Robert Hughes always remembers his fallen friends during ceremonies like the Battle of the Atlantic commemoration.
A member of the Merchant Navy Association, Hughes served on merchant ships throughout the Second World War.
Once the Royal Canadian Navy started arming merchant ships, he volunteered to go aboard and look after the armament and teach the crews to take care of the armament.
“That was close to the beginning of the war,” he said. “I did that right up to the end of the war.”
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For Hughes, attending the Battle of Atlantic commemoration ceremony Sunday afternoon at Prince Arthur’s Landing was an easy decision.
“I love coming to these. It still keeps you close to the guys that aren’t here anymore and makes you think about them, too. You see the people that are very much interested in all these too and that makes you feel good,” he said.
“It’s a good thing to be here,” he added.
The ceremony honoured sailors from both the military and merchant marines who lost their lives maintaining the trans-Atlantic sea lanes used to supply the Allied war effort during the Second World War.
Commander Peter Fleming of HMCS Griffon said Thunder Bay was a critical port in the battle. About 2,000 people from Fort William and Port Arthur and the surrounding region joined the Royal Canadian Navy to go overseas during the war.
It was also where corvette-class ships were built. The ships were small, mobile and easy to build ships that were needed by the war effort, Fleming said.
The Battle of the Atlantic ceremony is also important in educating the community on what the navy did overseas during the wear and how it parallels what the Canadian Navy does today.
“During the Battle of the Atlantic we cooperated with our allies on a global scale,” said Fleming, adding that today, the navy serves in operations overseas that protect commerce, Canadian interests and conduct diplomacy to keep the world safe from threats like terrorism.
“These commemorations, small in nature… serve to give the Canadian public a snapshot of what we’ve done in the past and what we do today and going down the road in the future. It demonstrates the importance of the Royal Canadian Navy,” Fleming said.
Participants in Sunday’s ceremony included the HMCS Griffon, Royal Canadian Naval Association, Naval Officers Association of Canada, Thunder Bay Merchant Navy Association, Navy League Cadet Corps Thunder, the MacGillivray Pipe Band and several local Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps groups.
