St. Roch’s Arctic capability

St. Roch is an ice‑capable wooden schooner with the following characteristics and record‑setting voyages:

hull form: heavy scantlings, reinforced bow, and the pragmatic compromises of designing a supply and patrol vessel for icebound waters in the 1920s.
first west‑to‑east traverse of the Northwest Passage (1940–42),
first to complete the Passage in a single season (1944)
first ship to circumnavigate North America (finished 1954 via Panama).

Hull and bow geometry, masts and rig, wheelhouse/bridge, and deck fittings adapted for Arctic ice work and cargo handling.

ST. ROCH made one last operational voyage in the summer of 1951. That winter, the RCMP laid up the schooner alongside MacBrien Pier No. 1 at the Halifax Dockyard. Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, a movement to return ST. ROCH to its home port began. In the summer of 1954 the City of Vancouver purchased ST. ROCH from the RCMP. Shortly thereafter Henry Larsen sailed the schooner through the Panama Canal to Vancouver. ST. ROCH arrived on October 12, 1954.

The RCMP role in supplying and policing Arctic detachments, and how that intersected with Inuit communities and Canadian sovereignty claim is an angle that will be intensified in the revitalized in a future Inuit‑led exhibit.

In 1958, the City of Vancouver removed the 1944 deckhouse and restored ST. ROCH to its 1928 appearance. Later that year, workers pulled ST. ROCH ashore on a cradle, where she rests today inside a concrete drydock. In 1962 the federal government recognized the ship’s national significance and designated her a National Historic Site. Together with the City of Vancouver, the federal government entered into an agreement to restore and interpret the vessel. In 1966, the A-frame that covers the ship today was built to protect her from the weather. In 1971, she was completely restored to her 1944 appearance by Parks Canada who then operated the ship as a separate part of the Vancouver Maritime Museum complex for the next 24 years.

Do note that the museum warns that access to the St. Roch exhibit may be limited in February and March 2026 because of building and exhibition maintenance.

In 1995, Parks Canada closed ST. ROCH National Historic Site. Responsibility for the ship passed to the Vancouver Maritime Museum. The long term needs of the ship include a new shelter, restoration of the dry-rotted hull, and an endowment for ongoing preservation. In 1997, the Vancouver Maritime Museum and the RCMP launched a preservation campaign which continues to this day. A dramatic re-enactment of St. ROCH’s voyages in 2000 reached an audience of millions and attracted support, but the task is not yet over. We encourage you to supperu irout efforts to preserve this important and unique piece of Canadian history.

Hull structure and materials

The hull was built of very thick Douglas fir planking, a strong but resilient softwood that could flex slightly under load.[5][6][1]
Outside, the fir was sheathed with extremely hard Australian “ironbark” (eucalyptus), giving a sacrificial, abrasion‑resistant skin against ice and grounded floes.[6][1][5]
Inside, the hull was reinforced with unusually heavy frames and beams so the structure could tolerate long periods under ice pressure without catastrophic failure.[1][5][6]

Hull form and ice behavior

The mark on St. Roch’s hull relates to salinity and temperature and is her load line / Plimsoll mark. Interpreting it means matching the water surface to the correct lettered line for the water density and seasonal zone she is operating in. The vertical spread of those lines is the graphical expression of how salinity and temperature change buoyancy and therefore safe draft. F – Fresh Water T, S – Summer (salt, reference) W – Winter WNA – Winter North Atlantic (most restrictive)

St. Roch had a notably rounded midship section and bottom, with little deadrise, so that when lateral ice pressure increased she tended to be squeezed upward and ride onto the ice rather than be pinched and crushed.[3][6][1]

This same rounded form made her an uncomfortable, “ugly duckling” seaboat—rolling heavily in open water—but it was ideal for repeated besetment in pack ice.[1]

The bow was additionally protected with steel plating to cope with repeated contact, ramming, and grinding through loose pack and brash ice.[3][6]

Size, scantlings, and propulsion

At about 90–104 feet in length, with a beam around 24–25 feet and a draft about 10–11 feet (depending on configuration), she was small enough to thread narrow, poorly charted channels but stoutly built (around 190–320 tons) for her size.[5][3][1]

She was an auxiliary schooner: two masts with three sails plus a 6‑cylinder diesel (roughly 150 hp as built, later replaced by a ~300 hp engine in 1944), giving both redundancy and fine speed control in ice and shoal waters.[4][5][1]

Wooden construction with treenail fastening reduced catastrophic cracking compared with more brittle all‑steel structures under cyclic ice loading.[5][1]

The ship as a platform for endurance: tiny cabins, provisioning arrangements, and the physical feel of a vessel that made the first west‑to‑east traverse of the Northwest Passage and the first circumnavigation of North America.

Arctic operational fit‑out

The deckhouse and superstructure were compact and later enlarged in refit, but remained low and centralized, limiting topweight and exposed surface to wind and ice.[1][5]

Internal subdivision, stores spaces, and heating were organized for extended wintering—St. Roch endured multiple winters frozen in, up to roughly ten months at a time—so the ship could safely function as a stationary ice camp when needed.[8][4][5]

Board the St. Roch to read her as a working boat: deck layout, rig, wheelhouse, ground tackle, and how a small crew managed long Arctic passages.

As a patrol and supply vessel rather than a pure research ship, she carried ample cargo and fuel for long unsupported operations, which combined with her hull and rig made her an effective mobile base in the western Arctic.[4][5][1]

St. Roch, a Dominican Catholic Priest is the Patron Saint of Dogs and Dog Lovers

Taken together—rounded, heavily built wooden hull; ironbark sheathing and steel‑plated bow; modest size with auxiliary sail and diesel power; and winter‑capable internal arrangements—these features explain how St. Roch could survive repeated besetment, break free from heavy pressure, and ultimately complete multiple historic Northwest Passage voyages and a circumnavigation of North America.[6][4][5][1]