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.

OTD – 27 December 1942

The corvette CHILLIWACK, K-131, while part of Mid Ocean Escort Group C1 for convoy ONS 154 from Liverpool to New York, shares in the sinking of the Type VII-C U-boat, U-356, north of the Azores.  CHILLIWACK was instrumental in sinking a second submarine, U-744, on 6 March 1944.  She was broken up at STELCO in Hamilton in 1946 and her mast found its way to STAR’s quarterdeck.

HMCS CHILLIWACK, before her foc’s’le extension, and with minesweeping davits on the stern but without the two pounder pom-pom in the bandstand.
CHILLIWACK’s mast on STAR’s quarterdeck.