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Service information for:
Ships served in: HMCS YORK - Enlisted in the RCNVR Sep/Oct 1943 HMCS CORNWALLIS - for New Entry Training and Submarine Detector Training HMCS YORK - Demobilized 22 Dec 1945
Heroes Among Us: Minesweeper's 'submarine detector' kept watch for U-boats
The Victoria Times Colonist 20 Sep 2025 by Jeff Bell jbell@timescolonist.com
When John Watts talks about serving on a Halifax-based minesweeper during the Second World War, he apologizes for not having a more interesting story to tell.
But the 99-year-old, who takes part in a day program at Veterans Memorial Lodge run by the non-profit Broadmead Care Society, had some remarkable experiences on HMCS Goderich.
The primary role of minesweepers was to clear mines from waterways to keep other vessels safe.
HMCS Goderich spent the war escorting convoys between Halifax and the Battle of the Atlantic, where the Germans and British were both seeking control of shipping routes.
That put Goderich perennially in danger from German U-boats, which were also a significant presence in Canada’s coastal waters and even made their way into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In 1945, fellow minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt was sunk by a U-boat, with the loss of 39 crew members, an incident that is marked with an annual ceremony in Esquimalt's Memorial Park.
Toronto-raised Watts, who joined the war effort in 1943 as a 17-year-old — he had his parents’ permission to sign up that young — said the sinking happened “not too far off Halifax.”
As for the HMCS Goderich, the crew was lucky enough to never directly encounter a U-boat in the field, although Watts kept a close watch for them using sonar in his role as a submarine detector.
He said he did see a U-boat up close when it was docked in Halifax after its crew surrendered at the end of the war. It was quite a surprise, he said.
“I woke up one morning and there’s a German U-boat alongside of us,” he said. “It was a big fellow.”
The crew seemed to be even younger than the men on Goderich, Watts said.
While Goderich was never shot at, it took part in many significant rescues, including one in January 1945 to help SS British Freedom after it was torpedoed by a U-boat.
One British crew member died and 56 were rescued by HMCS Gaspe. Goderich was tasked with scuttling the heavily damaged ship, which was partially underwater, with its bow sticking into the air.
“We had to sink it because it was a navigational hazard,” Watts said.
Two of Goderich’s 300-pound depth charges were used for the task, the same ones that would be deployed to counter U-boats.
Another rescue mission had happened a few months earlier, when the Goderich crew braved rough seas to come to the aid of survivors of a U-boat attack on the British merchant ship SS Empire Sun, which suffered heavy casualties.
One of the most chilling incidents for Watts and his crewmates was coming across a lifeboat filled with sailors who had succumbed to the winter elements.
“The poor guys, they were all dead,” Watts said.
Toward the end of the war, he said, rumours were swirling around about where Goderich would be sent.
One rumour was that all of the active minesweepers would be going to Europe to clean up the mines there. Then the rumoured destination became Japan.
“Malarkey,” Watts said. “It didn’t happen.”
He recalled that when U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt died in April 1945, Goderich was in Argentia, Nfld., where it happened to be joined by an American ship.
The crew honoured the occasion by putting on their best uniforms and holding a ceremony on the quarterdeck, Watts said.
After the war, Watts spent four years in the merchant marine before marrying his wife Frances, and was with her for 62 years.
They had three children, and after many years in Ontario, moved to the West Coast to be closer to John’s parents.
Watts is one of several veterans being profiled in a series of stories in the Times Colonist called Heroes Among Us, intended to raise awareness of a campaign to raise funds for 45 electric beds and specialty mattresses.
The campaign comes in the 80th-anniversary year of the end of the Second World War.
The beds to be purchased are adjustable and equipped with safety rails for increased independence and safety, while the mattresses are designed for support and enhanced comfort.
Donate at broadmeadcare.com/heroes-among-us.
An anonymous donor has committed to matching donations totalling $35,000.
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