All posts by Dinger

About Dinger

A sea cadet at RCSCC LION from 1963 to 1968, I joined the Naval Reserve at HMCS STAR in 1968 as a Bos'n. I was an Officer Cadet in the ROUTP, commissioned in 1971, and awarded my watchkeeping ticket in 1973. I served at sea, at one time or another, in all five Gate Vessels and HMCS FORT STEELE & CHAUDIERE as well as the Coast Guard icebreaker Louis St. Laurent and served as OIC of the patrol vessels RALLY and RAPID. At STAR from 1968 to 2007, I served as XO twice and then as CO from 2002 to 2005. I rounded out my career by serving as SSO Training at NAVRESHQ in Quebec City in 2008, retiring in 2009 as CO of HMCS HUNTER in Windsor. I was Executive Director for the Friends of HMCS HAIDA till 2011 and have been an active volunteer onboard HAIDA since she arrived in Hamilton in 2003.

Hamilton RNCVR sailor lost at sea in 1916

What's New?

Wireless Telegraphy Operator Ernest Clement, VR-0058, RNCVR, son of Thomas H. and Margaret A Clement of 84 Burton Street, Hamilton.  Aged 19, he was washed overboard in a storm and lost on 12 December 1916, along with five others, while the former yacht HMCS GRILSE was en-route down the east coast of Nova Scotia.  The ship itself was initially believed lost.

HMCS GRILSE
GRILSE alongside in Halifax with NIOBE and another cruiser, probably HMS HIGHFLYER, in the background.

BOFORS Gun Comes Home!

What's New?

During World War II, the Otis Fensom Elevator Company plant in Hamilton was converted to war work and began producing barrels and mounts for the BOFORS 40mm anti-aircraft gun.  The first gun came of the line on 21 August 1941 at the plant at Ferrie Street East and Victoria Avenue and thousands were produced during the war by Hamiltonians, both men and women.

BOFORS guns served on Canadian naval vessels and with army units during the Second World War and then after the war on the Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS MAGNIFICENT and as airfield defence for Canadian airfields in Germany.  They were retired and then recalled to service on HMCS ATAHABASKAN, TERRA NOVA, RESTIGOUCHE and PROTECTEUR during the First Gulf War in 1991and finally were mounted as the main armament on the KINGSTON Class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels built between 1994 and 1997

Last week, HMCS STAR, Hamilton’s Naval Reserve Division, received a surplus 40mm Mk NC1 Naval gun mounting which was mounted as a memorial inside the gates of Canadian Forces Reserve Barracks off Dock Service Road.  The mounting contains gun number L/7780 which is stamped OFE/C (Otis Fensom Elevator / Canada) 1942.  Its new home is less than one kilometre from the place where it was produced seventy-six years ago!