As the title describes, this is my very first photo of a Royal Canadian Navy ship. It was 1976 and I was twelve years old. We were on a family vacation to Eastern Ontario and as we were travelling through Kingston along the waterfront we saw two grey, sleek destroyers secured to the Government Wharf near the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes.

What an incredible vision, those rounded hulls, sweeping lines of the foc’s’le, guns forward, helicopter hangar aft and spotless from stem to stern. I fell in love! I knew I had to be a part of this, one way or another. As soon as I turned thirteen, I joined Sea Cadets and later the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve. The rest is history.

Now, some info on the photo.

HMCS NIPIGON is inboard with HMCS ANNAPOLIS (II) outboard. They had just completed operations around the 1976 Olympics. Although the Olympics were in Montreal, the sailing regatta was held at Kingston on Lake Ontario.

Roger Litwiller Collection, courtesy Roger Litwiller. (RTL-RTL201115004)

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