Jack Hetherington
Contributing Writer

IT is a fundamental
navigational principal
that you can’t get to
where you want to go
unless you first know
where you are.

It also follows that you
really only know where
you're going if you first
know where you've been,
Life is also like that.

The controversy sur-
rounding the proposed fund-
ing for the North Vancouver
Museum and Archives
(NVMA) plan to incorporate
part of the stern section and
engines of what is truly a
vital piece of Canadian histo-
ry, as part of a new museum
on the Lower Lonsdale site
of Burrard Drydock Co.
Ltd., should also be equated
to that navigational principal.
As a society we really. can’t
* know where we're going

untess we know where we've
been.

The plan of the NVMA is
such a nobie endeavour
because laying alongside her
berth at the foor of
Lensdale, for all to see, is a
time machine. Born as hull
#223 and launched in
Vancouver she was towed
across Burrard Inlet to North
Vancouver for the complete
fitting out process in the

_ spring of 1945. Christened
+ HMS Flamborough Head, she
“Sater became HMCS Cape
’~ Breton. This ship represents
: : the last Canadian-built ship
Of its type in existence —
"representing the last of hun-
>: dreds of ships built to supply
: cargoes to the Allied Forces

in al) theatres of operations
during the Second World
War,

Without these ships, and
the men and women who
buile and sailed then, the
outcome of that war might
have been quite different.
The Lower Lonsdale ship-
yard and the ships that sailed
from it helped forge a nation
— Canada, our home and
native land. And of thar let
there be no doubt.

While Cape Breton was
outfitted as a Navy. mainte-
nance vessel and training
ship, she is, contrary to what
some critics say, indeed a
“Victory Ship.” She has the
“Victory Class” hull design,
engines and superstructure.
The Americans used the
same hull design and called
theirs “Liberty Ships.”

A wonderful opportunity
to preserve such a vital piece
of Canadian history must not
be fost. The current owners
of the ship, the Artificial Reef
Society o B.C. applauds the
NVMA plan. The secicty
plans to sink the ship off
Gabriola Island creating an
artificial reef for -ecreational
divers and thus stimulating

we've been | .

that industry while at the
same time hoping to save a
major part of the vessel for
posterity in North
Vancouver,

Look at the real waste of
taxpayers dollars out there
betore condemning this
noble project. Crittes of
funding for the museum pro-
posal, particularly North
Vancouver MP Ted White,
and his opposition of the
Victory Ship Millennium
grant application, are being
terribly shortsighted. In fair-
ness to White, however, his
intransigence is understand -
able. As a naturalized
Canadian, what real sense of
Canadian maritime history
does he have?

But how can the preserva-
tion of an artifact that repre-
sents alf that we as a nation
stood for, and were capable
of accomplishing, during one
of the darkest periods in his-
tory, be a waste of money?
We can’t really know where
we're going unless we know
where we've been.

At its peak, ships were
going to war trom Lower
Lonsdale at a rate of one per
month. The area is alive with
maritime history. Just travel
along the 700-block of East
3rd St. and you'll see several
small cottages. These are
some of the houses stil} in
existence from that early
period, houses constructed
for the wartime shipyard
workers whose work includ-
ed the Cape Breton, once
again laying alongside the
berth she first left 55 years
ago.

If one listens to the critics
and agrees that preserving

this integral part of our her-

itage within a new museum
is 2 waste of time and money,
then close the Royal B.C.
Museum in Victoria. Close
all those sinkholes of the
public purse. To hell with
history. To hell with who we
are. Let governments contin-
ue to waste our tax dollars
elsewhere.

Americans, who have a
genuine sense of history —
they are where they are as a
nation because they have
never lost sight of where they
have come trom — have pre-
served at least ovo of their
Liberty's: JW. Brewn, and
Jeremiah O'Brian, which sail
the world as sort of U.S.
maritime ambassadors, living
reminders of an important
point in world history.

Shudder at the thought
that we, as Canadians, would
want to emulate the
Americans and glorify our
past by preserving part of
our wartime history. But his-
tory was made on these ves-
sels built on Lower Lonsdale.
Countless men sailed in them
and died. Countless others
forged careers and raised
families. For example, my
own father, Captain John N.
Hetherington, was only 28-
years-old when he command-
ed his first “Victory Ship” on
around-the-world voyages.
Colin Munro, his chief engi-
neer on that same ship, was
also 28 ~- the youngest
senior officer duo in.
Canadian maritime history.

See Canada page 9

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