PATRON H.R.H. THE PRINCE PHILIP DUKE OF EDINBURGH OTTAWA BRANCH THE NAVAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA Box 505, Station B, Ottawa, ON K1P 5P6 “To make all levels of Government and the general public clearly aware of the vital need for, and value of adequate and effective Maritime security forces to protect and further the interests of Canada.” (Branch Constitution, Article III.) 45.01 “Trying the depth of the water and the quality of the bottom line.…” May 2009 HMCS Labrador And the Canadian Navy’s Arctic Adventure Ahoy ! AGM Crowsnest Monday May 4th 1830 for 1900 HMCS Labrador in 1955. See the cover story starting on Page 4. Soundings May 2009 1 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ From the President By Richard Gimblett the combination of In this edition… declining membership as too many of our mates P2. President’s Remarks crossed the bar, just as many of the costs of doing P.3 Editor’s Desk business started to rise, revealing what we thought P.4 HMCS Labrador was a manageable membership “problem” P.9 Irvine Obituary actually to be a “crisis”. P11 SLt Down Part 12 You will be equally familiar with the response we have P.12 Entertainment Dear Branch Members, been able to fashion to the News issue, as what started as a Penning my final Branch renewal program P.12 Ben’s New Home column as President provided timely support for P.13 CNAG naturally presents an other plans developing at the National level for a more opportunity to survey my P.14 Battle of Atlantic extended term, but in the general revitalization of the course of going down that Association. But it is P.14 USN History Note path I would like also to critical to recognize that unburden myself of some response has been equal P.14 Onondaga Museum thoughts on the nature of parts good fortune and volunteering and sharing good management – good P.15 Salty Dips fortune that Russ Fowler the load. It has been my P.16 Ex-Ottawa CO distinct honour as well as came along looking for an pleasure to serve you for Organizational Consulting Award Project to meet his MBA these past three years, and P.16 CNTHA I am grateful for the requirements just as we began to grapple with the support that so many of P.16 New Honorary problem, and good you have shown me in so Captains many ways. I had no idea management that I had the assistance of a Board of my term would be such a P.17 Up Periscope dynamic one; indeed, when Directors with such a I assumed the watch from wealth of experience and P.18 Other Intel Heather Armstrong all common sense to help indications were for smooth implement the way ahead P.19 HMCS Carleton sailing and maintaining a for renewal and to get our P.20 Computer Problem steady bearing along the financial house in order. That brings me to established track. Almost P.20 Remember immediately, however, a the more specific point I number of signs began wish to make – too much of P.21 Full Power Trial appearing that all was not the general work of the well in the Good Ship Branch depends upon the P.23 Officers and Ottawa Branch – none of efforts of too few of the Directors this the result of a bad same faces. Many of these turnover, I hasten to add. folks who make up your P.24 Branch Info By now the litany Board of Directors are busy will be familiar to you, of with other activities 2 Soundings May 2009 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ elsewhere in their lives, which means we are So in signing off the log as I turnover now perilously close to suffering from the the watch to Bob Bush, I tip my hat again to different problem of “volunteer fatigue”. all my friends who have served before and Again, fortune has smiled upon us with fresh especially to those continuing on the Board, faces appearing to fill some of the more knowing you will support Bob in his term as urgently arising spots, and at the AGM you President through the adventures ahead. will be asked to confirm the transfer of the And to my peers – there are more than a responsibilities of Secretary from Richard hundred of you on the membership list – I Mayne to Denny Boyle and of Membership extend the challenge to get more involved. Director from John Bell to Eric Deslauriers , Come out on the Monday nights, get to know in addition to some re-shuffling of other the organization, and find some way to Director duties. But opportunities exist in a contribute. You will find a good number of variety of other positions, and I am struck friends you never knew you had but have that your Board has to work too hard been there all along. recruiting people to fill slots that become open. Yours aye, My personal experience in engagement Rich with NOAC makes me only too aware that these remarks are aimed less at those senior Ed. Note. Mr. President: You have the Ottawa to me, who have done more than their share Branch’s sincere appreciation for a job well of providing a fine-running ship to ride along done through some “interesting times”. Your in, and more at my peers, who I beseech to legacy will live on. S get more involved. Bruce Hayes and Heather worked me for the longest while to get more From the Editor’s Desk involved, but my personal circumstances By Richard Archer prevented me from being too active, as attending soccer games or driving kids to As many of you know, I was planning to piano and ballet lessons always seemed to make the theme of this edition the current coincide with the Monday evening meetings. state-of-play and But when the girls suddenly were all grown prognosis for NOAC’s up, I finally came out for one of those efforts towards Monday nights, which led to another, and renewing itself. This another. I discovered they were not just a will be a major element great opportunity to hear speakers on a of both the Ottawa range of subjects, but were also a good way Branch’s and NOAC’s to reinforce my sense of the Navy as “family” National AGMs in May. – something that seems to have disappeared It’s a very worthy cause to the daily pressures of working in a cubicle. as we find ways to Former mere acquaintances became good reinvigorate our friends, and when I was asked to join the association and make it attractive and useful Board in one of its previous shuffles I had no to a wide range of retired mariners. reason to say “no”. In part it was a natural However, once I took off my Ottawa way to contribute something back to an Board hat and replaced it with my National organization that had enriched my life. Executive Director hat, I realized that my Another part of me asked myself, “just how sitrep on NOAC renewal was better published hard can it be?” Indeed, it has not been for national consumption in Starshell. So (well, except for that membership crisis) that’s where you’ll see it. As National because as sea-going officers we learned to Executive Director, I look forward to the excel at routinely handling much more usual cogent feedback from Ottawa Branch. complexity. But the trick is to share the In the mean time, enjoy this edition of load. Soundings! S Soundings May 2009 3 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ HMCS Labrador Opens Canada’s Arctic By Ernest Cable Shearwater Aviation Museum Historian Canada’s Arctic Archipelago is the largest group of islands in the world. Yet, its geography is unfamiliar to most Canadians and despite its strategic importance it remains an enigma to the rest of the world. The area stretches across 70 degrees of longitude from Cape Chidley, Labrador’s most northern point, to the Yukon-Alaska longitude near Melville Island. Parry’s border; a great circle distance of just over incredible voyage was recognized by naming 2,000 miles. The southern coastal island the Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait and group of: Baffin, Somerset, Prince of Wales, Melville Sound section of the Northwest King William, Victoria, Banks and some Passage the “Parry Channel”; it also qualified smaller islands, is divided from the northern him for the £5,000 prize offered by the Board Queen Elizabeth Islands by Lancaster of Longitude as the first vessel to cross the Sound, Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville 110 th meridian at northern latitudes. Perry’s Sound and McClure Strait. These waterways ships, Hecla and Griper became trapped in form the main axis of the long sought after the winter ice and were the first Royal Navy Northwest Passage which is the principal ships to winter in the Canadian Arctic. east-west route through the Arctic Perhaps the most notable arctic expedition Archipelago. was that of Sir John Franklin whose ships Beginning in the sixteenth century Erebus and Terror became frozen in the ice in explorers took nearly four centuries to find 1848 near King William Island where all 129 the Northwest Passage in their search of a members of the expedition died. British shorter trade route from Europe to China mariners searched for Franklin for the next and India. However, after the existence of the 15 years without success, but in doing so a Northwest Passage was confirmed early in much larger area of the Arctic was explored the twentieth century Canada showed little and mapped.