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Raven (PCT–56) RCN Training Vessel
Raven (PCT–56) RCN Training Vessel (Murray Polson photo)
Murray Polson, our Victoria Waterfront Correspondent, came across Raven (PCT–56) on the marine ways for maintenance in Victoria Harbour. She is one of eight Orca-class RCN naval training tenders. All eight are based at CFB Esquimalt in British Columbia. They provide a training platform for naval officers and at-sea familiarization for sea cadets. The ships may also be assigned to support surveillance and other operations if required.
Raven (PCT–56) RCN Training Vessel (Murray Polson photo)
She was built at Victoria Shipyards, Victoria, BC and accepted March 15, 2007. She carries a complement of 4 crew plus 16 trainees. She displaces 210 tons (33m x 8.34m x 2m / 108.3’ x 3.74’ x 6.6 ’) She is capable of 20 knots (37 km/h).
Raven (PCT–56) RCN Training Vessel (Murray Polson photo)
These vessels operate year-round in British Columbia coastal waters and frequently visit many local ports throughout the Gulf Islands, Southern Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, the San Juan Islands, and in Puget Sound and as far as Alaska.
Author’s Postscript: Two of our readers (Commander George Godwin and Captain Glen Power) point out that Raven is not "commissioned" into the fleet and acts as a training platform only. Gerald Pash (Maritime Forces Pacific Headquarters) points out that they are fitted for (but not with) .50 Cal machine guns. Two vessels were fitted out for OPERATION PODIUM, but the weapons were removed after the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Site News: April 17, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,205 vessel histories (with 15,628 images and 13,173 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 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 a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.