A Great Fleet of Ships: The Canadian Forts & Parks de Heal, S. C - 1999

St. Catherines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing, 1999. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Very light shelf rubbing; minor fragrance. Text is clean. 'While the extent of Canada's war production effort, 1939-45, is fairly well known to Canadians, one aspect of it has largely, and inexplicably, escaped notice. This is the construction in Canadian shipyards, from a standing start in 1941, of 402 merchant ships, most of them 10,000-ton cargo ships. They were launched from seven yards on the west coast and eight on the east coast, St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes. On a comparative scale, it was a feat rivalling that of the United States. Here, the author describes the technical factors involved in the design of these ships, their construction and operation. [This book] explains how this potential merchant fleet in being at the war's end was dispersed, so that Canada's merchant marine all but vanished after 1950. . . . A special feature of the book is a complete Fleet List of all the ships, with concise details of their builders, their subsequent name changes, ownership changes and their fates.' Illustrated. 312 pages. 8.75 x 11.25 inches..