Manitoulin North Shore Naval Veterans Association
A Member of The Royal Canadian Naval Association
George Boyd remembers serving on HMCS Oshawa

About 10:30 a.m. on May 7, 1945 we heard that the war was declared over. Everyone not on watch was on the upper deck. As I was among those on the bridge, I was able to give the siren a couple of toots. We set sail from Halifax at noon . The trip north was boring. The signals were all plain language - what medals we could wear, splice the main brace and that A.B. gunner who kept up the news of the Halifax riots. We turned the convoy over to the mid ocean group and headed for St.John's.

It was during this part that we got the call that a coastal command aircraft had
found a German sub on the surface flying a white light and black flag as ordered
when they were told to surrender. We also got the same signal in English. We
honed on the aircraft signal. Our group consisting of Oshawa , Rockcliffe, Dunvegan
and Saskatoon intercepted U889. Our captain, A/LCdr. J.C. Pratt was told to provide escort toward Sydney . We were not at action stations. The sub was so close we could not depress the gun far enough to hit him. It was a beautiful day - really calm for the Atlantic .

Halifax ordered that there be no boarding party, J.C.Pratt ordered Rockcliffe and Dunvegan to escort the sub toward Sydney . Oshawa and Saskatoon continued on to St .John's and were joined later by Rockcliffe and Dunvegan. From the pictures I have U889 was sailed into Shelburne N.S. by the German crew.
FYI - John Bryant one of our founders also served on the Rockcliffe

The cook we had was drafted to the ship at Thunder Bay . He was an excellent cook but was subject to chronic seasickness
After we came down the lakes we sailed to Bermuda for training work-ups.
Returning to Halifax he was drafted off the ship.
We got a new cook. On the first trip, when it was rough one day, he served green curried rice. Boy was everybody sick. To make matters worse it was rough enough that the meal tray hit the edge of the table and landed upside down on the deck. Thank God I didn't have to clean it up. The cook lived long enough to get drafted off at Halifax .

The Living End
Our mess deck was as far forward as you can get. In our mess deck we had our own private head. In the wintertime the traps used to freeze open. The ship would ride up on a wave and when it came back down again the cold Atlantic came in the pipe and WOW what a thrill - it saved on toilet paper.
From Jim Dowdall

A new Lieutenant on our ship liked to do very thorough rounds when it was
his turn.(unnecessary) When he found something wrong he
would point at it and say "WHAT’S THAT?" Knowing the Lieutenant had a week stomach and tired of this useless procedure the Duty PO decided to teach him a lesson.

Just before rounds a dab of peanut butter was put on the toilet seat in the after
heads. When rounds came to the after heads, the Officer noticed the peanut butter, pointed at it and said "WHAT’S THAT?" . The PO stuck his finger in the peanut butter put it in his mouth looked at the Officer and said ‘It’s Shit Sir” The Officer then threw up in the next toilet. Rounds went faster after that.