HMCS BRAS D’OR, Anti-Submarine Trawler, foundered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during a storm on 19 October 1940. There were no survivors from her ship’s company of five officers and twenty-five sailors. BRAS’D’OR had sailed from Clark City on Quebec’s North Shore to shadow the Romanian steamship Ingerner N. Vlassopol. The freighter had sailed from […]
HMCS CLAYOQUOT -A Christmas Eve Tragedy
HMCS CLAYOQUOT -Bangor class minesweeper, was torpedoed and sunk by U806 two miles from the Sambro Light vessel off Halifax on 24 December 1944, killing eight of her crew of eighty-four sailors. At the time of CLAYOQUOT’s sinking she had been assigned to Halifax as an escort. However, on 23 December she was ordered to […]
HMCS SHAWINIGAN
HMCS SHAWINIGAN, Flower class corvette was torpedoed and sunk by U1228 on 24 November 1944, off Cape Breton, NS. There were no survivors of her crew of seven officers and eighty-four ratings. SHAWINIGAN was assigned to escort the ferry Burgeo, from Sydney, Cape Breton to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The previous ferry, Caribou, had been […]
HMCS LOUISBURG
HMCS LOUISBURG, Flower class corvette was attacked and sunk by Italian aircraft while deployed to the Mediterranean in support of Operation TORCH on 6 February 1943.  Of her crew of eighty-four sailors, forty were killed in the attack. At the time LOUISBURG was one of seventeen RCN corvettes moved from the North Atlantic convoys to support […]
HMCS MARGAREE
HMCS MARGAREE -River class destroyer, was lost in collision with M/V Port Fairy on the North Atlantic on 22 October 1940. At the time of her loss she had 176 sailors in her ship’s company, 142 were killed with thirty-two survivors. MARGAREE had commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy only a few weeks earlier on […]
HMCS SKEENA
HMCS SKEENA -River class destroyer, grounded and lost during a gale in Reykjavik, Iceland on 25 October 1944. Of the destroyers ship’s company of 181, fifteen sailors were killed. SKEENA had been on patrol south of Iceland in a full gale with HMCShips QU’APPELLE and ST. LAURENT when the escort group was ordered to return […]
HMCS ST. CROIX
HMCS ST. CROIX, Town class destroyer was transferred to the RCN from the USN under the Lend/Lease agreement with the Royal Navy on 30 April 1040. Â Originally constructed in 1919 as USS MCCOOK. She was assigned to the Mid-Ocean Escort Group C-9 and while escorting a convoy in mid-North Atlantic she was struck by two […]
Shipbuilding Industry for a Model Train Layout
I have found some incredible photos of a shipbuilding industry that relied heavily on the Canadian Pacific Railway for its operations. The advantage to us layout builders is this shipbuilding industry could fit on almost any size layout. At the start of WWII a prominent and well known boat builder, Herb Ditchburn, moved to Trenton, […]
The Canadian Flag, Our Families History and Tradition
Today we celebrate the anniversary of Canada’s national flag. Our national symbol is a Canadian icon that we take foregranted. Flying high on so many flagpoles, tattered and unnoticed. But for many of us Canadians it holds a truly special place in our hearts. I always enjoyed when our flag was flown from a proper […]
Writing History -Get it right or else!
I learned a valuable lesson from an anonymous veteran about writing history. While preparing to write White Ensign Flying I decided it would be in my best interest to have some writing credentials when the time came to approach a publisher. One of the resources I pursued was to write an article for the local […]