On 11 June 1944 the Merchant Navy Red Ensign was presented to the All Saints Anglican Church to honour men of the Merchant Navy and will remain in place until it disintegrates. It is a red field with a Union Jack at the staff. Due to All Saints Anglican Church's proximity to Fort Osborne, in their early years they were known as "the military church" and had many military personnel as parishioners.
In 1870, the Canadian Marine Service began wearing a Blue Ensign to show the special government status of its vessels. When the Naval Service of Canada began on May 4, 1910, this practice continued. At the Imperial Conference of 1911, Canada signed a naval agreement that Canadian warships would wear: the Royal Navy White (naval) Ensign at the stern and the flag of the Dominion (the Canadian Blue Ensign) at the jack-staff located at the bow. Canadian merchant vessels would continue to wear the familiar Red Ensign, showing their non-governmental status. The Merchant Navy Red Ensign was worn until the end of the Second World War.
The merchant fleet constructed in the First World War almost disappeared in the 1920s and the huge fleet of wartime-built ships of the Second World War was soon dispersed at war’s end. While Canadian-owned ships continued to sail the oceans, most did so under foreign registry. At the end of the war, there was a strong feeling in Canada that there should always be a Canadian flag merchant fleet that would provide employment to merchant seamen as well as to others in shipbuilding, and the repair infrastructure required to support it.
The government determined that Canadian flag ships would be costly to operate and, faced with the prospect of subsidizing the operation, allowed the ships to be sold off and transferred to foreign registry. The great Canadian fleet and shipbuilding industry rapidly declined. By 1950, with the outbreak of the Korean War, there were few merchant ships available to participate in that conflict. Twelve Canadian flag ships sailed into Korean waters during the war, fortunately there were no casualties.
