60th Anniversary   Canada Remembers the Battle of the Atlantic     Quick Facts   Canadian Merchant Navy War Dead     55th Anniversary

On June 19, 2003, the Government of Canada designated September 3rd of each year as a day to acknowledge the contribution of Merchant Navy Veterans.

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What a miserable, rotten hopeless life . . . an Atlantic so rough it seems impossible that we can continue to take this unending pounding and still remain in one piece . . . hanging onto a convoy is a full-time job . . . the crew in almost a stupor from the nightmarishness of it all . . . and still we go on hour after hour.

Frank Curry of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) wrote these words in his diary aboard a corvette in 1941, during the Battle of the Atlantic a battle that would be called the longest in history. Having served in the Navy, I know full well the rigours of life at sea. However, during the darkest days of the Second World War, thousands of Canadian men and women in the RCN, the Merchant Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force faced perilous conditions that many of us can only imagine. The following account tells a tale of incredible bravery and sacrifice which all of us have a duty not only to remember but to pass along to future generations.