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Service information for:
Ships served in: HMCS RESTIGOUCHE - 1966 - 1970, East Coast, till ship paid off for IRE refit. CFB SHEARWATER - Served at SHEARWATER for several months then; CFB RIVERS (Manitoba) - Served at RIVERS while the base was being shuttered. I was sent to decommission the coal fired steam plant. HMCS CHAUDIERE - 1971 - 1973 on the West Coast * Retired from RCN due to new marriage difficulties after I started traveling and personal woes due to unification and losing Naval identity, uniform and daily tot.
I joined RCN, with parents signature at 17 years old. My 3rd day at Cornwallis (boot camp) I told my Div Captain to Fuck Off cause he informed me I was not allowed to smoke in my cubical. The base Commander decided to make an example of me and gave me a week of Byrds punishment. What a great start to my new career. Start every morning (0600 hrs) at the drill shed doing duck walks with a lead pipe held high over-head. Ended with daily duties of scrubbing decks. No complaints as it prepared me for what was to come. Life was good! Engineering was my perfect fit and so was military life…until it wasn’t, until I got married. Some of the highlights were witnessing Apollo re-entry and landing and the capsule being craned onto the flight deck of USS Hornet.
Traveling extensively around the Atlantic Ocean from Northern Norway, north past the Arctic Circle to as far south as St. Lucia of the British West Indies. Other highlights were working with a fantastic crew with great moral, even under duress when practicing extended NATO maneuvers shared between nine countries at the time. On one occasion we were afforded the opportunity to paint ship in northern Norway in winter. Our 330ft. ship was carefully maneuvered inside a mountain. Doors (upper and lower) were closed and water pumped out, ship dry-docked. In another bay, close by, is where the Bismarck had its own jetty where supplies were delivered by train from within similar mountain structures. Totally unseeable from a short distance when doors were closed.
Another event in Norway was, while doing manoeuvres in fjords, the destroyer, USS Stinaker, without proper sonar equipment ran hard aground. We (HMCS Restigouche) pulled her from her grounded perch. Repairs were completed in Norway while the fleet continued manoeuvres as scheduled. A number of USS Stinaker’s crew ended up marrying Norwegian women as they seemed to be exceptionally intelligent and attractive.
My next memory is of the Worst Military Peace Time Disaster from 57 years ago. October 23, 1969. After our European deployment, we were relieved by HMCS Kootenay. On her fateful day during high speed trials, she suffered a catastrophic failure in the starboard gearbox which caused the subsequent fire killing 9 crew members, off the shores of Plymouth England. HMCS Restigouche and crew were redeployed to stand in for HMCS Kootenay until a new replacement could be deployed for us. Being a Stoker and seeing the results of the fire, especially the engine room, is still unsettling to this very day.
My final yarn, another sad tale, is personal. During my Naval Career, I recall sitting on a large, soft bag of Asbestos Shorts, for comfort while being on watch, punching fires or working on the Vaps. Also years of mixing up Asbestos Shorts bare handed and unmasked. It took a long time but it finally caught up and reared its ugly head. Mesothelioma, the SAILOR’S ASBESTOS KILLER! December 06,2025, I was diagnosed with mesothelioma and the prognosis was for my demise in 6 to 12 months. Here it is 15 months and still going strong, sort of. I have a team of doctors (Oncologists) with nurses and pharmacists as well, keeping me comfortable with drugs and they are doing a great job, or as good as can be expected. I keep hoping they can get the genie back in the bottle, or just stop her progress.
(TK001-TK003) HMCS RESTIGOUCHE enters a Norwegian drydock, built into a mountain, to paint ship (TK004) Jetty where Bismarck received stores that were stored / delivered from inside the mountain
(TK005) Apollo 11 capsule being craned onto the flight deck of USS Hornet on 24 Jul 1969
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