HMCS Protector

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For the Canadian Forces auxiliary oil replenishment ship, see HMCS Protecteur (AOR 509).

HMCS Protector was the name of a Royal Canadian Navy base located in Sydney Harbour on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island.

During the months prior to the declaration of World War II in 1939, the RCMP Patrol Vessel Protector stationed at Sydney for various policing duties. On 28 August 1939 the Royal Canadian Navy established a small shore facility on the Sydney waterfront. On 22 July 1940, this facility was commissioned as HMCS Protector, taking its name from Patrol Vessel Protector; RCN regulations at the time dictated that the name of a naval shore establishment must have been borne by a vessel afloat.

HMCS Protector saw intensive use during the early years of the war as Sydney Harbour became the assembly port for slow Atlantic convoys of the SC (Sydney-Clyde) series. Protector was the base for the warships that escorted the SC convoys in the western Atlantic. Protector was the focal point for the extensive Sydney Harbour defences that were established to protect against Nazi U-boat attack.

HMCS Protector was initially stationed on the Sydney waterfront and used commercial wharves and buildings along Esplanade Street where the present armouries and marine terminal are located. In 1943, a new custom-built shore facility and extensive piers was constructed at Point Edward on the opposite western shore of the harbour. A Canadian National Railways line linked this new base to the mainline to Truro and numerous convoy supply ships and warships were loaded and serviced at Protector; at the same time, the RCN maintained use of the commercial facilities on the eastern shore in Sydney proper. The base specialised in repair and fitting.

After the end of the war, the RCN relinquished use of the commercial facilities on the Sydney waterfront (eastern side of the harbour) but maintained the use of HMCS Protector at Point Edward on the western side of the harbour until the base was closed and decommissioned in 1965.

Following the base's closure, the nascent Canadian Coast Guard College was located in some of the now-unused RCN facilities and used the base's jetties; a custom-built CCGC opened on an adjacent property in 1981.