Ceremonial Occasions: Launches

The formal ceremonial occasions in the life of a submarine: the keel laying ceremony; the launch ceremony and commissioning and re-commissioning ceremonies were amongst some of the best recorded and fondest remembered of submarine occasions in Chatham Dockyard.  All 57 of the submarines built at Chatham had a Lady Sponsor to perform the official sponsorship duties at their naming and launching ceremony.

The final submarine to be built and launched at Chatham was HMCS Okanagan. She is seen here moving down the slipway towards the River. Madame Cadieux, wife of the Associate Minister of Canadian National Defence, launched HMCS Okanagan on 17th September 1966. Okanagan was formally handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy two years later in June 1968. This was one week before the opening of the new Nuclear Refitting and Refuelling Complex. It was in this complex that Chatham Dockyard's submarine workforce was concentrated during the final fifteen years of the Dockyard's operational life.

Image © Chatham Dockyard Historical Society