For the British and Allied navies, the corvette, however useful, was a stop-gap, a "hostilities only" expedient used to fill out the escort forces worn desperately thin by the wartime attrition of the traditional destroyer flotillas. But for Canada, the corvette assumed infinitely greater significance. It was the first warship the country had ever built in large numbers; with the corvette, Canadian shipbuilding established itself, so that at war's end, a complex of shipyards had been founded on each coast, and a reservoir of skill and expertise had been established, expertise which would become the basis for the Canadian naval industry.