Remembrance Day prompts look at Saskatoon's naval history

For a city that's hundreds of kilometres away from the oceans, Saskatoon has a strong naval history.

The area saw nearly 3,600 people join the naval reserves during the Second World War.

Leading up to Remembrance Day, Matthew Dalzell, commanding officer of the HMCS Unicorn, has been taking a closer look at those people, specifically the ones who never made it home.

"We're looking at between 60 and 65 sailors who came from Saskatoon and area who joined the navy and never came back."

Dalzell said there were 24 Canadian ships lost during the Second World War. He began cross referencing the list of lost Saskatoon sailors with the ships that sank.

One was the HMCS Shawinigan, which sank just off the shore of Newfoundland in 1944. Everyone on board was lost with the ship, including three men from Saskatoon and one man from North Battleford.

91 die in sinking of HMCS Shawinigan

29 years ago

Duration 1:33

A Second World War veteran recalls the day a German U-boat sank the ill-fated Canadian warship.

Dalzell was part of a project team for the navy's centennial commemoration in 2010, which looked at Shawinigan's sinking. Debris was discovered at the site where the ship was presumed to have sank on a foggy day. A wreath was put on the site as part of the centennial.

Another sinking Dalzell researched was the HMCS Athabaskan, which was torpedoed in the English Channel in April 1944. There were 128 souls on board, including six from Saskatchewan.

Decorated nursing sister from Ardath

Dalzell also came across the story of dietician Margaret Brooke, from Ardath, Sask., who enrolled as a nursing sister.

Brooke was on the SS Caribou when it sank in October 1941.

"She hung on to an overturned lifeboat with one hand and held on to one of her colleagues and friends Sub-Lt.Agnes Wilkie with the other. Unfortunately Sub-Lt. Wilkie did not survive."

• Navy ship named after Margaret Brooke, 'naval hero' in SS Caribou sinking

Brooke was decorated for gallantry and was made a member of the Order of the British Empire.

"She continued to serve in the navy after the war, retired in 1962 as a lieutenantcommander and came back to Saskatoon, got her PhD in paleontology at the University of Saskatchewan, and then went on to a second career as a research scientist."

Brooke was living in Victoria when she died on Jan. 9, 2016 at the age of 100.

An offshore patrol ship is being named after Brooke.