The HMCS Chaleur I Chaleur I to.. Chaleur IV... over! HMCS Chaleur I Henri-Paul Bertrand collection In September 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy was really short of units to patrol and protect the St. Lawrence River downstream from Quebec. Faced with the urgency of the situation, two motor patrol craft, until then attached to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, were transferred to the authority of the Royal Canadian Navy. Christened respectively HMCS Chaleur I and HMCS Madawaska, these two ships were the first of the defensive unit called the Chaleur Group. Crew of HMCS Chaleur I Henri-Paul Bertrand collection Measuring 72 feet long, with a crew of 10 men, HMCS Chaleur I was armed with nothing but an archaic machine gun, and was truly not equipped to hunt submarines. Stationed at the dock at Saint-Jean, Île d'Orléans, the motor patrol ship HMCS Chaleur I patrolled the seaway, inspecting all ships heading towards Quebec. Two other ships completed the armada under the authority of the N.O.I.C. Quebec (Naval Officer In Charge),HMCS Chaleur II: the Lanoraie, a tug equipped with a fire hose and the Druid, a maintenance ship for buoys and marine beacons. In high seas, the deep-sea tug HMCS Maxime occasionally took over from the HMCS Chaleur I. Radio station HMCS Chaleur III. Transceiver built in 1942 by Tom Barrette, an amateur radio operator Henri-Paul Bertrand collection After the torpedoing of the cargo ships SS Nicoya and SS Leto at the mouth of the river on May 11 and 12, 1942, the surveillance stations P.W.S.S. - Port War Signal Station (Chaleur III) at the point of Saint-Jean, Île d'Orléans and D.G.R.S. - Degaussing Gear Range Station (Chaleur IV) at Rivière-Lafleur were added to HMCS Chaleur II, completing the defensive efforts of the Royal Canadian Navy downstream from Quebec. Considered an important command unit, the leadership of the Chaleur Group was ensured over the years by commanding officers R.L. Germain (September 1939), L.J.M. Gauvreau (December 1941) and F.B. Latchmore (in an acting capacity) in 1945. In1957, to pay special homage for services rendered by the Groupe Chaleur during the last war, a new minesweeper of the Bay class, No. 164, was christened HMCS Chaleur. Photo: Canadian Forces Photographic Unit