The North America and West Indies Station was a formation of the Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from the 1740s to 1956, with its main bases in Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The North American Station absorbed the separate Newfoundland Station in 1825 (becoming the North America and Newfoundland Station), and the Jamaica Station in 1830, to form the North America and West Indies Station. It was briefly abolished in 1907 before being restored in 1915. It was renamed the America and West Indies Station in 1926, absorbing what had been the South East Coast of America Station and the Pacific Station.
History
In January 1748 Charles Watson was appointed to command HMS Lion. In March that year he was sent out aboard Lion as commander-in-chief on the Newfoundland and North American station, with a commodore's broad pennant.
Royal Navy ships and vessels in the area were under the command of Commodore Samuel Hood in 1767. The headquarters was located in Halifax from 1758 to 1794, and thereafter in Halifax and Bermuda. Land and buildings for a permanent Naval Yard were purchased by the Royal Navy in 1758 and the Yard was officially commissioned in 1759. Halifax served as the main base for the Royal Navy in North America during the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
Following American independence in 1783, Bermuda was the only British territory left between Nova Scotia and the West Indies. In 1794 the local area commander, Vice Admiral Sir George Murray, sent HMS Cleopatra there to reconnoite the harbour.
thumb|right|[[Naval Museum of Halifax|Admiralty House, Halifax, summer headquarters of the Admiral commanding.]]
thumb|The Grassy Bay anchorage seen from [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|HMD Bermuda in 1865]]
thumb|Admiralty House Bermuda, Clarence Hill (1816–1956), Pembroke Parish, Bermuda
thumb|right|Grassy Bay, the anchorage for the fleet in Bermuda between 1816 and 1956, with the [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|Royal Naval Dockyard in the background]]
Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren was appointed Commander-in-Chief in 1812, and he and his staff seem to have spent most of their time at Bermuda during the War of 1812 (he was replaced by Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane in 1813), from where the blockade of much of the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States and raids such as the Battle of Craney Island were orchestrated. 2,500 soldiers under Major-General Robert Ross aboard , three frigates, three sloops and ten other vessels, was sent to Bermuda in 1814, following British victory in the Peninsular War. They helped carry out the Chesapeake campaign punitive expedition which included the Raid on Alexandria, the Battle of Bladensburg, and the Burning of Washington, which was launched in August that year.
In 1813, the area of command had become the North America Station again, with the West Indies falling under the Jamaica Station, and in 1816 it was renamed the North America and Lakes of Canada Station. The headquarters was initially in Bermuda during the winter and Halifax during the summer, but Admiralty House, Bermuda, became the year-round headquarters of the station in 1821, when it became the North America and Newfoundland Station (with the absorption of the Newfoundland Station). In 1818 Halifax became the summer base for the squadron which shifted to the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda, for the remainder of the year. In 1819, Bermuda, which was better positioned to counter threats from the United States, became the main base of the station year-round. Halifax continued to be used as the summer base for the station until 1907. Bermuda's importance following the war was described by Royal Naval Purser Richard Cotter in 1828:
Sir Henry Hardinge reported, in the House of Commons, on the 22 March 1839:
thumb|Commissioners House, in the Naval Yard, Halifax, 1804
thumb|Map of the cruises of the Bermuda-based HMS York on the America & West Indies Station, 1936-1939
In 1830 the station absorbed the Jamaica Station and was redesignated as the North America and West Indies Station, and remained so until 1907, when the North America and West Indies Station was abolished and its squadron replaced by the 4th Cruiser Squadron. This was based in England and Bermuda was redesignated from a base to a coaling station, although the dockyard remained in operation. The Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station, remained in Bermuda. The Royal Navy withdrew from Halifax in 1905, and the Halifax Naval Yard was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1910. The Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard on the Pacific coast of Canada was also transferred to the dominion government in 1905.
An official letter sent by the Commander-in-Chief during the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903 listed the following ships at the station on 1 January 1903: cruisers HMS Ariadne, HMS Charybdis, HMS Pallas, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Retribution, and HMS Tribune; sloops HMS Fantome and HMS Alert; destroyers HMS Quail and HMS Rocket; and the tender HMS Columbine.
The North America and West Indies Station was restored in 1915, and incorporated the 8th Cruiser Squadron from 1924 to 1925. In 1919, relying on the Panama Canal, it absorbed the former Pacific Station's area. In 1920 HMS Chatham based in Bermuda, passed through the Panama Canal, and in November left Salina Crus en route from San Diego. This was the first occasion on which a ship from the station had passed through the Canal.