Dad's Navy Days: 1944 - Comox, Vancouver Island (29)

"He hadn't gone a hundred fathoms when the

sailboat tipped over and he was bottoms up.

We rescued him with an LCM* barge."

[Page, 41, "DAD, WELL DONE"]

The first of two accounts my father left behind about his 1944 - 45 WW2 experiences with RCNVR and Combined Operations upon Canadian soil begins as follows:

     Then I went to Givenchy III, known as Cowards

     Cove, at Comox on Vancouver Island. It was

     absolute heaven there. Just normal routine; I

     trained a few zombies on cutters, and played ball

     five or six times a week under a good coach.

     [Ibid]

["Comox is two hours by car from Victoria"]

I find the quantity of what he recalls from his 'Comox days' interesting. About his two years of training and facing hostilities in Great Britain, North Africa, Sicily and Italy he writes 10 chapters in his Navy memoirs. About his 18 months in Canada he writes one chapter in his memoirs and one article for his hometown newspaper. Small in comparison, in my opinion.  

["Doug Harrison guards the second hole of the golf course"]

Allow me to do a bit of supposing about my father. He may have been able to write more had he wanted - he had an excellent memory - but chose not to because it was such easy work compared to past demands, or, he didn't find it as important as his work manning the barges filled with troops and all the material of war while overseas. I suppose, because Givenchy III was also called Cowards Cove (maybe a term bandied about by Navy boys; I can't find reference to it elsewhere), he wasn't as proud of his 18 months on Vancouver island as e.g., 30 days under fire in Sicily just six months earlier.

That being said, there is still much to learn, at least by a family member like myself, about a young man and his Navy days.

Father writes:  

     I also looked after Captain Windyers (sic) sailboat
     and prepared it when he wished to go for a sail.
     One day quite a wind was blowing and I was called
     by the captain to prepare the boat for sailing.

     First thing I did was drop the drop keel and it
     sheered its bolt stoppers and plummeted into twenty
     feet of ocean. Diving would not raise it because we
     could not dive low enough, but by means of a wire
     we hooked a hole and retrieved it and soon the
     sailboat was ready to sail.

     “Isn’t it a bit windy today, sir, for sailing such a small
     craft?” I said. “I’ll be the judge of that,” he remarked.
     He hadn’t gone a hundred fathoms when the sailboat
     tipped over and he was bottoms up. We rescued him
     with an LCM barge, and when he came ashore - hair
     flattened and really soaked - he never even glanced
     my way. I wouldn’t have either.

     At Givenchy III I passed professionally for my Leading
     Seaman rating and Acting Coxswain, classed very good.

["Capt. Windeyers signed father's navy papers, 1944"]

Father would have been pleased to climb through the ranks and it seems he passed along his pleasure and ease with boats to others in his family, including me and my older son.

His notes recall other pleasures too, connected with playing baseball, eating the best oysters money couldn't buy and small practical jokes.

More to follow.

*Landing Craft mechanized. "In February 1944 there were 51 landing craft on the west coast of which all but 8 were based in Comox." (pg. 232, Naval Service of Canada, Vol. 2)

Photos GH

More Dad's Navy Days: 1944 - Comox, Vancouver island (28)