Murray Farmer

Murray served a navigational information officer for the past several years, after a long career as a cartographer in Pacific Region and in Ottawa.

Source: Lighthouse, Spring 1994, p. 40.

Robert  (Bob)  Farmer  

William Ian Farquharson joined HMS Fantome as an acting lieutenant in 1921, surveying in the Torres Strait and on the Great Barrier Reef. He returned to Britain in 1924, going to HMS Kellett, on the China station working in the approaches to Hong Kong and in Singapore. During the troubles in China, he volunteered for service at Hankow, where one of his companions from HMS Iroquois, Lieutenant Higgins, lost his life.

After another season HMS Kellett in 1928, Farquharson was again abroad from 1929 to 1931 in HMS Ormonde for surveys in the Persian Gulf and on the Cyprus coast. In 1931, he joined HMS Beaufort for west coast of England and Scotland surveys, and then in 1933 and 1934 was lent to the John Murray Expedition to the Indian Ocean in the Egyptian research vessel Mabahiss, where he was responsible for drafting the report on bathymetry.

Late in 1934, Farquharson, was given command of HMS Beaufort, employed on west coast of Scotland surveys, which he continued in 1936-37 with a shore based party when HMS Beaufort was immobilized during the Abyssinian crisis. He left this work when Jackson went sick to take his place and steam the new HMS Stork out to the Far East.

He came ashore in 1938 to become Superintendent of the Tidal Branch in the Hydrographic Department of the Royal Navy, a post he filled for the next 18 years. He retired with the rank of commander in 1945, but continued in the Tidal Branch,. He was awarded the OBE in 1954.

On leaving the Hydrographic Department in 1956, Farquharson joined the Canadian Hydrographic Service. In 1963, he transferred to the newly opened Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He retired from this work in 1966, and then took part in a National Institute of Oceanography expedition to the Indian Ocean early in 1967.

Source: © Morris, R.O., Charts and Surveys in Peace and War, p. 95.

• 1982 –Goderich Harbour survey

• 1983 –Strait of Belle Isle survey (FS 4962)

Joseph Ferguson

• 1911-12 - Chief Engineer, icebreaker MINTO, Hudson Bay survey..

• 1946 - Student Assistant in Tides and Currents

L.J. Fitzgerald

•April 1963 (CHS org chart)- Electronic Technician, Bedford Institute ( Technician 4)

Dave Fleming

• 1946 - appointed as Student Draftsman, Headquarters
• 1947 - listed as Student Draftsman in chart drafting section

Steve Forbes

Steve Forbes graduated from Mount Allison University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics.  He joined CHS in 1972 as a hydrographer.  Since 1975 he has been involved with developing, implementing and supporting hydrographic data acquisition systems, data processing systems and the management of digital hydrographic information.  He presently works in the Marine Geomatics Group on the Source Database Project for the management of hydrographic data.  He also assists in the management of the computer infrastructure required to support CHS Atlantic Region.
Source: 1998 Canadian Hydrographic Conference Proceedings, p. 4.

W. Forbes

• 1852-57 As a Master, surveyed Great Bras d’Or, under Maxwell (chart BA2687)

V.W. Forneret

• Chief Engineer of the Ship Channel
• 1913 water investigations, St. Lawrence River.

1925 - 2004

In 1978, Dr. Warren Forrester, Chief of Tides, Currents and Water Levels Section at CHS Headquarters carried out a reconnaissance of the Niger River investigating the horizontal and vertical control along the river with the purpose of reporting to CIDA on the feasibility of hydrographic charting of the river with the boundaries of Mali.

Source: Lighthouse, Nov. 1978, p. 26.

Warren David Forrester, an astronomic surveyor, physical oceanographer and tidal officer died on February 22, 2004 in Oshawa, Ontario.  He was 78 years old.

 Warren was born in Hamilton Ontario on March 4, 1925 and received a BA in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Toronto in 1947. After graduation he began working with the Geodetic Survey of Canada as an Astronomic Surveyor. In 1956 he joined the Canadian Hydrographic Service as a Special Projects Officer and became interested in measuring tidal currents in the Bay of Fundy using photogrammetry. This led him to take educational leave to study physical oceanography at the University of British Columbia where he obtained an M.Sc. in 1961.He continued studies in physical oceanography at Johns Hopkins University under the direction of Professor Raymond Montgomery. Partway through these studies Warren came to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth Nova Scotia where he carried out the observational work for his Ph.D. thesis.

The aim of his study was to examine currents in coastal waters where the geostrophic approximation deteriorates because friction and acceleration are not negligible. To compare the geostrophic current with the true current he needed to measure both. The true current he measured by placing 18 current meters across the St Lawrence Estuary. For the geostrophic current he had to obtain water samples simultaneously across the section because the current is mostly tidal and changes speed and direction rapidly. He placed 8 moorings across the estuary with up to 12 water bottles distributed through the water column. All the bottles were closed at the same time using an arrangement of timers and messengers. After they were tripped the ship recovered and reset all the moorings for another set of observations. In this manner he obtained a complete set of observations on each of 11 consecutive days. At the time the experiment was considered innovative and ingenious and much discussed at BIO. Warren's careful analyses resulted in a successful Ph.D.; no mean feat as Professor Montgomery was rumoured to be uncommonly tough.

Following this study in the St. Lawrence Estuary, Warren continued to work in the Gulf of St. Lawrence examining internal waves, tidal transports, ice volumes and distributions of temperature and salinity. He was also involved in the aftermath of the grounding of the tanker ARROW on February 4, 1970. His role in this was to study the distribution of oil particles suspended in the water. Warren served as a valued member on a number of Ph.D. and M.Sc. committees at Dalhousie. His reputation as a thorough, helpful and perceptive reviewer was well known.

In 1975 Warren left the Bedford Institute for the Canadian Hydrographic Service where he became a Tidal Officer and rewrote the Canadian Tidal Manual. In 1981 he retired from government service and became a freelance oceanographic consultant. As a consultant he was involved in a number of overseas projects for the Canadian International Development Agency and the United Nations. In Mali he assessed the feasibility of hydrographic charting of the Niger River for navigation. In Goa he presented lectures on tidal theory, observation and prediction and in Malaysia he provided tidal and geodetic expertise. He also continued to be a regular attendee of CMOS Annual meetings including the Ottawa meeting in 2003.

Warren is remembered by his colleagues at the Bedford Institute as a careful and thoughtful scientist. Beyond science he was known for owning the only Citroen in town, for living in interesting houses outside the city that seemed more like cottages, for having a firm hand on the pennies with less concern for larger sums when the price of gold fell out of bed and for many enjoyable conversations and parties.

Source: Bulletin of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.  

---- - 1966

• 1934 - appointed to Precise Water Levels section
• August 1935 - resigned.

   born 15 August 1870 in Scotland (1901 census)

• 1893 - Second Assistant to Mr. Stewart
• 1898 - transferred from BAYFIELD to the office to permanent staff at Ottawa.
• 1899 - put in charge of all navigation plans for the St. Lawrence River Ship Channel
• 1902 - promoted to Assistant Engineer in the Chief Engineer's Branch in charge of all navigation aids between Kingston and Montreal.
• 1902 - surveys in Lake St. Louis to connect all dredging surveys
• 1903 - named Commissioner of Lighthouses

• 1946 - Student Assistant on Northumberland Strait survey
• 1947 - Seaman Technical, Northumberland Strait survey.

Lieut. J.S.G. Fraser

• 1905-08 –surveyed Moresby Pass & Gabriola Pass, under Parry (chart 3618, BA3619)
• 1906 – surveyed Port Simpson, under Learmonth (chart 3678)

1887-1965

Robert James Fraser was born in Ottawa 9 September 1887, where he received his early education before attending McGill University. He served with the Hydrographic Survey in the Great Lakes and Atlantic Coast Surveys from 1907 to 1910, worked in Hudson Bay (Nelson River mouth) and James Bay from 1910 to 1914, and on the NW coast of Bay of Fundy in 1917. Before the 1917 season ended , he measured several sections of the St. Lawrence River below Montreal with the aid of the Ship Channel steamer Bellechasse for back-water computations. In 1918-19 he was commissioned by the Admiralty in the RNVR as a hydrographic surveyor, in charge of the Thames River Survey.

Upon his return to Canada, he rejoined the Hydrographic Survey, and in 1920 was given command of the Bayfield, working in the Great Lakes and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He was in charge of the Cartier in 1925 and of the Acadia in 1926.

From 1927 to 1936, he served in Ottawa as principal assistant to the chief hydrographer, Capt. F. Anderson. When the Hydrographic Service was transferred to the Department of Mines and Resources in 1936, he was named senior hydrographer to Surveyor General F.H. Peters, and chief, Hydrographic and Map Service. He was appointed assistant chief, Hydrographic Service in May 1940. In January 1948, when the Hydrographic Service became a separate division, he was named as the first dominion hydrographer. He retired in September 1952, after 45 years of service.

He was a member of the Geographic Board of Canada, the Lighthouse Board of Canada, the Associated Committee of Survey Research of NRC, the National Committee on Oceanography, the Interdepartmental Committee on air photography, and Canadian representative on the International Hydrographic Bureau. He was the author of many technical articles and after his retirement wrote a book, As Others See Us, a story of the Fraser family of Glengarry, Scotland. He died suddenly in an Ottawa hospital on March 26, 1965, aged 77 years, following an automobile accident.

Source: The Canadian Surveyor, December 1982, pp. 179-180.

C.W. Fulford

After 37 years with the Canadian Hydrographic Service, Hiro Furuya retired in November 1987. Hiro spent some of his early years of his career as a hydrographer on board CSS Acadia. He served some time as the acting Regional Hydrographer, Quebec Region from 1977 to ___. He then went on to become the Chief of Chart Production, and then the Chief of Training and Standards.