Marine Industries

Marine Industries Limited (MIL) was a Canadian ship building and rail car manufacturing company, in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, with a shipyard located on the Richelieu river about 1 km from the St. Lawrence River. It employed up to 10,000 people during the post World War II boom.

Opened in 1937, the yard saw many contracts during its early years for vessels used on the Great Lakes and Canada's Atlantic coast. MIL began building railroad cars in 1957, with production focused mainly on flat cars, gondolas and covered hoppers for the domestic and export markets.

In 1986 the federal government asked Quebec to rationalize its shipyards, which saw MIL merge with Davie Shipbuilding^[1] in Lauzon; the Sorel shipyard was called M.I.L. Tracy (for Tracy, Quebec) and the Lauzon shipyard was called M.I.L. Lauzon.

Shortly after the merger, the new company, MIL Davie Shipbuilding closed the Sorel shipyard along with the Versatile Vickers shipyard in Montreal, resulting in a total loss of 1,700 jobs.

Ships built[]

MIL's Sorel shipyard was responsible for numerous Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and CN Marine vessels.

Warships[]

• Flower-class corvette^[2]
  • HMCS Arrowhead
  • HMCS Bittersweet
  • HMCS Calgary
  • HMCS Camrose
  • HMCS Dunvegan
  • HMCS Fennel
  • HMCS Fredericton
  • HMCS La Malbaie
  • HMCS Regina
  • HMCS Sherbrooke
  • HMCS Sorel
• St. Laurent-class destroyer
  • HMCS Assiniboine
• Restigouche-class destroyer
  • HMCS St. Croix
• Annapolis-class destroyer
  • HMCS Nipigon
• Iroquois-class destroyer
  • HMCS Iroquois
  • HMCS Huron
• Unclassed hydrofoil
  • HMCS Bras d'Or

Icebreakers[]

• A.T Cameron (1958) - built for the federal Fisheries Research Board, sold and renamed Arctic Ranger and RV Arctic Discoverer
• CCGS Sir William Alexander
• CCGS Labrador
• CCGS Bartlett
• CCGS Edward Cornwallis

Coast Guard vessels[]

• CCGS Tupper

Ferries[]

• MV Howe Sound Queen - car and passenger ferry built as MV Napoleon L in 1964 and sold to BC Ferries in 1971 (hull unknown)^[3]
• MV Abegweit
• MV John Hamilton Gray
• MV Ambrose Shea (1967) - built for CN Marine, car and passenger ferry was transferred to Marine Atlantic; sold and renamed MV Erg and scrapped^[4]
• MV Camille-Marcoux (1974) - car ferry for Government of Quebec and operated route from Matane–Baie-Comeau–Godbout - scrapped 2017

Floating dry dock[]

• Pamamax drydock 1982; acquired by Halifax Shipyard and renamed Novadock

References[]