This one happened just off the approaches to Halifax Harbour
In today's paper here. Next weekend we celebrate Battle of Atlantic...plenty of U boat attacks in Canadian waters.....not widely publicized at the time due to Govt not wanting to panick the public.
Remembrance at sea
Ceremony marks sinking of HMCS Esquimalt by Germans during Second World War
By PAUL EVEREST
When the Canadian navy tugboat Glenevis finished its three-hour journey to a stretch of water off Chebucto Head on Wednesday, there were prayers, a moment of silence and a romping banjo rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In.
This was Scott Macmillan’s way of commemorating the minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt, which sank in that area on the morning of April 16, 1945, and was captained by his father, Lt.-Cmdr. Robert C. Macmillan. He and 25 others survived, but more than 40 sailors lost their lives.
"I just wanted to say thanks to the men who died on the ships that made our country what it is today," Mr. Macmillan said, his eyes shining with tears in the brilliant afternoon sunshine, adding that he played the banjo to honour one of the men who played the instrument on the ship during the Second World War.
Making the journey with his wife, Jennifer, and son Ian, Mr. Macmillan, 52, of Halifax said he was looking for inspiration for a musical suite he is composing to pay tribute to the Esquimalt called Within Sight of Shore. He hopes to premiere the piece next April in Lunenburg.
But the venture was also about making a connection with the ship’s last known position.
"To come to the actual site is more of a feeling thing to me," he said. "The whole sinking of the ship has been shrouded in somewhat of a mystery at home. I wanted to come out and get a feeling of what it would be like to be in the frigid water for six hours.
"Just to think of the courage of those people, the determination to live. To appreciate what those people have done for us in a really tangible way."
Joining Mr. Macmillan for the commemoration was George (Buck) Taylor, who was serving as a 19-year-old able seaman aboard the Esquimalt when it was hunting German submarines that April morning at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. He was taking a break from manning a primitive sonar device known as an ASDIC at about 6:30 a.m. when the enemy he was searching for snuck up and fired a torpedo into the ship’s starboard side, near its depth-charge storage room.
"It all happened so fast," he said. "I went out on the wing of the bridge as daylight was breaking to have a smoke and get some fresh air, and the next thing I know I was in the water."
Mr. Taylor of Westphal, now 81, said he spent nearly six hours in the water, singing and joking around with other survivors to keep warm, before being rescued by the Esquimalt’s sister ship, HMCS Sarnia, whose crew plucked survivors from the sea and gave them blankets, cigarettes and the odd "shot of rum." Getting the chance to come back to the site of the sinking was one he jumped at, and the memories flooded in during the ceremony.
"Where I was when people that I’ve known perished," he explained. "It brings back faces, people that you knew."
Lt. Pat Jessup, who was first approached by Mr. Macmillan about a commemoration when he was searching for his father’s medals, said the Canadian navy wanted to be involved with the trip because the Esquimalt, the last Canadian warship lost to enemy action during the war, was "one of our own."
"All our losses mean a lot to us and if we can assist in the commemoration, we’ll do that," she said on the deck of the Glenevis as it returned to port, adding that the navy will begin commemorating the 67th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic next week.
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Thanks for the link.
