Our good friend Gilles Poirier has shared many of his memories of life aboard HMCS Ojibwa; however, he also served aboard her younger sister HMCS Onondaga. We are happy to share some of his wry observations on life aboard Onondaga. The stories may be humorous but they also highlight how pirates are prepared to think outside the box.
Fine Folks,
It is winter time in Halifax, Onondaga is finishing a two year refit, the submarine shed doors have been removed and the submarine has been pulled onto the syncrolift. There is only one thing left to do before lowering the submarine back into the water: install the rudder.
It is winter time in Halifax, Onondaga is finishing a two year refit, the submarine shed doors have been removed and the submarine has been pulled onto the syncrolift. There is only one thing left to do before lowering the submarine back into the water: install the rudder.
First Off Last OnThe rudder is the first thing to be removed, before the after planes, shafts and propellers, it is taken down, the pintle* is measured, if it meets the specs, the rudder is stowed away for, in this case, a two year refit. Now, there’s only one big thing left to do and there’s a problem. Where is the rudder? We start looking for it. Even the dockyard maties and the meatheads (military police) are looking for it. No one knows where it is.
* a pintle is one of the pins (on the forward edge of a rudder) that fit into the gudgeons and so suspend the rudder A Weighty Matter
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You have to have the same weight on the after end of the boat for an even undocking. So we attached very heavy weights from the stern of the submarine, knowing we would have to do a final docking. So we lowered the syncrolift in the water to finish the refit. In the meanwhile, a frantic search for the elusive rudder continues.
Nabbed by a Souvenir Collector?
Of course, the meatheads find this missing rudder very suspicious. To them, maybe someone took it home as a souvenir.
What Friends are for
A week or so later, I was talking to a friend of mine, a forklift driver, about our dilemma. I described to him what it looked like, and he said “I know exactly where it is”. He took me to the end of a jetty, and lo & behold, under six inches of ice, was our rudder - laying there, against the end of the jetty rail. Due to its wedge shape, it had been used by the snow removal team, to back up their snow filled trucks, to dump the snow in the harbour.
Snow removal at HMCS Ojibwa is more basic. |
Mum's the Word
Without saying a word, we got a hold of a heavy duty forklift, slid the forks under it, managed to lift it, and brought it next to the Onondaga without being seen. In no time at all, the meatheads were there. I was sure they were going to check for fingerprints till I explained to them where it had been found. So, this is the story of the missing rudder.
Keep your stick on the ice!
Gilles
Gilles