From the National Post:
Warship pledges to keep cannons silent: 1817 treaty requirement: HMCS Toronto alerts U.S. before Great Lakes cruise
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Before the Canadian warship HMCS Toronto was allowed to sail into her namesake city today, it had to promise the United States that it would not try to rekindle the War of 1812.
That is because under the terms of the 188-year-old Rush-Bagot Agreement, negotiated at the end of the war to limit naval forces on the Great Lakes, the Canadian navy frigate constitutes a floating diplomatic incident.
"I don't have to account for how many cannon balls I have on board," Commander Stu Moors, captain of the Toronto, said with a laugh. "But I did have to tell them how many Harpoons [anti-ship missiles] I have."
The Canadian Embassy in Washington had to deliver a formal diplomatic note to the U.S. State Department well in advance of HMCS Toronto's arrival, the start of a month-long tour of Canadian and American cities along the Great Lakes, advising the United States that Canada was about to violate the 19th century treaty, which has never been abrogated or repealed since it was signed in 1817.
"We don't actually come out and say we're not going to use [the Toronto] to invade," said Rodney Moore, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Canada. "But that's basically the gist of it.
"It's just a formality, to advise them that the visit of HMCS Toronto is for ceremonial, not military, purposes."
The Rush-Bagot agreement was negotiated after three years of fighting between the British and the Americans and a naval arms race to build the largest fleet on the Great Lakes.
To end the destabilizing -- and expensive -- shipbuilding race, British diplomat Charles Bagot and American Richard Rush negotiated what may be the longest-standing arms limitation deal: Each nation was limited to only one warship on Lake Ontario; two on the other Great Lakes; and one more in Lake Champlain.
Under the treaty, each country's ship is limited to "one hundred Tons burthen and armed with one eighteen-pound cannon."
"His Royal Highness agrees that all other armed vessels on these Lakes shall be forthwith dismantled, and that no other vessels of war shall be there built or armed," according to the wording of the treaty.
Mr. Moore said Canada took over responsibility for the treaty in 1867, when it ceased to be a British colony and has monitored its enforcement ever since.
"It's come up a few times over the last 100 years or so," he said. "It's a formality really, but it's an important formality."
He said the fact that both nations are still observing a treaty 188 years after it was written is a testament to the strong bonds between Canada and the United States.
"It's a testament to the length and stability of relations between Canada and the United States," Mr. Moore said. "I can't think of another treaty or diplomatic agreement that has been in effect for so long and that remains in effect almost 200 years after it was written."
The Toronto, a 134-metre-long patrol frigate, displaces 4,770 tonnes -- more than 47 times the limit set by the treaty.
However, her 57-mm Bofors deck gun is at least technically legal: In the 19th century, ships guns were rated by the weight of the iron cannon balls they fired.
The shells the Toronto fires weigh only 6.1 kg, or just over 13 pounds, below the 18-pound limit.
However the Canadian warship certainly violates the spirit of the agreement -- Toronto can fire 220 shells per minute at a range of up to 17 kilmetres. Most muzzle-loading cannons would be lucky to fire one round a minute and could not reach much further than one kilometre.
In addition, the patrol frigate boasts batteries of missiles, .50-calibre machine-guns and torpedoes: all weapons that were not invented until long after the treaty was signed.
But Cmdr. Moors insisted that his cruise through the Great Lakes will be peaceful, including stops in Chicago and Cleveland, where the Toronto will visit U.S. Navy and Coast Guard bases.
The frigate will be arriving this afternoon at Queen's Quay and will be docked on the Toronto waterfront all week.
