On May 16th, one of our members, LCdr (Ret’d) Doug Martin, made a 1965 film called “All the Little Ships” available to the naval community by email

The Hamilton Naval Association is a group of retired members working to preserve naval heritage. 

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2, and of the Battle of the Atlantic, the Hamilton Naval Association would like to distribute a long lost film –  “All the Little Ships”.  This CBC TV production of 1965 was inspired by the retirement of HMCS HAIDA from the fleet. CBC Television’s public affairs program “Telescope”, which ran for several decades, produced a half hour episode to mark the occasion. A talented team arranged for recently retired Admiral Harry DeWolf to fly from Bermuda to Toronto where, standing on the bridge of his former command,  he told the tales not only of HAIDA but of All the Little Ships of the Wartime RCN. Also recruited for the effort was Bill Pugsley, a wartime officer who resigned his commission so he could serve 2 years on the lower deck, as a gunner,  and write about it. And film it. Pugsley was an officer in the special branch – a war correspondent who wrote stories on the navy which were fed to newspapers and magazines. He accidentally took some of the films home when the war was over. Those films of RCN shipboard life make up a good part of All the Little Ships.

Unfortunately the film was recalled from base libraries and almost forgotten in the confusion of Unification. 

Fortunately I saw a bootlegged copy of the film in 1981 when instructing Mars 3. I never forgot it and several times tried, and failed, to get a copy. When HAIDA was moved alongside HMCS STAR I vowed to keep trying. The only known copy was locked in the archives of CBC TV. But a few years ago those archives were moved to Library and Archives Canada (The National Archives). In the past year, after 44 years of trying, I obtained all the right permissions and had All the Little Ships digitized. The film is black and white, 20 minutes long, in MP4 format with a file size of 1.2 Gigs. It will play on any device. Like many films of that era the first few minutes have scratches from being roughly wound onto projectors and banged about in metal cans. But most of the film is in good condition. Our next project is to restore it but first we offer it – free – to the RCN. And to all friends of the Navy. The copyright is expired so feel free to share this unique artifact of the RCN.

Below you will find a link to the film on Dropbox.  The link will not work within the DWAN but will if you forward this email it to your civilian email. If you wish to verify who we are please go to our website at Hamiltonnaval.ca  or  Hamilton Naval Heritage on Facebook.

We hope this film of those who were there, on the bridge and manning the guns, can be used for public education and to remind all in the Navy of who we are.

Cheers,

LCdr Doug Martin (Ret’d)  (Former CO of HMCS STAR)

on behalf of

The Hamilton Naval Association

Here is a reply received from VAdm Angus Topshee the next day:

Thanks Doug. I echo Chris’s thanks and praise for your lengthy quest to unearth this piece of our history. It does a great job of telling the story of the RCN’s rapid expansion and service in the Battle of the Atlantic. The film of the convoys and wartime harbours is absolutely fantastic. While the action shots at sea were wonderful, I think my favourite scenes were from training in Naden – I would love to see the reaction if we ordered our sailors to do similar exercises and activities today!

I’m going to ask our Director of Public Affairs to connect with you so that we can help with your efforts to disseminate this film as widely as possible. I would love to see as many Canadians as possible given the opportunity to view it.

For all those cc’d, I’ve included the unblocked link below and encourage you to take twenty minutes and watch this film. I know that several of you will be particularly interested in hearing Admiral DeWolf talk about his ship and the fights in the channel – it also briefly summarizes the incredible effort to save Haida as a memorial to all those who served in the RCN (there are some great shots of the ship being fixed up on the Toronto waterfront).

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ps4ctx8gmc0dzhac9bjc1/All-the-Little-Ships-High-Quality-20-min-version.mp4?rlkey=n6v73nvj0inwzuvo9hgwyeesx&st=2z3uy14b&dl=0

Yours aye,

Angus

Angus Topshee
(he/him|il/lui)
Vice-Admiral |le vice-amiral

Commander
Royal Canadian Navy
Angus.topshee@forces.gc.ca | Tel: 613-904-6830 | Mobile: 343-575-3080

Commandant
Marine royale canadienne
Angus.topshee@forces.gc.ca | Tel: 613-904-6830 | Portable: 343-575-3080

HMCS HAIDA, the Ceremonial Flagship of the RCN, will open to the public on Saturday, 17 May from 10:00 till 17:00 each Wednesday through Sunday. After Labour Day, the ship will be open only on weekends till Sunday, 21 September.

Each year we commemorate the twenty-four (now recognized as thirty-four) warships and the thirteen hundred and eight sailors, eighty of them from STAR, lost by the RCN during the Second World War. This year, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic, our theme changes to focus on the accomplishments of the RCN:

“The safe and timely arrival of the convoy at its destination” – The RCN was involved in the escort of 554 trans-Atlantic convoys with 24,550 ships, 97% of which reached their destinations.

Ships of the RCN were involved in the sinking of thirty German U-boats and three Italian sommergibili as well as three destroyers, seven minesweepers and an E-boat.

On April 24th, in conjunction with the AGM of NRAC (Naval Reserve Association of Canada), Cmdre (Ret’d) Marta Mulkins, NRAC President, and VAdm (Ret’d) Glenn Davidson, the guest speaker, unveiled a new installation on STAR’s quarterdeck commemorating Victory at Sea: The 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic.

The display includes, along with period uniforms and items of kit:

• a merchant ensign retrieved from the German merchant HERMONTHIS by HMCS PRINCE HENRY off the coast of Peru;
• a German stalhelm from U-688 which surrendered to the RCN and was briefly commissioned as HMCS U-688, to commemorate the 33 submarines sunk by the RCN;
• pictures of HMCS ASSINIBOINE’s battle with U-210 and the medal ribbons from Chief ERA Donald Portree who was awarded the DCM for the action;
• an excellent model of HMCS TRILLIUM to represent the corvettes that took party in the BOA; and
• the painting “Passing?” to commemorate the warships and merchant ships lost.