Navy comes in focus during ship's Sault stop (3 photos)

As Saultites prepare to celebrate Canada Day and enjoy the weekend, maritime enthusiasts have an extra treat to look forward to.

HMCS Oriole - the sail training vessel of the Royal Canadian Navy based in Halifax - will be at the Roberta Bondar dock.

The public is invited to tour the ship from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 1 - 3.

“Oriole is celebrating its 101st anniversary this year,” said Acting Sub-Lieutenant Scott Ferris, HMCS Oriole public affairs officer, speaking to SooToday from the vessel while making a stop in Tobermory. 

“The ship was originally built in 1921 for the Gooderham family in Toronto. Folks in Ontario know that name from the whisky business - Gooderham and Worts Canadian Whisky. The family had the boat built for them, they loved racing. Mr. Gooderham himself was a big sail racer on Lake Ontario for many, many years,” Ferris said.

The vessel’s role changed in the Second World War.

“The family lent the ship to the navy for training purposes. It stayed with the navy right up until 1945. The family took it back for a short period of time but in 1947 they realized they weren’t sailing it as much as they used to and decided to sell it to the navy for one dollar. The navy had to agree to the condition that it would maintain Oriole and keep the ship as a training vessel and ever since that time, that’s exactly what’s happened,” Ferris said.

The ship was officially commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy in 1954.

That same year, HMCS Oriole sailed from the east coast through the Panama Canal and headed to CFB Esquimalt on the west coast.

There it remained for over 60 years before returning to Halifax as its base in 2017.

“Its main, core purpose is training,” Ferris said.

“We combine training and outreach for events like what we’re going to be doing in Sault Ste. Marie where we get to connect with the public, but as the ship is moving from port to port we are training navy personnel on board.”

Oriole sails from April to September or early October each year.

The ship and its crew, apart from training, stop at ports for public tours in the Atlantic provinces and the Great Lakes, with possible trips in the future along the eastern seaboard of the U.S and perhaps as far as the Caribbean.

“Oriole is a very ocean going vessel, very capable, so we wouldn’t have any hesitation in taking her that far. In Oriole’s past she’s done races from Vancouver Island to Hawaii, it’s been to Australia and New Zealand. It’s a very capable ship,” Ferris said.

While there is a definite ‘wow factor’ among visitors to Oriole among adults, especially those with a military or naval background, Ferris said the vessel has impressed younger people as well.

“We’ve done visits with a lot of sea cadet groups. Those folks have a keen interest in all things nautical. In Sarnia recently we had a group of about 15 cadets come to the ship and were really enthused with what they saw and asked us a lot of questions about what life is like in the navy, what can they expect if they decide to pursue a career in the navy.”

“That’s one of the great advantages of the outreach that we do is connecting with those younger Canadians to say your Royal Canadian Navy is a vibrant, dynamic  organization. There is a breadth of opportunities available and coming to sail aboard Oriole is certainly one of them. It’s different from anything else you’ll ever do in the navy.”

In a general sense, Ferris said the navy is always recruiting, with a need for personnel in skilled trades.

There are signing bonuses and training opportunities available.

“The navy is definitely worth exploring,” Ferris said.

Ferris said the crew is glad to receive visitors onboard this year, as COVID prohibited visitors from getting on to the ship during its tours over the past couple of years. Visitors could only view the ship from the dock during that period.

“This year we’re going to take you onboard, throughout the upper deck of the ship, talk to you, explain what the ship does, explain what we do as navy personnel and we can chat face to face. It’s so much better.”

Oriole has 21 crew members onboard serving in various occupations.

“It takes every minute of every hour of every day to make this ship work. It is still rigged as it was in 1921. There is modern technology onboard, we have electronic navigation systems and so on, but we raise and lower sails by hand. We don’t have winches onboard. It’s all done by hand,” Ferris said.

The majority of crew members are onboard after applying to be part of Oriole's team.

“You put your name forward and hope to be selected. Many of the crew feel like they’ve won the lottery coming to a post like this because it is so unique. It’s very different from being on a warship. To learn some of those core fundamental maritime skills of working on a sailboat in wind, waves, tides, currents, it’s all very different from any other ship. Those skills are needed as much today as they ever were,” Ferris said.

At the end of the Second World War, Canada’s navy was the fourth largest in the world, behind those of the U.S., U.K. and the former Soviet Union.

That formidable size and the role of the Royal Canadian Navy throughout history are facts that are barely mentioned in schools at the elementary, secondary and postsecondary levels in Canada.

Shouldn't the navy’s history be taught in schools?

“Yes, but I’m coming at that from a very biased perspective being in the Canadian Armed Forces myself, but it’s challenging,” Ferris said.

“The younger generations and their connections to those activities becomes harder and harder each year to maintain, to try and teach that sort of history, but it is a huge part of who we are as Canadians.”

“When we really see this resonate with Canadians of course is on Remembrance Day and we see the tens of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people come out across this country for Remembrance Day services in big and small towns across the country, but it’s vitally important that we know we have this proud military history and a proud military today that is strong and capable.”

“The challenge does become, certainly within the school systems, that there are a lot of priorities on what needs to be taught to school children today. I would certainly hope that there is some way found to be able to maintain some way to pass on that heritage and legacy. We certainly get to do some of that through what we do with Oriole in connecting with Canadians. We get to show them what your Royal Canadian Navy looks like today, and what the men and women who are serving today are capable of, what they’re doing, where they’re doing it in the world.”

“It’s a great opportunity for us in that way,” Ferris said.

“We are really looking forward to coming to Sault Ste. Marie and for Canada Day especially. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”