The Hamilton Area Group of the Naval Association of Canada is hosting their annual spring lunch at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope on Wednesday, 1 June at 11:30. There will be a cash bar, lunch in the hangar followed by a tour of the Warplane Heritage Collection with a focus on naval aviation & aircraft like the Firefly, the Grumman Tracker, etc. You do not have to be a member of NAC to participate. Tickets are $45 and can be obtained from nac-hag@hamiltonnaval.ca or by phone at 905-765-6075. Short fuze – responses no later than 27 May.

HMCS ORIOLE, the oldest commissioned vessel in the Royal Canadian Navy, will be visiting Hamilton on 9 June, just days short of the 70th anniversary of her commissioning.

Built in 1921 for George Gooderham, the Commodore of the RCYC (Royal Canadian Yacht Club), she is a steel hulled Bermuda ketch, 102 foot long overall and with a 94 foot tall mainmast. From 1954 to 2017, she was used to teach seamanship to naval officers on the west coast and regularly participated in the Victoria to Maui Ocean Race and the Swiftsure International Yacht Race.

After a refit at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, she continues to teach the importance of basic seamanship to the sailor of the 21st century, and to act as an ambassador for the Royal Canadian Navy.

The Kingston Class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel, HMCS GLACE BAY (MM 701), will be visiting Hamilton from 24 to 29 June as the first stop of her deployment to the Great Lakes. GLACE BAY, commissioned in 1996, is well travelled, having assisted in the SwissAir disaster in 1998, conducted mine countermeasure exercises in the Baltic, taken part in a number of counter-drug operations in the Caribbean, visited the Gulf of Guinea off Africa and spent time in the Canadian arctic as part of Op Nanook.