Old Fashioned Canadian Christmas at Sea (Part 2 of 2)

Heroes Remember

Old Fashioned Canadian Christmas at Sea (Part 2 of 2)

Transcript

Hey we were young, I was 18 then you see and the majority of the crew were all the same. There were very, very, very few people that were old and had the backgrounds, you see. Anyway, one of the highlights I would like to tell you about, I interviewed the, interviewed the captain, Admiral de Wolfe in Ottawa and years ago when I was out here I was president of the Haida Association and so I had organized two reunions here; one in 1980 and one in 1990 and I had to sort of help him along, he and his wife Gwen, and I got to know them very well. So every time I went to Ottawa I always went and had tea with him or had a beer with him. The last time I went there of course his wife, Gwen had passed away and he said, "You know, I harken back to that Christmas day." He said, "I always remember the Germans going down on the ships that we sunk and I used to think we like Christmas, think about all those families that are going to be doing without their fathers," and so on. And this is what he told me. Then he said, he said, "The highlight of the whole thing," of course we'd been ordered to go along side the Sheffield and have a Christmas day with them and I said "No we'll have a Canadian Christmas." "Fine." Later in the afternoon he got called up to go along side and meet C&C Burnett and come and have Christmas drink with him and so he went over. It was darker than Egypt's night, the coxswain was along side waiting for him to come off and they were told to lay off, so we layed off from the ship, from the quarter deck of the Sheffield. Finally we called along side and the Captain went on board and the coxswain said "Where to sir?" He said, "Back to the ship." He just said "Where's that?" He said, "Never mind, never mind," he said, "get away from the ship, now shut her down." They got about a mile away, shut down the motor and they listened and they could here way off in the distance, "Roll me over in the clover," in marked Canadian accents. He said "That's the way, that way." So that was, that was one thing that he told me about.

Description

Mr.Hannam talks about his time spent with Harry de Wolfe on that particular Christmas.

Jack Hannam

Mr. Hannam was born in Vancouver, BC on June 19, 1924. At the age of five, shortly after his father's death, he moved to Victoria. His father survived the sinking of the HMCS Charlottetown in the St. Lawrence River but was tragically run down by a drunk driver. He started with the Merchant Marine at the age of 15 and then went on to the navy when he was 17. He joined the reserves Sept. 9, 1941. He served first on the HMCS Camrose and later on the HMCS Haida in both the North Atlantic and off North Africa.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:10
Person Interviewed:: Jack Hannam
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Atlantic Ocean
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: HMCS Haida
Occupation:: Seaman

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Date modified:: 2019-06-20