In the mid 1950's, The Decca Navigator Company of London, England,
was run by Harvey Schwartz a real dynamo at marketing. The company was
a subsidiary of the massive Decca complex controlled by Sir Edward Lewis.
Schwartz's big success had been the utilization of the system in the D-Day
landings. It was his dream to expand Navigator throughout the civilized
world and in particular, to the United States.
Roy Mitchell, an ex-RAF squadron leader and an associate of Robert Watson-Watt,
the British scientist credited with the development of radar had been selected
to lead Decca into the North American market. He had already convinced
the Bendix company to consider a North American licence. In the winter
of 1956, Roy moved from London, England to Toronto, Ontario and established
a Canadian office for Decca Navigator.
In 1957, the Canadian Coast Guard started to evaluate Decca Navigator
for eventual certification as radio navigation aid for Canada. Chains were
built in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec for this purpose. Business
was booming. Around Christmas 1958 when everything was going great, Roy
Mitchell announced that Decca was about to withdraw from the North American
market and the Bendix Corporation had taken over the licence. That meant
the Decca Navigator division had to be moved to Ottawa because it would
be managed under the wing of Computing Devices Canada (CDC), a Bendix subsidiary.
Roy Mitchell was off to New York City to take over the Decca Radar Corporation
there. By January 1959, the move to Ottawa had been completed but the transition
was rocky one having encountered problems between senior management and
staff. The basic issues focused around management's fundamental lack of
understanding about marine sciences.
Within a short time, business was booming and CDC landed contracts with
the Department of Transport, the Hydrographic Office and the Department
of Mines and Technical Surveys. The company started conducting Decca Navigator
tests with the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Navy. The Canadian
Navy adopted Decca and used it until Global Positioning System became the
primary navigation system. By 1961, the Canadian Coast Guard had
completed the certification of the Canadian chains and they entered service.
In the autumn of 1965, the Decca division was prospering, but the main
business operations were somewhat less than profitable. Bendix, who owned
60 percent of the company decided to go public. It was a good deal for
the stock brokers, but did absolutely nothing for the bottom line. Massive
changes were needed but no one was fired. People were just moved around.
Expenditures stayed the same and the income grew even smaller. There were
also sorts of wonderful ideas and systems floating around in people's minds
but without those defence contracts CDC's survival was in jeopardy. The
most lucrative marketplace, the U.S. military was to be denied because
of the "not invented here syndrome".
CDC eventually became part of the General Dynamics group. Today, the
company is a supplier of military electronics to both the Canadian
Department of National Defence and to the United States. The last Decca
chain in Canada having closed down in 1986, ended Decca Navigator
operations for CDC and signalled the end of an era.
INITIAL CHAIN CONFIGURATION AND HISTORY
On the 10th and 11th December 1975, ComDev Marine the Canadian licensee
for the Decca Navigator Company Limited, was invited to give a presentation
to the Ministry of Transport (Marine Telecommunications & Electronics
Branch) on the Decca Navigator System in Canada and system developments
internationally. The presentation had a three fold purpose:-
i) To review the history of the Decca Navigator System in Canada and
focus on the current (1975) situation on the East Coast.
ii) To review and discuss previous, on-going and future system developments
internationally.
iii) As a result of (i) and (ii) to provide the Ministry of Transport
with detailed proprietary technical data on the Decca Navigator System
to assist the Ministry in its study and evaluation of a suitable public
service marine navigation system for Canadian waters in the 1980-1990 time
frame. An excerpt from this document illustrates the chain history.
"The first Decca Chain in Canada was installed in 1956 to fulfill high
accuracy survey requirements of the Department of National Defence (Royal
Canadian Navy) and the United States Navy over an extensive area off the
south coast of Newfoundland. The Decca hyperbolic system was selected in
preference to the Lorac System which had been used worldwide for survey
control since 1952 by the U.S. Hydrographic Office.
Chain 6B (the RCN chain) was sited along the south coast of Newfoundland
between Cape Ray and the Burin Penninsula and some use of the chain was
made by TransAtlantic merchant shipping on an experimental basis during
1957.
In 1956, the Decca Navigator Company and Computing Devices Company proposed
to the Department of Transport the installation of a Chain in Nova Scotia
on a trial basis to determine user demands. The latter agreed to this two
year trial, at no cost to the Department and Chain 7C was installed in
1957, (190 Series equipment) An authorized number of vessels - mainly fishing
vessels, were fitted with Mk V receivers as soon as the chain was in operation
in August 1957 and lattice charts were available. TransAtlantic shipping
bound to and from east coast ports were of course already fitted with Decca
receivers for navigation in European waters and could also take advantage
of the Nova Scotia Chain. It is emphasized that this was all activated
as a private venture in Canada at considerable financial risk and with
no guarantee of permanency. Any possibility of permanency depended upon
user acceptance.
Further financial risk was incurred by the Decca Navigator Company and
Computing Devices Company in November 1957 when a second Decca Chain -
9C, was installed on a trial basis in the Montreal - Quebec City area.
This was one of the first Mk 10 Multipulse chains (820 series equipment)
and as such was specifically for airborne use in the terminal approaches
to Montreal. Shortly thereafter the East Newfoundland chain 2C was also
established on a trial basis for marine use using 820 series equipment.
In 1959, user interest and acceptance from both the Canadian fishing
industry and deep sea shipping was highly favourable and on completion
of this successful trial period, the Department of Transport agreed
to purchase Chains 2C, 7C and chain 9C for marine use [1].
It is of significance that at the I.C.A.O. Meeting on Airborne Navigation
Systems for North America held in 1958 in Montreal, selected VOR,
DME and TACAN systems in preference to Decca for enroute and terminal navigation
by aircraft. This decision effectively excluded the Montreal - Quebec City
Chain 9C from commercial airborne use. Also, as this Chain's eastern high
accuracy coverage only extended to Father Point Quebec and as ships were
under positive control by pilots from this Point up river to Montreal and
beyond, it was logical to re-site this chain to cover a major portion of
the Gulf of St. Lawrence to provide accurate positioning at sea. This was
completed in 1961 and became the Anticosti chain.
Between 1961 and 1964, the Dept. of Transport accepted responsibility
for the continued operation of the RCN Chain 6B and when the naval requirement
for the chain ended, new chain equipment was purchased by the Department,
new sites were established and Chain 6B was re-positioned to cover the
approaches to Cabot Strait.
ANTICOSTI CHAIN
Shortly after the Nova Scotia chain was opened, the Anticosti Chain
became operational. This chain was officially opened by Mr. John Baldwin,
Deputy Minister of Transport for Canada. The ceremony was held in conjunction
with the annual meeting of the Air Industries and Transport Association
of Canada. It was announced that the Canadian military would carry out
trials of their own using Fairchild C-119 aircraft fitted with DIAN. The
Royal Canadian Navy started assessing it for air-sea rescue work.
NOVA SCOTIA CHAIN
The Nova Scotia chain was the first Canadian chain to open. On August
19, 1957, a ceremony was held in the Nova Scotian Hotel in Halifax where
Bendix-Decca Navigator receivers were exhibited. Practical demonstrations
were given aboard the Prestonian class frigate HMCS OUTREMONT. The
equipment was kindly loaned by the Royal Canadian Navy, the Coast Guard
ship CYGNUS and the RCMP vessel, THE MacBRIEN. All the vessels had
been fitted with receivers and track plotters.
In the course of his speech Mr. George Hees, Canada's Minister of Transport
who had been present at the demonstration in the harbour, said he was "tremendously
impressed" by the possibilities of the Decca system and hoped sufficient
ship owners and airline operators would opt to make it a standard radionavigation
aid in Canada. Premier Bob Stanfield of Nova Scotia said that the people
in his province would certainly endorse the system if it contributes
to safety.
One of the first ships to use the new coverage on a scheduled run was
Canadian Pacific's EMPRESS OF ENGLAND. The report of her master , Captain
C.L. Hauteville Bell, was " The system worked marvelously. We compared
the Decca readings with visual fixes taken from land points and they were
all perfectly accurate". Other famous ships of the day using Decca were
the QUEEN MARY and QUEEN ELIZABETH, the UNITED STATES and the EMPRESS
OF BRITAIN.
After the system was installed, the Canadian Ministry of Transport started
a one year evaluation period to decide whether Decca was to become the
standard navigational aid for Canada. It did become a standard and persevered
until the 1980's.
