The University Naval Training Division (UNTD)

For twenty five years the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve University Naval Training Division (UNTD) trained university students and turned them into naval officers.

Life at the basic training base at Cornwallis NS was rigorous and exhausting. Here is a detailed look at the minute by minute schedule that drove every day of training.

Bill Clearihue has taken on the daunting task of tracking down all the former members of the University Naval Training Division – 8,000 young Canadians who trained with the Canadian naval reserve from 1943’1968. He has created a Nominal List which begins the process of sharing the huge body of information on this little–known unit that he has uncovered. He also shares a list of examples of former members who achieved career successes (which many of them attributing it to a good grounding gained during their naval training).

Hugh Williamson (UNTD Scotian 1966) found two original documents relating to the UNTD that members will find interesting. The first is the recruiting booklet that many members will have referenced when they made the decision to join. The second document is a rare copy of the ‘official history’ which was supposed to help UNTDs understand the genesis of the program. John Scott provided one from his collection from much earlier.

A personal experience in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve University Naval Training Division (UNTD) in the last intake serving 1966–1968.

Bill Clearihue has developed and updated a Nominal List of the University Naval Training Division (UNTD) of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve which contains the names of more than 7,000 former members and details of their service. Other lists available from him detail the former members known to be deceased and a list of former members who achieved positions of note in their civilian or military careers. Bill Clearihue will update these lists from time’to’time and they will be updated on this site.

Nauticapedia

Site News: March 16, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 91,134 vessel histories (with 15,557 images and 12,826 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,612 entries (with 4,007 images).

In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!

My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 10,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.


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