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Tuesday, May 28, 2013 • COMOX VALLEY RECORD
www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Reprinted courtesy of
LAND OF PLENTY
A History of the Comox District
Military
Royal Navy Sailors at the Spit
Naval History
H.M.S. Egeria The military history of the Comox District is a lengthy one when the Royal Navy is considered. It certainly is distinguished. Early in the 19th century, the Royal Navy ships began calling at Comox Bay and Goose Spit for a variety of purposes. Ultimately, the Royal Canadian Navy assumed the tasks of the Royal Navy on the West Coast. The Canadian Army has also found the Comox District to be a very suitable location for general and specific training. The two most famous units raised largely in this district and which carried out preliminary training here were the 102nd Battalion of First World War fame and the Canadian Scottish (Princess Mary’s) “C” Company. Since the First World War, the Comox District has had militia units in residence on a nearly continuous basis. For a short period after the Second World War, the 62nd Anti-Tank Battery was located at the Sandwick Army Camp but was soon amalgamated with the Canadian Scottish “C” Company
(Militia), which is still active here. In 1944 the Royal Air Force began operations at RCAF Station Comox as No. 6 RAF Transportation Command (Operational Training Unit). The base was closed in 1946 but reopened in 1952 and is now known as CFB Comox. More detailed accounts of these military presences are contained in this chronicle. During the Second World War, the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers were formed. They were disbanded at the cessation of hostilities. In 1920 a machine gun unit was raised by Captain G.R. Bates as O.C. of “J” Battery. It was located in the Agricultural Hall and practices were held at the Goose Spit range. Machine guns, rifles and other equipment were supplied. The life of this unit was not a long one. In Courtenay’s museum, a Book of Remembrance, compiled by Ruth Masters, tells the full story of local servicemen who gave their lives in the cause of freedom.
The arrival of Captain Cook at Nootka in 1778 can be interpreted as the arrival of the Royal Navy on Vancouver Island. Captain Vancouver reached the Pacific Coast in April, 1792. After talks with Quadra of the Spanish Navy, Vancouver joined forces with two Spanish ships, the Sutil and the Mexicana, on a joint expedition. “The four ships proceeded north through Malaspina Channel and worked together until July 13, when the Spaniards left to examine the mainland coastline, and Captain Vancouver continued through Discovery Passage and Johnstone Strait to Queen Charlotte Sound.” The Royal Navy had arrived in local waters. A good harbour was required for future operations. Esquimalt offered a natural harbour for the Royal Navy ships. Late in July, 1846, Captain Courtenay brought the frigate Constance (50 guns), to anchor there. The Constance was by no means the first ship to
visit the harbour, which had been known for many years, but it was the men of the Constance who discovered the fresh water supply that was to make Esquimalt so valuable to the Royal Navy. It was from Esquimalt that the early Royal Navy ships arrived to begin making use of Goose Spit. The following excerpts are taken from an article by the late Norman A. Pritchard, who chronicled much of the early history of the district: The history of Comox is interwoven with that of the British Squadron of the Royal Navy. The gunboat Grappler brought settlers in 1862, and HMS Hecate conducted surveys. The Egeria charted the inland waterways, and throughout the earlier years the squadron policed this coast, protecting the tiny settlements. There was a friendliness between the pioneers and the naval personnel based on mutual respect. The behaviour of the sailors was good, and their concerts given in the old Knights of Pythias
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hall were bright spots in the pattern of pioneer life. The walls were gay with flags, the comedy was clean, the sailors’ hornpipes shook the old building, and the songs were either robust or dripping with sentiment. Searchlight displays were dear to our hearts, and a boy could climb high to watch the heavy gunfire at Tribune Bay, where the flash, the smoke, and the fountain of spray were quite visible. Also, our windows shook with the detonations. Mr. John Hawkins, whose farm lay by Goose Spit, supplied fresh vegetables and fruit, rowing out in his own boat, and sometimes being paid in gold sovereigns. H.C. Lucas supplied bread to the ships, and Mr. Roy of Royston brought water. We did not regard the navy as an offensive, or warlike, arm of the service, but rather as part of the fabric of pioneer life, and as protection. The officers in their civvies and the men in their uniforms went swinging up our country roads. Our willow grouse
provided hunting, but were so tame that the officers often despaired of a wing shot, and were too sporting to take a sitting bird. Samuel Cliffe often sat on the verandah of the Lorne Hotel looking through his long brass telescope, a relic of sailor days, to see if he could make out the name of an incoming cruiser. Reg Carwithen saw 80 sailors carry a mast they had taken out of the woods, down past the Lorne Hotel. Of those sailors, buried by the Anglican Church of Comox, two were boys who fell out of the upper spars. Sham battles were at long intervals conducted in the woods, where the Fort now stands. The naval ratings enjoyed these sham battles as a diversion from life on the ship. The names of some of the naval ships that came to Comox around the turn of the century were Satellite, Phaeton, Arethusa, Warspite, Condor, Sparrow-hawk, Pheasant, and Amphion, Egeria, Shearwater and Algerine.
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