HMCS CC-2

HMCS CC 2 was a used by the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship was launched in 1913 in Seattle, Washington as the submarine Chilean submarine Antofagasta for Chile. This deal fell through and the boat, along with , was offered to British Columbia's premier Sir Richard McBride, just nine days before the United Kingdom's declaration of war in 1914. On 4 August 1914, the day war was declared, the boat departed at night (to maintain secrecy from the Chilean, German, and U. S. governments) for handover to British Columbia authorities near Victoria, British Columbia. The Dominion Government of Canada later ratified the sale although there was a Parliamentary investigation of the cost of both boats, over twice the annual budget for the entire Royal Canadian Navy in 1913–14. CC 2 served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1914 to 1920, when the submarine was discarded and broken up in 1925.

The two submarines of the CC class were not identical, with the Electric Boat Company employed two separate designs with the same internal machinery for the submarines. CC 1 was built to the design 19E and CC 2 was built to design 19B. CC 2 was armed with three torpedo tubes of the same size, two forward and one astern. This gave CC 2 a tapered bow. The only source for these torpedoes in Canada was 's stock and it took some time before they were shipped to the submarines. The boats could dive 200 feet (61 m) and unlike modern submarines, the main ballast and trim tanks were located internally. The boats were powered by MAN 6 cylinder diesel engines constructed in the United States under licence. The CC class could carry of diesel fuel. The two submarines were designed to make surfaced and submerged. Named Antofagasta, the submarine was launched on 31 December 1913. In keeping with an earlier Australian practice when two British E class submarines had been renamed AE 1 and AE 2 by adding the "A" in front of the class to denote Australia, the two submarines purchased by Canada, resembling British C class submarines, had two "C"s placed in front of their names to denote Canada and their apparent class. The submarines faced criticism from Royal Navy experts and even the Electric Boat Company. However, the Royal Commission later found in favour of the decision to acquire the submarines. In 1917 the submarine was transferred to the east coast with CC 1 and the submarine tender The electrical fires led the crews to only operate one diesel engine at a time, as the other was usually under repair. CC 2 worked until San Francisco and then both submarines were towed to San Diego. Confined to port hopping down the coast and passing through the Canal Zone, the fleet had to stop at Kingston, Jamaica to make repairs. The group's transit through the Panama Canal was the first time a warship transited the Panama Canal under the White Ensign. Only after the Admiralty was informed of their dire condition did they rescind that order and then ordered them for use as coastal defence on the east coast. CC 2 was then held in Halifax as a Training Assistance Boat, training surface vessels in anti submarine warfare. The sub finished the war as a training vessel, not going on patrol again before the Armistice. Following the war, the Royal Navy transferred the H class submarines H14 and H15 to Canada. The Royal Canadian Navy could not operate both the H class and the CC class, so the decision was made to place the CC class in reserve. The two submarines were put up for sale in 1920 and were packaged with Niobe for disposal. The three vessels were sold for scrap in 1925 and broken up.