HMCS MAGNIFICENT

On loan from the Royal Navy HMCS MAGNIFICENT was commissioned on 7 April, 1948, and came to Canada two months later. From her Halifax base, in the ensuing nine years, she made training and goodwill cruises to many parts of the world and took part in numerous NATO naval exercises in the North Atlantic.

In the fall of 1948 the carrier, accompanied by two destroyers, made a cruise to Hudson Strait. Two years later she was flagship of the Canadian Special Service Squadron, which visited seven European countries in the course of a three-month cruise.

MAGNIFICENT visited the Mediterranean during both 1951 and 1952; in 1953 she was a unit of the Canadian Coronation Squadron, which took part in the Coronation Review at Spithead, England. The west coast of Canada saw the carrier in 1954 when she steamed from Halifax to the RCN base at Esquimalt, B.C., and back, via the Panama Canal.

NATO exercises, training cruises to the Caribbean and Europe, and participation in Canada-US Navy Week in New York City, occupied MAGNIFICENT in 1955. The early months of 1956 were spent on a programme which included exercises and training in Caribbean and Atlantic waters.

The climax to the ship’s career, and her most notable voyage of all, came in December-January, 1956-57, when she transported, during the Suez Canal crisis, the bulk of the Canadian contribution to the United Nations Emergency Force, from Halifax to Egypt. In mid-January 1957 MAGNIFICENT delivered at Port Said 406 officers and men of the Canadian Army; 233 vehicles, 100 tons of stores and four RCAF Otter aircraft.

Her mission completed the carrier sailed via Naples to Glasgow, Scotland, where she embarked 59 Sabre Jet aircraft of the RCAF, for delivery in Canada. Homeward-bound, MAGNIFICENT encountered some of the worst weather of her whole career but, although she had to heave to at one stage, her cargo was not damaged.

“Maggie”, as she was well and affectionately known, had now come to the end of her time with the RCN. The new Canadian-owned aircraft carrier, HMCS BONAVENTURE, had come into service and was in the midst of post-commissioning trials in the United Kingdom. On 10 April, 1957, MAGNIFICENT sailed from Halifax for the last time and, on paying off at Plymouth, reverted to the Royal Navy on 14 June, 1957.

Naval Historical Section, Naval Headquarters, Ottawa, Ontario.

30 June, 1957.