Full name: Her Majesty's Canadian Ship GRIFFON Motto: "Prima In
Lacubus" / "First on the Lakes" Her Majesty's Canadian Ship
(HMCS) Griffon was established at the beginning of the Second
World War. Naval Reservists needed a location from which to
operate so they decided to lease a garage in Port Arthur, now
Thunder Bay, Ontario. The military instituted a policy where by
all "stone frigates" were to be commissioned. That first leased
garage became HMCS Griffon in 1941. A new barracks was
constructed in 1943. Throughout the Second World War, Griffon
recruited and trained volunteers enlisted in the Canadian Navy.
The facility had its own drill deck, parade square, rifle range
and accommodation for up to 130 new recruits. Griffon even had
its own tennis courts. Shipyards in the city would build thirty
corvettes and minesweepers for the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal
Navy over the course of the war and Griffon became home to the
commissioning crews for these ships. More than 2400 officers and
non-commissioned member