# Siren at the Halifax Dockyard



## johnny_boy (10 Mar 2005)

I have lived in Halifax all my life, and what seems like daily there is what sounds like an air raid siren go off. Several people have told me this comes from the dockyard, but never was told what it was for.

Anyone who works at the Halifax dockyard care to enlighten me?


(And, believe me, I have heard all the "GERMANS ARE COMING!" jokes)


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## Ex-Dragoon (10 Mar 2005)

I know there is one at HSL that sounds for a shift change but I have yet to hear one at the dockyard itself.


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## NavyShooter (10 Mar 2005)

Yup,

That's the shift change siren at the Halifax Shipyards, not the military dockyard.

Goes off at the same time every workday.

NavyShooter


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## winchable (10 Mar 2005)

If you want to have fun with people from out of town, or those who don't know the siren.
When it goes off, just look around and go "Oh, shite" then try your best to recreate those old Nuclear civil defence videos (Duck and cover)

Hilarious if it works


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## karl28 (10 Mar 2005)

We used to have something like that here in Trenton Ont . Was down from Queen Elizabeth school . I think Domtar used for shifts changes to man it was loud you could here for quite a distance . The town took it out in the early 90's


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## Sheerin (11 Mar 2005)

Why is it they use the old Air Raid warning siren?  Out of curosity, do Canadian sities still have those sirens?  my old high school back in Toronto had one but no one knew if it was operational.  My high school was the oldest in the old city of Scarborough (now the Eastern part of the Toronto mega city)

Funny side story, back in 2000 I went to Washington DC on a school trip and our hotel was right beside Andrew's AFB, every night at midnight that siren went off, kinda disconcerting actually.  The first thought that went through my head was "damn, I have bad luck..."


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## Ex-Dragoon (11 Mar 2005)

Its not an air raid siren.....its a shift change siren. Think of it, EMO would have a fit if an air raid siren was usd for something other then its stated purpose.


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## daniel h. (11 Mar 2005)

Sheerin said:
			
		

> Why is it they use the old Air Raid warning siren?   Out of curosity, do Canadian sities still have those sirens?   my old high school back in Toronto had one but no one knew if it was operational.   My high school was the oldest in the old city of Scarborough (now the Eastern part of the Toronto mega city)
> 
> Funny side story, back in 2000 I went to Washington DC on a school trip and our hotel was right beside Andrew's AFB, every night at midnight that siren went off, kinda disconcerting actually.   The first thought that went through my head was "darn, I have bad luck..."




The T.T.C. used to use them at their various repair facilities in Toronto.


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## Navalsnpr (11 Mar 2005)

The Siren is generated from HSL (Halifax Shipyard Limited).

The Siren announces when work is to start, when breaks start and finish and when the shift ends.


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## jmacleod (17 Mar 2005)

The siren does indeed come from Halifax Shipyards Limited. I grew up in Halifax NS during World WarII
-I can well remember other daily sounds over the Halifax landscape; the unique whooping sound of
a Canadian or Allied destroyer, like HMCS Athabaskan, or the sound of Hawker Hurricane Rolls-Royce
Merlin engines (there were at least two RCAF fighter squadrons flying Hurricanes out of RCAF Station
Dartmouth, later HMCS Shearwater NS) or the sounds of convoy merchant vessels, saluting the
Admirals Deck at HMCS Dockyard as they proceeded to sea from Halifax Harbour and Bedford
Basin, to form into convoys for the dangerous trip across the North Atlantic. For a fourteen year
old kid, Halifax was an exciting place to be during the War. The city in those days of course was
time worn, scruffy, ultra conservative, racist and lacking of many of the amenities that we take
for granted today. It was then, and is today "a Navy Town". MacLeod


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