smaller companies to form General Dynamics Corporation. General Dynamics later became one of the largest U.S. aerospace corporations. Canadair remained a General Dynamics subsidiary until January 1976 when it was re-acquired by the Canadian government.
In December 1986, the government again sold Canadair, this time to Bombardier, a Quebec-based international conglomerate. Today, Canadair itself no longer exists as a separate entity having been absorbed into Bombardier Aviation.
For aircraft built after 1944, those aircraft were built under the Canadair name.
Railcars
Versatile Vickers used the Canadian former Vickers plant briefly to build rail cars in the 1960s and 1970s during the period of turmoil at the shipyard in Montreal. The rail car products were mostly built under contract, or licensed from other rail car builders or as joint production efforts (such as the MR-63 subway cars for the Montreal Metro with technical support from CIMT-Lorraine which also designed the rubber-tired system for some of the Paris Métro lines). In 1979 Vickers name was changed from Canadian Vickers Ltd. to Vickers Canada, Inc. following the purchase of its shares by the Canadian management from the British holding company. In 1981 the name was again changed to Versatile Vickers, Inc. Versatile Vickers went out of business in 1990.
Commuter Cab car (Bi-level "Town Car" coaches and gallery cars) built as a variant of the Pullman Company Gallery coaches for the Canadian Pacific Railways' Montreal suburban service; later re-classified as AMT 900 series cars.[14] Rebuilt early 2000s and now retired.
Milner, Marc (2010). Canada's Navy: The First Century (Second ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN978-0-8020-9604-3.
Pritchard, James (2011). A Bridge of Ships: Canadian Shipbuilding during the Second World War. Montreal, Quebec and Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN978-0-7735-3824-5.
