Fine folks.

Yesterday [May 6, 2020] I was watching the repatriation ceremony at CFB Trenton for the six Canadian Military members lost in a helicopter crash during a NATO exercise off Greece. With sadness I was thinking about the importance of the closure for the families to have the remains brought back. As an ex-submariner, with the rest of my brothers, we all belong to this invisible brotherhood, regardless of the nations. In our lives as submariners, there were many incidents where the families never got closure. I just want to relate here several submarine incidents; that go back to the early sixties when I joined the Canadian submarine service.

Hover over a name and click on + sign to see more information

My heart goes out to these 677 'brothers'.

Buster was an Outside Wrecker which, for the uninitiated, means there was not a nut or bolt or mechanical device outside the Engine Room on any sub on which he served with whom he was not personally acquainted. The Grey Rover incident in 1973 was a singular challenge for this Cold War Wrecker who liked to say ‘it’s all about attitude and adaptation’. Buster served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1954 to 1995 which encompassed utilizing his many skills to train companies during the Gulf War and he was stationed in Somalia during the 1990s.

This is what we at the Elgin Military Museum know about Buster. This, and what is revealed in a simple collage of photos in our files. The smile says it all. It reveals he was a man who loved his work and his friends and his country. He was a pirate through and through.
 
We look forward to learning more about him from his many colleagues who must have him at the forefront of their thoughts at this sad time of the COVID-19 crisis which will prevent them from gathering together.

When her local Heritage Fair competition was held in January 2020, Jasmine was well prepared to speak about HMCS Ojibwa. She was among the top three in her local competition and now moves on to the regional competition in Dunnville, Ontario. Good Luck Jasmine from HMCS Ojibwa. Thank you for sharing this unsung heritage with your community.

We look forward to following Jasmine's progress up the ladder of the Heritage Fairs 2020.

Jasmine (above), comes from 100 km east of our Museum and 75 km east of the submarine in Port Burwell; she was inspired to spread the story of our 'sub' station, HMCS Ojibwa in the 2020 Heritage Fair Competition. A lot closer to home another student started his journey in this same competition in 2019.
Find his story here:

It is very rewarding for The Elgin Military Museum to see that our resources are utilized far and wide by young and old. The museum holdings reveal the stories of thousands of ordinary Canadians who met the challenges of extra-ordinary times over hundreds of years. Students of all ages, broadcasters such as the CBC, authors and film makers such as those returning again this March to our 'sub' station HMCS Ojibwa to finish a project for National Geographic have all found their way to our door. Heritage matters. Spread the word.

Thanks to the integration of the Armed Forces, I was posted to the Navy Photo Section in Halifax, NS. I had the honour of being one of the first pigeons (Air Force guy) to grace the halls of any Navy Photo Section if not the Navy itself.

The sailors were a good bunch of guys and they made me feel at home; but, I cannot remember any of their names now. However, I won’t forget my time there! Come meal time we all ate in the area where the photographs were taken. I was still on standby to photograph part of one of the engines as soon as they were able to shut it down.

This was in the 60s and the Navy still had rum toddies. Along comes meal time and tot (grog) time and they hand me this large water glass full of rum! My god it was a big glass. The crew had all donated their share of their rum to me. I thanked him but said I couldn’t possibly accept this wonderful gift (I was on duty and still had work to do). Then this very big sailor looks down at me and says the worst insult you can give a sailor is to refuse a gift such as this.

Well, what to do? There sure was not plant to dump it in. It really was quite smooth. Thankfully, I was able to lay down on the catwalk in the engine room to take the shots required when the time came. I hardly remember much else.

HMCS Victoria, HMCS Windsor, HMCS Chicoutimi and HMCS Corner Brook have had a busy 2018 at sea and alongside. Chicoutimi was deployed for 197 days in the Asia Pacific Region and Windsor deployed for 133 days in the Mediterranean as part of a NATO engagement.

Until we left the UK in ‘66 our rum arrived in one gallon wicker crocks, corked and sealed with a red wax with a ‘broad arrow’ imprint stamped on the top. The shoulders of the crocks were quite sharp. LSSN Scouse Keough often volunteered himself and me to stay back when leave was piped to help the Cox'n put the rum down. That alone should have raised suspicion.

We would accompany the Swain to the rum stores inboard, load all the wicker crocks of Nelson's blood on a square wheeled cart and wrestle it back to the boat. The duty watch would be mustered to strike it down to the Senior Rates wash place adjacent to the Cox'n's store hatch and consequently the top of the rum tank.

Then with a large cork screw removed the cork and passed it to Scouse. Scouse then offered the open neck to the Cox'n who would stick his finger in and then have a taste. More security than the Royal Mint. Once he gave the nod, Scouse grasped the ring and inverted the crock into the funnel.

The rum would glug out until Scouse gave the crock a practiced swirl so that the contents flowed fast and smooth.

At precisely the right time, when there was a slight pause in the flow; Scouse uprighted the crock and passed it to me. There was always a tot or two left swirling around the sharp shoulder away from the spout. I put the crock behind me and we began the procedure with the next crock. As Scouse was doing his duty with that one, with no one watching me, I took one of the large rum measures from under the sink where the Cox'n stowed them and drained the crock into it. This went on for up to 20 gallons sometimes.

When it was over, the tank locked and the OOD gone, the Cox'n came into the mess and meticulously drained each crock, again. Scouse taught me not to be too greedy and leave a little behind when I drained them, so the Cox'n was able to salvage a tot or two total, from which he would offer us a sippers for helping him. We would express our gratitude, and gather the MT crocks for return. The Swain would be enjoying his tot and paid us no further heed as we whisked the rum measure away with at least 10 to twenty tots in it. We knew the Swain would never be short because we were certain that he watered the issue down a little each day to ensure he had 'extra'.

Just another tot dit. The dits always got better after the tot. Up Spirits, Stand Fast the Holy Ghost.

Jim 'Lucky' Gordon

Below: LCdr Jones accepting the brass model of Ojibwa from retired Chief of Maritime Atlantic, Jim 'Lucky' Gordon, at the official opening of HMCS Ojibwa July 6, 2013. He then passed it along to his daughter Jennifer who passed it along to others who have played a role at pivotal times in the life of our Cold War warrior, HMCS Ojibwa.

Flashing back a little further, note the names of James M. Gordon, son of then LSSR Jim 'Lucky' Gordon and the late Eve Gordon, and Robert F. Downie son of LSER Robert (Bob) Downie and his wife Donna.

Robert’s and James’ names are engraved side by side inside the bell. Robert was born just 20 minutes after James on 17 July 1969. A coincidence? Not really, Lucky explains that Ojibwa arrived home after a long patrol at sea exactly nine months prior to their births, and the Downies lived 20 minutes further away from HMC Dockyard than the Gordons!

This reminds me of many occasions when we were sweating it out in the tropical climes in the Caribbean. The big grey target is HMCS Cape Scott. She would chug her way to US Naval Air Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, every winter to provide a fleet maintenance facility for the Canadian ships deploying in the area.

This scene reminds me of the time we were alongside Cape Scott, (maybe this time). In the evening after rounds the duty watch would take our 16 mm movie projector up to the casing and show a movie on Cape Scott's side.

One night while watching a movie, 2 scuttles to Cape Scott's Chief and Petty Officers' Mess were open just above where the movie was projected. They were partying inside.

About ¾ through the movie, we had built up a number of empties that would be disposed of below later on. The noise from the skimmers was getting annoying. Just when an exciting scene ramped up in the movie a single beer can came flying out of a scuttle and landed on the tank top then rolled into the water. Like someone had ordered "open fire", we launched about 2 dozen empty beer cans through those two scuttles and into their mess.

Two hands appeared, one at each scuttle, and shut and dogged them. Not a word spoken. We enjoyed the rest of the movie without distraction. Really!

Skimmers vs. Submariners? No contest!

Mind yer bubble.
Lucky

There are hundreds of valves and gauges on a submarine and every submariner needs to know them all. Well, at first it seems just too much, but the newbie submariner or "sput" (surface puke under training) did not become qualified in a couple of weeks. It took many months.

At the end of each month you had to show your drawings and knowledge to your "sea daddy". Each new submariner "sea puppy" was assigned to a "sea daddy" who became his mentor and teacher. Should the "sea puppy" lag behind he was called a "delinquent". For a delinquent, there was no napping in your bunk in the afternoon and no movies at night. At the end of your training, your "sea daddy" would take you throughout the submarine to test your ability to show him that you knew all your systems and all the emergency evolutions. Once your "sea daddy" was happy, he would take you for a "final walk-through", then the candidate was taken for a last final walk-through, this time done by an officer. Only then did you become qualified and allowed the pride to wear your "dolphins". (Another incentive was your pay went up as a qualified submariner.)

I always took pride in being assigned as a "sea daddy" to a new "sea puppy". When I presented my candidate for his final walk-through with an officer, I knew that he was ready for it and never had any failures. When I was taking my "sea puppy" for my final walk-through I would take him through all the compartments on board, often blindfold him and take him to a valve chest and ask him to tell what each valve was and what it was used for

I still remember one "sea puppy" assigned to me; he was an army cook. He just did not have any mechanical abilities. He did not know what a pump did, did not understand why you had to surface the submarine using HP air, he did not comprehend the very basic stuff; but, I took him under my wing and just knew we would make it. I found out later that he had the same problem before, going through the basic submarine course, but made it through, just barely.
Boy was he a challenge! It took me an extra month of great patience.

It was so nice to see him when he suddenly grasped a particular system, his eyes just lit up and he always had a big grin on his face. When I took him for his final walk-through I was a little leery, but it went fine, I felt good to send him on to the officer for his big final walk-through. He qualified and was always grateful to me. When he was serving meals from the galley and found out that the messman had my plate, there was always a little extra meat, or gravy. What a guy he was, and he was the first army cook to wear the dolphins!

This latest about the missing Argentinian submarine is very weird. The so called “missed” messages sent to a satellite has got me to think that perhaps it may come from the indicator buoy, and since the weather is awful at this time, the antenna may have been damaged. As a rule, on our “O” boats, we had 600 feet of wire attached to this buoy and to the submarine, mind you that would not really help if you are in several thousand feet of water....