Remembering the exploits of a ship named Waskesiu

They’re not called iron coffins for nothing-_{Marc Milner, professor of history.}

Writing for the RCMP’s Veteran’s’ Association Facebook page, historian Mark Gaillard notes Lieutenant-Commander John Phillip Fraser, a former RCMP Special Constable in the Marine Section in Halifax, was put in charge of the vessel.

Just 19 days under her new captain, on Feb.24,1944, while escorting ships on the way to Northern Ireland, the Waskesiu’s sonar operator detected the U-boat around 2 a.m.

“At this stage of the war things are particularly horrifying for the Germans because the allies are getting so good and what they do,” Marc Milner, a professor of history at the University of New Brunswick and Second World War Naval expert told paNOW. “The German submarine service has a ferocious fatality rate compared to the number of wounded they have. They’re not called iron coffins for nothing.”

Waskesiu’s first depth charge attack on the submarine was unsuccessful, the U-257 then surfaced in the dark and fired a deck gun at them before crash-diving.

Another allied ship, the HMS Nene, joined the hunt but after more depth charges and several hours of searching the order was given by the convoy commander for Waskesiu to rejoin the escort.

However, Lieutenant-Commander Fraser persuaded his superior to allow him one last 10-charge attack, which proved decisive, thanks largely to the exceptional skill of the sonar operator listening to the subtleties of how the pings sounded under water.

“They often trained sonar operators who were musicians; they trained them to differentiate tones,” Milner said. “It was as much an art form as a science at this stage of the war and it mattered if your sonar operator was good.”

“The later consensus was the U-boat was down there waiting them out and as HMS Nene pulled away the pitch of her propeller went up and the submarine captain thought the hunting vessel had pulled away but Waskesiu was idling quietly,” Milner said.

The German submarine surfaced within about half an hour and that’s when the frigate poured its depth charges onto the enemy.

U-257 was then hammered by 4-inch gun fire. The submarine sank with 19 survivors picked out of the water.

Flowers don’t knit mittens …we’ll name them after towns …who’ll adopt them _{– Percy Nelles, chief of staff for the RCN}

So why the name Waskesiu?

The frigate was initially set to be named Prince Albert following the Royal Canadian Navy custom of christening new warships after towns and cities, but the name was already taken, hence the move to go with the Prince Albert National Park town site.

It was all part of a clever plan by the chief of the Canadian naval staff, according to Milner.

“While the British were naming their corvettes after flowers because Churchill thought it would be kind of cool to have one of the dastardly U-boats sunk by HMS Poppy,” Milner said. ” Percy Nelles said ‘flowers don’t knit mittens and our guys will need crew comforts and sweaters and scarfs, so we’ll name them after towns and towns will adopt them,’ and that’s what they did.”

After the war HMCS Waskesiu was decommissioned in early 1946 and sold to the Indian Navy.

As for Lieutenant-Commander Fraser, he returned to Halifax where he was later promoted to Superintendent with the RCMP.

In 1966, at the age of 63, he was accidentally killed in a motor vehicle accident.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow

by Glenn Hicks

Remembering the exploits of a ship named Waskesiu

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