White Ensign Flying

by Roger Litwiller

  Harrison sent a Christmas card to Hazel Farley before sailing. The card was signed by the skipper, “May Christmas bring you Joy, Happiness and Prosperity in the New Year — Bill Harrison.”[8] Inside the card, Lt. Kinsman took the opportunity to send a new crew list and a note to the people of Trenton thanking them for the many comforts they had sent. [9]

  The following day the orders to sail were postponed due to poor weather conditions.[10] On December 24 the order was again postponed, delaying the small fleet to sail on Christmas Day.[11]

  On Christmas morning 1943, yet another signal from the NOIC Quebec came with the same message, “Sailing postponed 24 hours due to poor weather.”[12]

  The crew looked forward to their first Christmas in port as the preparations began. Some of the crew were able to get ashore during the day; Stoker Sid Coates went skating with some girls he had met.[13] Signalman Jack Harold, RCNVR of Aurora, Ontario, was invited to Christmas dinner in the home of a local family that had befriended him. When he approached the XO for leave, however, he was refused; the entire crew was expected to be aboard for Christmas supper.[14]

  Festivities aboard Trentonian began. Following the usual customs of the navy, the youngest member of the crew changed places with the skipper and became the commanding officer for the day. His first order was to stand down from normal routine for the Christmas celebrations. The cooks prepared a turkey dinner with all the trimmings and that was served to the crew by the officers. All enjoyed their Christmas together despite the underlying feeling, for many of Trentonian’s young men, of being away from home for the first time, coupled with the uncertainty of not knowing when they would rejoin their families.[15]

  Normal routine returned to the ship the next morning when the NOIC Quebec signalled that his orders were to be carried out and Trentonian, Norsyd, and Norton were to leave Quebec City for Halifax.[16]

  Prior to departure, a local harbour pilot was assigned to each of the ships. (Pilots are responsible for the safe passage of ships in and out of a confined waterway; they know the waters in and around their port better than a visiting ship’s commanding officer or navigator.) The bitter cold and poor weather formed thick ice on the harbour and St. Lawrence River. The pilot made several attempts to break the ice with Trentonian’s hull, and several times the ship smashed into large blocks and bounced off solid sheets of ice. Despite Harrison’s protests the pilot continued to ram the ice, causing rivets to break and small leaks to appear.[17]

  The pounding of Trentonian’s hull stopped when Harrison threatened to toss the pilot over the side, and an ice breaker, Earnest LaPointe, was brought in to clear a path. However, the pilot in Trentonian stayed close to the side of the open passage, which caused the ship to continue ploughing into large blocks of broken ice.[18] Once clear of the harbour approaches, the pilot left the ship and Trentonian, Norsyd, and Norton continued on course to Halifax.

  Earnest LaPointe returns to Quebec City after having broken the ice for Trentonian, Norsyd, and Norton.

  Photo credit: A. Singleton, courtesy of Bruce Keir.

  The three ships sailed at twelve knots following the route laid out by the NOIC Quebec: down the St. Lawrence River, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, through the Canso Strait dividing Cape Breton from the rest of Nova Scotia, and into Halifax Harbour. Once through the strait, Trentonian would be in the North Atlantic for the first time.

  Harrison knew these waters and their dangers well. His previous command, Lunenburg, had escorted many convoys from Quebec City to Halifax. And although Trentonian was sailing in the interior waterways of Canada, thousands of miles from the battleground of the North Atlantic, the enemy had attacked ships on the St. Lawrence previously.

  From May to October 1942, a battle with the German Navy was waged on the St. Lawrence. Five U-boats entered Canadian waters and attacked in the Gaspe, Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the St. Lawrence River as far west as Rimouski, Quebec. The submarines sank eighteen merchant ships, damaged another three, and sank two RCN ships. The combination of fresh water mixing with salt water and differences in water temperature formed layers for a submarine to hide, making asdic operations almost impossible in this area. The attacks on the St. Lawrence River and Gulf eventually forced the RCN to close the waterway to shipping and provide convoys from Quebec City to the Atlantic.

  It had been over a year since the last attack on the St. Lawrence River, but Trentonian, Norsyd, and Norton continued on their course knowing that the German submarines could return.

  The three ships entered the choppy waters where the river met the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Many of Trentonian’s crew got their first taste of seasickness and it became apparent that the worst two cases in the ship were both the cooks. One of them suffered so badly that he would often become completely incapacitated.[19]

  On December 28, the three ships entered the Strait of Canso, passing through the single lock of the Canso Canal. Norton detached and proceded into the harbour at Mulgrave. As Trentonian and Norsyd passed Mulgrave, the senior naval officer (SNO) Mulgrave sent a message to Halifax verifying their position.[20]

  Trentonian and Norsyd arrived in Halifax on December 29 at 0700, joining Canada’s East Coast Fleet.[21] Once there, the remaining crew members reported to the ship, giving Trentonian its complete ship’s company of almost one hundred officers and men.

  One of the sailors joining the ship in Halifax was Stoker Norman Sharp, a logger from British Columbia. He had joined the Canadian Army in February 1940, volunteering for the commandos. His officers suggested he might be better suited to the navy and he became a stoker. He served in the destroyer St. Laurent before his transfer to Trentonian.[22]

  Also joining Trentonian was Lt. Gordon Kent Stephen, RCNVR, from Toronto, Ontario. He had graduated from the Canadian Navy’s Officer Training School at King’s College just days before. He was a strong athlete and avid rugby player. The navy was not new to his family; his older brother J. Stuart Stephen was the skipper of a Canadian Fairmile.[23]

  The crew spent two days cleaning ship and settling into their new home. They received orders on December 30 to depart Halifax for the short trip to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, where they would complete the ship and repair its ice-battered hull.[24]

  Trentonian passes two Canadian Fairmile motor launches in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

  Photo credit: A. Singleton, courtesy of Bruce Keir.

  Trentonian slipped its lines at 0700 on the morning of December 31 and arrived at the docks of the Mersey Paper Company in Liverpool at 1400.[25] After securing the ship, most of the crew was given shore leave for New Year’s Eve.

  When going ashore for leave the men had to be in their best uniforms. Boots shined, collars neatly pressed, gun shirts white and pressed. No one was allowed to leave who was not up to standard. Sailors, being an enterprising group, had discovered the chemical in the fire extinguishers made an excellent spot remover to get grime and grease out of their uniforms.

  Quickly, the men prepared their number one uniforms and themselves; not a moment of leave was to be lost. Once ashore they found the Salvation Army Canteen nearby. Stoker Sydney Coates described the evening as “Good Food, Good Company, BUT NO DRINKS!”[26]

  They celebrated the evening with the usual naval customs for the New Year; the normal division between the officers and the men was relaxed so the two could enjoy fellowship together. At midnight, the youngest member of the crew struck the ship’s bell sixteen times — eight bells for the old year and eight bells to usher in the New Year.

  After New Year’s, Trentonian was taken into the dry dock to have the damaged hull repaired and the asdic installed. Overall, Trentonian spent a month in Liverpool while the last of its equipment and electronics, along with the after pom-pom gun and the twenty-inch searchlight, were installed.

  The crew continued to work on their ship, but also had time for leave. Those with family nearby were allowed to visit.[27] While in dry dock, the only way to access Trentonian was a long wooden ladder that reac
hed from the floor of the dry dock to the railings of the ship, about seventy-five feet up — a difficult and harrowing experience at the best of times.

  During the evenings in dry dock, the crew noticed one of their new mates enjoyed drinking spirits more than the others. Jim (not his real name) was from Newfoundland and an able sailor described as a “hell of a nice guy, sober or otherwise.” He was always borrowing uniforms from his shipmates after selling or trading his own. One particular night he returned to the ship barely able to walk. As he made for the ladder, the crew on deck noticed he had a small dog tucked under arm. They yelled at him to stay below and let the dog go. He climbed the ladder with one hand while the other held onto the dog. The higher he got, the more he swayed. The crew held their breath, knowing what could happen. Eventually the inebriated sailor made his way to the ship and climbed over the side, safe on deck, to the relief of his mates. He staggered to the galley and made the dog a mustard sandwich. The dog, unimpressed, sniffed the snack and walked away, leaving the sailor to eat it.[28] The dog, having been brought aboard involuntarily, was returned to shore later.

  On one weekend there was a dance at a high school in Liverpool and several of the crew made plans to go. Jim made plans to attend after rounding up a uniform from his mates. Knowing he was penniless, some of the crew offered to lend him money, which he refused. So they left for the dance without him. Later they spotted Jim on the dance floor having a great time with one of the young ladies, the front of his white uniform shirt as black as night. When they asked, how he had got into the dance he replied, “I broke a window and crawled in through the coal bin.”[29]

  In Trenton, the Navy League was still busy collecting funds to support their ship. During a Navy Week fundraising campaign, $1,345.10 was collected from a number of sources, including community service clubs, businesses, factories, schools, and individual donations. Two of the largest donations came from the Bata Shoe Company. The company itself donated $150, while the employees gathered $142.25 .[30]

  Trentonian secured to the jetty in Halifax. The crew could play hockey on the ice covered gun deck in the foreground.

  Photo credit: A. Singleton, courtesy of the Family of Maurice Campbell.

  On January 30, Trentonian was taken to the gunnery range for the first test of all its weapons. The forward four-inch gun fired a series of four rounds to port, starboard, forward, and then repeated with the gun elevated. The two-pounder gun in the after gun tub was fired twenty-four times and the two twenty-millimetre oerlikon machine guns located on the port and starboard bridge wings fired sixty rounds each. All aspects of the guns and weapons were found to be correct and working well.[31]

  With work on Trentonian nearly completed, Harrison wrote a letter to Miss Farley to update the City of Trenton:

  Many thanks for the woolens and ashtrays. They are being put to good use, I assure you.

  It is very difficult to find out just who receives parcels from home. To ask the whole ship’s company would result in a victory for the more unprincipled, which is a thing we try to avoid. However roughly speaking there seem to be very few who do receive parcels and a list of names would include practically the whole ship’s company. As I’m sure you had anticipated only a few, that’s not much good. The fairest way would be for us to distribute any parcels that turned up to the various messes. As a general rule foodstuffs etc. that arrive in parcels from home are shared with their messmates anyway.

  I’m sorry I haven’t a picture of the ship as yet. We’re waiting for a chance to take a photo of the whole ship’s company, which we will send on as well as a picture of the ship when we get it.

  Hoping you are enjoying the mild winter and not missing the warm weather too much.[32]

  The same day, Harrison received a signal from the Senior Naval Officer in Liverpool stating, “SLIP AT 1200 PM TOMORROW MONDAY AND BEING IN ALL RESPECTS READY FOR SEA PROCEED AT 12 KNOTS DIRECT TO HALIFAX…”[33]

  There would have been a sense of pride with this message. “BEING IN ALL RESPECTS READY FOR SEA,” is a naval term used for centuries meaning a ship is complete and ready to do its duty. This was the first time the phrase was used in reference to Trentonian. The ship was finished and ready to engage the enemy on the high seas. It had the most modern equipment available — radars, asdic, radios, specialized electronics — and was armed with a four-inch gun forward, pom-pom gun aft, anti-aircraft guns, depth charges, and hedgehog mortars.[34]

  After a year of construction, Trentonian departed Liverpool and proceeded to Halifax. They performed an asdic sweep the entire way.[35] The Canadian coast had been a favourite hunting ground of German submarines; an attack could happen at any time.

  3: Training a Crew —

  Working Up and Evolutions

  The officers of this ship must get to work and learn their ship and having learned it must inspect it frequently until it is up to standard.

  — John Waterhouse, acting commander, RN, training commander, HMC Dockyard, Halifax, NS

  Trentonian arrived in Halifax on January 31, 1944. Crew training began immediately.

  The first corvettes, built for the war in 1941, were commissioned and sent immediately to sea and to battle; training took place on the job with the few experienced sailors training the green recruits who made up the majority of the crew. They had to face a well-armed, well-trained, professional enemy on the North Atlantic battlefield, often with tragic results.

  The war had changed since those dark, early days. Sufficient ships were being built, which allowed the crews time to learn their ship, their jobs, and become a cohesive team in the relative safety of home waters.

  Trentonian spent seventeen days in Halifax while the crew trained and learned how to work the equipment and electronics in the ship. Just as important, the crew learned how to work with each other.

  A ship is divided into several divisions; each division is responsible for a specific operation of the ship. An officer is assigned to each division, with a chief petty officer (CPO) and petty officer (PO) assigned to each section within the division, and, finally, a leading seaman (LS) to each trade within the section.

  The engineering division is responsible for the engines, boilers, generators, winches, steam fittings, and other machinery; the gunnery division operates all the guns, weapons, depth charge throwers, ammunition, magazines, and small arms; the communication division is made up of specialized trades including radio operators, signalmen, coders, and radar and asdic operators; the deck division is responsible for everything seamanship and needed to sail the ship; and all other trades are placed in the logistics division — this includes supply, writers, cooks, stewards, and sick bay attendant.

  Each section spent their time in Halifax refining their own trade and equipment. They ensured that they could work together as a team so that all operations of the ship could be carried out smoothly and efficiently.

  Each crew member was assigned a station in the ship; each station had a specific location and corresponding responsibility to be performed in the event of action with the enemy or any emergency that might arise. The stations were based on each sailor’s trade and experience, and could vary depending on the situation at hand. Each man was assigned his station for action stations (surface, anti-submarine, anti-aircraft), fire, damage control, man overboard, and abandon ship. These stations were practised until each man knew his place and could perform his duty without thinking.

  On February 16, Trentonian received orders to conduct hedgehog trials the next day.[1] Typical of the navy, the order was rescinded later that day and postponed until the eighteenth.[2] The next signal brought some much anticipated news for Trentonian’s crew: the ship was ordered to leave for Bermuda on the eighteenth.[3]

  Trentonian’s adoption papers were sent to Trenton on February 17 with an accompanying letter from the secretary of the Navy Board. The papers listed several organizations and individuals as the adopting organization, including the students of Trenton Collegiate. (Eventually the
city coordinated the effort, and the City of Trenton was named as sole sponsor with all support organized through the Corvette Committee.) The letter thanked the community for the enthusiastic support of Trentonian and included a list of additional comforts required by the crew.[4]

  The foggy morning of February 18 found Trentonian’s crew making preparations for sea. Supplies were brought aboard and stored, and the hedgehog trials were delayed to later in the day due to very poor visibility.[5] The ship slipped from dock just after 1800 with the inspecting party aboard.

  The crew of Trentonian poses for a photo during a snowstorm, January 1944.

  Photo courtesy of Quinte West Public Library, Hazel Farley Collection.

  They found the stabilizer and yaw control for the hedgehog had been installed incorrectly and needed to be rewired. The weapon was dismantled and repairs carried out. Once done, they fired and found the hedgehog had an error of one degree, which caused the mortars to land forty feet to starboard. This was corrected and the trials completed. The report following the trial noted that there were no spares for the gyro compass stabilizer on the hedgehog, and the workmen, at the time of installation, should have checked the work before leaving the job — this would have required less time and effort than having to repair the wiring later.[6] Trentonian returned to the French Cable Wharf in Halifax to take on fuel for the trip south.[7]

  Trentonian’s crew saw their first Merchant Aircraft Carrier (MAC), HMS Ancylus, when it arrived in Halifax on February 15, 1944.

  Photo credit: A. Singleton, courtesy Bruce Keir.

  Trentonian taking on fuel before leaving Halifax for warmer weather in Bermuda.

  Photo credit: A. Singleton, courtesy of Bruce Keir.