The Canadian storage locations for Operation Fish were the Sun Life Insurance building ( left ) and the Bank of Canada ( right ).
of the bankers remembered hearing reports that U-boats were in their path , but “ I was too sick to even think of a submarine .” The skill and professionalism and good cheer of the sailors , in the face of what seemed to the bankers to be almost impossible conditions , left an indelible impression on those five Bank of England men .
A small group of Bank of Canada and Canadian National Railway employees were notified that important cargo was headed their way , and they acted fast . One banker described the hectic trip from Ottawa . He was not informed of exactly what was being shipped , but he noticed heavily armed Mounties guarding the train from Montreal to Halifax . On arriving he was introduced to five very tired Londoners . “ We ’ re Bank of England people ,” one of them told him disarmingly . “ Hope you don ’ t mind us dropping in unexpectedly like this , but we ’ ve brought along quite a large shipment of ‘ fish .’”
Large indeed . HMS Emerald carried 140 tons of gold and at least $ 1 billion worth ( 1940 dollars ) of saleable securities . ( The inventorying and valuing of the securities was done very quickly and somewhat conservatively .) It was a shipment so flagrantly above the regulatory limits on gold per ship that the Risk Insurance Office was not even contacted , on the theory that the potential loss could not be covered anyway . Seven critical voyages conducted in late June and July of 1940 carried roughly half of all the vast wealth moved from Britain to Canada during those two years .
The Canadians had formulated a plan .
The securities would go to the commodious basement of the Sun Life Insurance building in Montreal , and the gold would go on to Ottawa , to the vault in the new Bank of Canada building just across Wellington Street from Parliament . The Ottawa vault was 60 ’ x100 ’ in area , 20 ’ in height . In addition to the thousands of tons of gold heading there , some 50,000 sacks of rare coins —“ Napoleons ,” “ spade guineas ” from the reign of George III , French Louis-IV , -XV , and -XVI gold coins , etc .— were also sent and stored . Summer heat made conditions below difficult : the workers moving the gold dripped with sweat , the white collar workers worked in shirt sleeves and gallons of chilled fruit juice were brought down to combat dehydration . The inventorying of the gold was exacting and time-consuming . Before being placed in the vault , the ownership of each bar and coin was recorded and each weighed with very accurate scales . The gold arrived so fast during that summer of 1940 that it was stacked in the halls outside the vault prior to weighing and recording .
The securities operation would be tricky and best done by people experienced in securities dealing , not just banking . Edward Hanna of Montreal had 13 years of experience as a Canadian securities dealer , and when war was declared he quit to join the Air Force . As he was finishing his packing , the Bank of Canada people called and asked him to work for them , but they wouldn ’ t tell him exactly what the job entailed . He spoke with Alexander Craig , one of the five newly arrived Bank of England people , and after a few minutes of
confusing conversation he surmised that “ they have arrived ,” meaning the British assets . When asked how he could possibly know this , he said that he kept up on the war news and knew Britain was in trouble , that “ you [ Craig ] haven ’ t been to Montreal or New York , yet have much experience in banking , and you speak with a transparently English accent .” Craig responded , “ By Jove — how clever !” Hanna was hired .
Gold and securities poured into the vaults in Ottawa and Montreal from Halifax after crossing the Atlantic . Miraculously , few ships bearing gold bars were sunk . Filing cabinets — 109 of them — were ordered to store the securities in Montreal , and Hanna and his colleagues set about organizing , valuing and selling them to raise money . A special group did nothing but cut the coupons from the many stock and bond certificates . “ I never saw so many coupons in my life ,” one of them remembered . The organization was referred to as the United Kingdom Security Deposit , and it opened an office in New York to help with the brokering .
Britain ’ s need for cash , however , was insatiable . After France surrendered in June 1940 , the British decided to take delivery of the orders the French no longer needed , thus doubling their spending rate .
The selling began in late summer 1940 . The need was for dollars — American or Canadian . Securities owned by British citizens would be sold for dollars , the citizen credited in sterling , a currency the Bank of England could print . Hanna reflected that , “ It was sad for me to see the wealth
26 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring 2024 | www . MoAF . org