HALIFAX -- Despite spending more time at sea than on the ground, senior navy commanders say their humanitarian mission to the hurricane-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast was a success, providing Canada with an opportunity to improve its image among Americans.

Two of the four ships involved in Operation Unison -- the navy frigates HMCS Toronto and HMCS Ville de Quebec -- returned to Halifax harbour Tuesday, exactly three weeks after they left.

More than 1,000 Canadian military and coast guard personnel, including navy divers and army engineers, set sail for the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of hurricane Katrina, which tore through parts of Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 28.

It took the convoy six days to reach their destination.

In all, they spent six days taking part in hurricane cleanup duties even though they expected to stay in the area for a month.

"Personally, I wanted to stay down there a bit longer," said Able Seaman Kevin Jarvis, who cuddled his two-year-old daughter Madison in the hangar of HMCS Toronto.

"Even in the few days we were down there, we got a lot done. Not to brag, but they were saying what the Canadians did in a day is what most people were doing in three days. If we had stayed down there a bit longer, we could have gotten a lot more accomplished."

Despite the frustration, Jarvis described the operation as one of the most rewarding that he's been involved with since joining the military.

But his disappointment and that of other sailors was not shared by the commander of the Canadian relief convoy, nor his ship's captain.

"Our assistance was timely, it was right and definitely appreciated," said Cmdr. Stuart Moores, skipper of Toronto. "But you could sense after five or six days (on the ground) that it was time for us to pull out."

The frigate's website has been inundated with messages from Americans thanking the crew for their efforts, said Moores.

The raising of Canada's profile amid recent trade irritants and Ottawa's decision to sit out the war in Iraq, was one of the positive results of the mission.

"It was a big part of it," said Moores, a 28-year veteran of the navy.

"There was a credible and tangible assistance provided, but we showed our best friend and ally that we stand beside them in time of need."

Crew members from both frigates and the destroyer HMCS Athabaskan were sent ashore in Biloxi, Miss., and Gulfport, Miss., to clear debris and repair public buildings.

But the Canadian sailors, who spent five hours a day in a bouncy landing craft getting to and from their ships, were limited in what they could do.

They did not work on private property and were kept away from projects that had been earmarked for civilian contractors.

Some sailors were left twiddling their thumbs - or driving aimlessly around the countryside, past neighbourhoods shattered by the Category 4 storm.

"It is a good thing that the infrastructure in the southern states came back on line as rapidly as it did," said Commodore Dean McFadden, commander of the task force.

"It's important to rebuild the economy by giving people in the region employment to work on the type of projects we were engaged in."

McFadden, who is also commander of the Canadian navy on the East Coast, said he expects the entire Canadian cleanup contingent to be home reasonably soon.

The Athabaskan is due to arrive Friday, while the coast guard ship Sir William Alexander could be headed home by the end of next week.

The icebreaker, with its heavy-lift crane has been replacing hurricane warning buoys in the Gulf of Mexico.

Satellite images were being studied Tuesday to determine if hurricane Rita knocked any of the replaced navigational aids of out place, said McFadden.