HMCS OJIBWA - THE MUSEUM
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Flashback friday

And other news                    

Mourning Repatriation Closure

5/13/2020

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By Gilles Poirier

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
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Masked military pallbearers carry the casket of Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough during the repatriation ceremony for the six Canadian Armed Forces members killed in a helicopter crash off of Greece during Operation Reassurance, at CFB Trenton, Ont. on Wednesday. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)


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Life as a Sea Daddy

11/25/2017

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Life as a Sea Daddy

By Gilles Poirier
Picture
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.

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Argentinian Submarine

11/20/2017

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by Gilles Poirier

Thoughts on Argentinian Submarine

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....

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November 04th, 2017

11/4/2017

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Pulley Chain (Belly Belt) in Forward Torpedo Room

To the average person, the chain dangling from the top looks like just any ordinary chain, but you will notice that every second link is enclosed in a rubber ball. A normal chain used for a chain block arrangement is extremely noisy, but by having a rubber “ball” at every second link, it makes the chain block totally quiet, therefore allowing you to carry on with the shifting of torpedoes even in a “quiet” state. 

                                                                                  Gilles Poirier
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Picture
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Messman

10/26/2017

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Messman on HMCS Ojibwa

One of the assigned tasks aboard HMCS Ojibwa was that of Messman. Unlike her siblings, Onondaga and Okanagan, there was no dedicated cafeteria-like space on Ojibwa. Submariners ate in their Mess where they also slept or spent their spare time. To complicate things further, the galley was located in a very small space just aft of the Control Room removed from the Mess areas of the boat. To accommodate the restricted space of the galley, each Mess area had a sink where the dishes could be washed before returning the plates to the galley and the utensils to a drawer near the sink. The only dishes washed in the Galley were those used to produce the meals.

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Retired Chief Engine Room Artificer, Gilles Poirier, answered some of our questions about the role of the Messman and meal time on a submarine.

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Square Rig Not a Sail - a Submariner Uniform

7/21/2017

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Sea Daddy Observations by Gilles Poirier

The Square Part

Well, more trivia about submarine life coming up! What I want to cover at this time is all about our old uniform (the square rig it was called, due to the square collar). It was most likely the worse fitting uniform ever made. The jumper was the worse ill-fitting piece of kit. It was very tight at the waist and torso, it had two inside pockets along the chest area; it was so tight that you could not even fit a deck of cigarettes.
The collar was not part of the jumper; it was attached to the inside of the jumper with buttons. Now that collar was supposed to be a real dark Navy blue, with a crisp white trim. Here the name of the game was to look like an old tar as quickly as possible, so you washed this collar as often as you could, till it became almost pale blue…! You then looked like an old salt!
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  • Home
    • About Us
    • Project Ojibwa >
      • Sojourn in Hamilton
      • Site Preparation
      • The Landing
    • Cutting Edge Technology
    • Contact
  • Plan Visit
  • COLD WAR
    • Cold War Sub Operations
    • The Opposition
    • CLOSE CALLS
  • HMCS OJIBWA
    • Ojibwa's Badge
    • Commanding Officers
    • Ojibwa's Crew at Commissioning
    • Ojibwa's NATO Service
    • Ojibwa Firsts
  • INDEX
  • Submarines
    • Short History Cdn Subs
    • About the Q Tank
    • Bulkhead #34 Door
    • Charlie Saves the Boat
    • Cutting a Sub in Two
    • Dit About Dishes
    • Earning Your Dolphins
    • It's All in the Volts
    • Pass or Perish
    • Perils of Pressure
    • Red Light/Black Light
    • Riding the Roof
    • Snorting
    • Shooting the Sh*t
    • Trimming a Submarine
  • Pirates
    • Then & Now
    • A Little Rebel in..
    • Buoys will be Buoys
    • Music Soothes
    • No Kitchens
    • Not So Ginger Beard
    • One Potato
    • Ruminations on Rum
    • Sonarman's Day
    • Standby to M Bare Ass
    • Rock & Roll
    • Case of Missing Rudder
  • Education
    • For Teachers
    • How to Book
    • Innovative Programs
    • Cadets
  • Flashback Friday & News
  • New Page