Trident Feb 6 2006 - Tridentnews.ca

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TRIDENT, FEBRUARY 6, 2006
New Fleet Club room dedicated to aircraft carriers
From left: Peter Kent, MS Wally Bennett, Bradley Henderson, RAdm Dan McNeil and MS Headley Cullen.
By Virginia Beaton
Trident staff
The history of two Canadian
Navy aircraft carriers will live
on in a new room dedicated to
their heritage.
On Friday January 20, the Fleet
Club officially opened a room that
commemorates Her Majesty’s
Canadian Ships Bonaventure and
Magnificent.
Master Seaman (MS) Wally Bennett,
Fleet Club President of the Mess
Committee (FCPMC), welcomed the
large audience in attendance, which
included many serving Navy members
as well as former sailors from
both Bonaventure and Magnificent.
MS Bennett stated that former
PMC Petty Officer (PO) Dave Lundrigan
and LS Patrick McMerty
devised the idea for the memorial
room approximately a year ago.
“This room provides a brief look
into our past and present, and a bit of
our military history,” he stated.
MS Bennett extended thanks to
the people who contributed their
time and effort to the setting up of
the new room. Among them were
Peter Kent, Darren Roberts, and
Tom Parsons, who provided the
cabinetry that houses the artifacts,
and all those who helped clean and
restore the items on display. He also
thanked members of the Canadian
Naval Memorial Trust (CNMT) for
their help.
Rear Admiral (RAdm) Dan
McNeil, commander Joint Task
Force Atlantic and Maritime Forces
Atlantic, congratulated the Fleet
Club for the successful completion
of the room. “Well done, and thank
you to the Master Seamen and below,
with their Mess, to have done this
with the Bonnie and Maggie room.”
RAdm McNeil stated that he occasionally
fields questions from junior
officers as to whether the Navy needs
another aircraft carrier. Noting that
there are plans for the Navy to
acquire a new ship “that can carry a
lot of aircraft,” RAdm McNeil added
“I regret to inform you it will probably
not be called an aircraft carrier,
although it will carry aircraft.”
RAdm McNeil observed that at the
January 17 change of command,
during which VAdm Drew Robertson
became the Chief of the Maritime
Staff (CMS), outgoing CMS
VAdm MacLean arranged for the
ship’s bell from Algonquin to be on
central display, in memory of the late
RAdm Debby Piers. “He wanted to
make a point of saying how important
it is that we look at the past and
appreciate what people have done
before us, and what a great country
this is.” Such memories include
recalling ships such as the Bonnie
and the Maggie, added RAdm
McNeil. “So, MS Bennett and all
you folks, well done.”
Wendall Brown, commanding
officer of Sackville and a member of
the CNMT, praised the Fleet Club for
setting up the room, stating that is
was a fine opportunity for the Junior
Ranks to learn about Canadian Navy
history. He concluded, “I congratulate
you very much on the initiative,
and the quality of the presentation.”
RAdm McNeil and Master Warrant
Officer (MWO) (Retd) Bradley,
who served in Bonaventure, signed
the certificate and cut the ribbon to
formally open the new room.
Artifacts arranged in the display
cases range from uniforms to photos,
programs and other mementos.
The display items brought back
many memories for David Bakody,
who served in the engineering
department of Bonaventure twice
between 1961 and 1970. The ship
was the scene of a significant event
in his life, according to Bakody, stating
“I got married onboard the ship
on Friday, January 17, 1969.”
After a brief honeymoon with his
new wife Anne, Bakody recalled,
“Anne went to Dartmouth, and I
went down south for four months, on
the Monday after the wedding.”
While Bakody recalled that during
his first posting onboard in 1961, “I
disliked Bonaventure with a passion,”
the atmosphere significantly
changed during his second posting
there, after the major refit. “It was
like night and day.”
One tragic memory concerns several
crewmembers who died while
they were cleaning out the AV gas
tank onboard the ship, during a trip
to Boston.
“One man got in trouble deep
inside the tank and several more went
in to help him, and they were all overcome
by the fumes. These were men
from my mess.”
It was difficult to carry on after
such a tragic accident, but Bakody
remembered, “We had a lot of sailors
onboard who had gone through the
Second World War, and they knew
how to handle situations like that.”
It was necessary to keep up with
their duties even as they mourned
their comrades, Bakody explained,
saying “Grieving at sea is different
and more complicated than it is anywhere
else.”
CPL HOLLY CANNING, FORMATION IMAGING SERVICES
Bakody was onboard Bonaventure
during the explosion and fire
onboard Kootenay in October 1969.
“We were exercising off England at
the time,” he recalled. Injured sailors
were taken off Kootenay to Bonaventure,
and Bakody talked to one of the
Kootenay crewmembers who told
him how worried they were, in the
aftermath of the explosion.
“But he told me that when they
looked across the water and saw
Bonaventure, they knew they would
be safe.”
In the aircraft carrier, according to
Bakody, “It was like being in a small
city. It provided a logistic platform
for the Canadian Navy that was second
to none. We had a full emergency
aircrew, a full medical crew,
and a hospital.”
Those were the years when
Bonaventure usually sailed to England
each fall, and a regular routine
was that the sailors usually returned
home with large amounts of chocolate,
Bakody remembered. “Quality
Street chocolates. I remember once
that we brought back 12 tons of
chocolate, in seven-pound tins.”
The Canadian Navy bought Magnificent,
nicknamed the Maggie,
from the Royal Navy. Magnificent
was commissioned into the Canadian
Navy in 1948 and served until
1957. Capable of carrying 30 aircraft,
Magnificent’s final act was as
a carrier of Canadian peacekeepers to
Egypt during the Suez crisis.
Magnificent was replaced by
Bonaventure, fondly known as the
Bonnie. Commissioned on January
17, 1957, Bonaventure carried a
variety of aircraft ranging from Banshees
and Trackers to the Sea King
helicopters when they were introduced
in the 1960s. After many years
of service, Bonaventure was retired
in 1970.
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