The job of a stoker, even by the mid-20th century, was physically demanding and often thankless, deep in the engine rooms of naval fighting ships. In the oppressive heat, stokers managed the ship’s boilers and engines under conditions that pushed men to their limits. Heat exhaustion was common, as was the constant risk of fire or explosion in the event of an enemy strike. Corvettes and destroyers relied on speed and maneuverability to evade torpedoes, and without a well-maintained engine room, they were as good as dead in the water. A carpenter by trade, Brevig would have been familiar with hard labor, but the brutal conditions of the engine rooms were grueling even by those standards.
Fortunately, Arthur Magnus Brevig did not remain a stoker for long. By late 1942, he had transferred to the more technical and specialized role of an Electrical Artificer, advancing to the rating of Electrical Artificer Fifth Class – a considerable relief from the life toiling in the boiler rooms. Electrical Artificers worked in relative comfort, maintaining and repairing the ship’s electrical systems, radar, and communications. The role required advanced technical knowledge as wartime ships increasingly relied on complex electrical and detection systems. Though this position carried its own pressures, it freed Brevig from punishing physical labor and placed him in a more specialized and highly valued trade.
ATLANTIC
Atlantic duty came in May 1943 during a brief assignment aboard H.M.C.S. St. Francis while the ship was undergoing refit. It was only a short operational test before Art returned to H.M.C.S. Stadacona for further training. By September, he was assigned to H.M.C.S. St. Clair, another former American destroyer in the Royal Canadian Navy that had been repurposed primarily as an escort and training vessel in the continued development of Canadian anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
H.M.C.S. St. Clair remained active in convoy defense operations as part of the Western Local Escort Force in the winter, which was particularly brutal through the North Atlantic with violent storms compounding the ever-present dangers of enemy action. By mid-year, the ship was deployed with Canadian Escort Group W-2, responsible for escorting convoys along the North Atlantic route until briefly detached for two months and assigned to Halifax as a tender to H.M.C.S. Cornwallis, the Royal Canadian Navy training base. An electrical artificer remained critical – power failures, navigation malfunctions, or compromised communication lines could mean disaster in the midst of a U-boat engagement.
By December 1943, St. Clair was withdrawn from frontline convoy duties and repurposed as a depot ship, accommodating Royal Navy submarine crews engaged in anti-submarine training at Halifax. Persistent mechanical failures common to her class, including fuel contamination and engine breakdowns, had significantly reduced her operational effectiveness. She continued service as a depot ship at St. Margaret’s Bay until being taken in for dockyard repairs in May. The ship remained under consideration for future use but was ultimately withdrawn from sea service in August. From September to December, she was stationed in Bedford Basin, Halifax, serving as a damage control training ship. By this time, newer Captain-class frigates and other modern escorts had entered service, necessitating trained crews for frontline operations.
In August 1944, Brevig joined H.M.C.S. Galt, a Flower-class corvette built for convoy escort duties. Corvettes like Galt were the backbone of Canada’s anti-submarine efforts – small, maneuverable, but notoriously uncomfortable for their crews. Life aboard a corvette was rough – the ships rolled excessively in heavy seas, and accommodations were cramped. Despite these hardships, Galt and her sister ships ensured the lifeline between North America and Britain remained intact.
Galt departed Halifax on March 13th, 1944 for New York for yet another refit, this one including a forecastle extension, which was completed in early May. A month later, she left Halifax for Bermuda to work up before being assigned for the remainder of the war to Escort Group W-5 of the Western Escort Force. Art served aboard Galt through to November 1944, a period that saw continued German U-boat offensives as the Kriegsmarine still sought to disrupt Allied supply lines. The introduction of improved sonar technology and the growing proficiency of Canadian escort crews began to shift the tide of the battle during the long convoys and harrowing chases that frequently lasted hours.
The Battle for the Atlantic – the longest continuous engagement of the war – was Art’s only campaign credit. Overshadowed by more immediate and visible struggles on land and in the air, the campaign which entitled him to the watery silk ribbon of the Atlantic Star was waged in grey seas and long nights, where fatigue, weather, and unseen enemies defined the character of the fight.
KOREA
While initially preparing for a European cruise, the outbreak of war in Korea on June 25th, 1950 led to a swift reassignment of H.M.C.S. Cayuga and her sister ships to Pacific operations. She departed ten days later from Esquimalt alongside Athabaskan and Sioux. The decision to send Canadian destroyers into action followed the United Nations Security Council’s call for military intervention, and on July 12th, Cayuga and her task group entered Pearl Harbor for a brief stop before receiving further orders. Brevig, a Chief Petty Officer by that time, had been aboard since early June when the ship emerged from dry dock. As the senior ship of the division and armed with six 4-inch guns, eight 40-mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, ahead-throwing Squid anti-submarine mortars, depth charges, and four 21-inch torpedo tubes, Cayuga was best prepared for a rapid deployment.
At Pearl Harbor, Task Group 214.4 was officially assigned to United Nations naval forces supporting South Korea. Within two hours of their arrival, new orders arrived transferring the Canadian ships under MacArthur’s control for combat operations, marking the formal start of Cayuga’s Korean War service. From July 30th, the three Tribal-class ships operated primarily as convoy escorts, ensuring the safe passage of United Nations supply vessels to the besieged port of Pusan. These were tense operations, as North Korean submarines and naval mines were potential threats, and allied air reconnaissance remained limited in the early days of the war.
Cayuga quickly moved into a more aggressive role in mid-August when she was transferred to the west coast blockade operations. The ship became the first Canadian vessel to engage in direct combat during the Korean War. On August 15th, operating alongside H.M.S. Mounts Bay, Cayuga conducted a bombardment of North Korean positions at Yosu. The destroyer fired a concentrated barrage of 4-inch shells against enemy shore installations in one of the first naval strikes of the war and the first time since World War II that a Royal Canadian Navy ship had engaged an enemy force. In the fire control room, Brevig ‘adjusts the delicate controls that determine the accuracy of the ship’s gunfire’ – all done with a ‘business-as-usual air’. The effect of the shelling forced a retreat of enemy elements, though intelligence on North Korean positions remained sparse.
Cayuga continued blockade and bombardment operations throughout August, culminating in a second engagement on August 31st. Partnering with Sioux and the British cruiser Kenya, Cayuga delivered a punishing strike against North Korean positions on the small island of Te Bu Somu. The island had been used as an enemy staging area for small boat raids, and the bombardment successfully neutralized key supply points. She had a narrow escape weeks later while leading a patrol near Chinnampo with H.M.S. Kenya. The ship’s sonar operator detected a minefield dead ahead at a distance of 400 yards. Cayuga executed an emergency turn to starboard, signaling Kenya to follow. The destroyer narrowly avoided disaster by only a few feet.
As winter deepened, Cayuga was heavily engaged in patrolling contested waters and supporting land operations. The ship took part in escorting supply convoys while also investigating suspected enemy blockade runners. In December, Cayuga led a formation of six destroyers through the hazardous, mined waters of the Daido-ko channel. The operation was one of the most hazardous of the war, as enemy mining operations had intensified. Two of the accompanying ships ran aground and had to withdraw, but Cayuga continued through to the evacuation ensuring that the approach to Chinnampo remained secure for the retreating United Nations forces. Alongside Bataan and Forrest Royal, she targeted fuel storage tanks, railway yards, and enemy positions in the harbor. The ship’s guns also fired on suspected mine-laying junks in the area to prevent further obstruction of the evacuation route.
As the year ended, Cayuga set a record for Commonwealth destroyers by completing fifty consecutive days on patrol. The ship returned to Sasebo on January 8th, 1951 for a well-earned docking and maintenance period after weeks of relentless action. For the first time, she encountered direct enemy fire while leaving Inchon harbor. Shore batteries on Wolmi-do opened fire on the destroyer, prompting Cayuga and her accompanying ships to return fire with 4-inch guns and Bofors anti-aircraft weapons. The engagement was brief, with the enemy positions quickly silenced, but it was a worthy fanfare for her departure.
Two days later, Cayuga returned to Inchon as part of the United Nations bombardment force, supporting ground operations during Ridgeway’s offensive. Throughout February and March, she also participated in carrier screening operations and minesweeping operations near Inchon until March 16th, 1951 when Cayuga concluded her first Korean deployment and returned to Canada. It had been another period of long monotony, repetitive days, and only a few brief, sharp engagements.
ARCTIC
After accepting a commission, he remained at Stadacona for most of the next decade, only leaving for a long tour aboard H.M.C.S. Labrador in 1956 and 1957. Canada and the United States had just begun construction on the Distant Early Warning Line, and service aboard the Labrador offered an unusual break from the routine of the peacetime navy. The icebreaker, under Captain T. C. Pullen, was to chart and clear approaches through Foxe Basin and the eastern Arctic so that equipment, supplies, and personnel could be landed in support of the expanding northern defense network.
Arctic navigation remained dependent upon careful sounding work, tidal observation, and reconnaissance of narrow straits where incomplete charts left uncertainty even in apparently open water. The passage through Bellot Strait, long regarded as doubtful for deep-draft ships, required particular care. Aircraft and survey boats were employed to identify hazards such as Magpie Rock and possible shoal water at the western approaches, while shore parties established triangulation points to confirm safe channels, enabling regular seasonal navigation where previously only limited exploration had been possible.
During operations near York Sound, Brevig went ashore with an aircraft salvage and survey party to investigate a route up Peter Point Mountain and recover equipment from a previously damaged helicopter. The camp was established ashore in difficult weather conditions, where persistent fog and rain limited visibility and complicated movement over the rugged terrain. The party endured several days exposed to the elements, their progress slowed by wet ground, high winds, and poor shelter. Even so, the climb was ultimately achieved and valuable equipment recovered. Captain Pullen noted in his diary:
“At 0945 arrived at York Sound which was still wrapped in fog… By 1430 our three campers and all their gear were aboard… They also reported the climb as dangerous, made more so by the tendency for fog to close in trapping the climbers in awkward spots. I consider Mr. A.M. Brevig, Commissioned Electrical Officer, RCN, and C1SH4 Earl Martin, 50047-H, who were the two who reached the summit, to have done very well.”
In March and April 1957, the ship crossed the Atlantic in an unusual goodwill tour. The crew visited Portsmouth, Oslo, and Copenhagen before returning north for further Arctic work. Later that year Labrador rendezvoused with U.S. Coast Guard cutters Storis, Bramble, and Spar near the western entrance to Bellot Strait, confirming that the passage was navigable and escorting the squadron through waters once considered uncertain for vessels of their draft.
Service in the Arctic lacked the immediacy of wartime operations, but carried strategic importance in an era when geography was crucial to defense policy. The careful accumulation of soundings, observations, and experience transformed the eastern Arctic from a largely unknown region into one capable of supporting future operations. Though he still had another ten years’ service before retirement, for Brevig, the arctic voyage represented a culmination in a naval career of technical skill that always seemed to take him through cold water.