Submarines in East Vancouver, and recruits for a Great War era wedding

I recently had the pleasure of presenting about submarines, and my novel "Terror on the Alert", at the Britannia branch of the Vancouver Public Library. The staff, as always, was gracious; and I was lucky to arrive early, because the host seniors' centre invited me to share their potluck lunch. I may drop in again!

The highlight of the afternoon, though, was the presence of an elementary class of mixed grade 3s and 4s. They had lots of interesting questions about submarines: in my day, were there women on board? (no); what about now? (yes); are the ballast tanks what makes the boat go under water? (yes).

It was particularly interesting to me that they had done research on the internet before attending at my presentation. A delightful audience of young and old.

 Here are the young ones:

And speaking of young and old, I dropped in on a rehearsal for "Mary's Wedding" a couple of days ago.
(For more about "Mary's Wedding", see Newsletter #25 in the Newsletter Archives to the right.)

The entire cast is pictured below. These raw recruits are learning to be Great War cavalry troopers. Don't let the small cast fool you--it is a magical and inspirational play. It will be staged in White Rock, BC, November 11th to 15th.

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Submarines in the Mainstream

Submarines, or at least talk of submarines, dominates my time these days.

Sunday, September 28th          interview on CFRA, Ottawa radio. (via telephone 5 pm Pacific)

Tuesday, September 30th        "Terror on the Alert" is officially on the market.

Thursday, October 2nd            Naval Association of Canada conference in Ottawa re submarines.

Saturday, October 4th             Book signing for "Terror" at Perfect Books, Ottawa.

Tuesday, October 7th            Presentation at Vancouver Public Library Kerrisdale Branch.

Thursday, October 30th           Presentation at Vancouver Public Library Britannia Branch.



The VPL presentations will deal briefly with the history of submarines in Canada as well as "Terror on the Alert". Hope to see lots of familiar faces!

Navy Woes and Cavalry Stories

Tomorrow, July 30th, will be a busy day for Soldier of the Horse.

The good people at The Early Edition on CBC Vancouver have invited me to attend for an interview at 7:50 am tomorrow (0750 for present and former RCN readers, 0750 hours for all you army types out there). The occasion is a Vancouver Public Library/Royal United Services Institute initiative: the showing of the movie "War Horse" at 1:30 pm, same day, at the VPL. Later, at 7:00 pm I'll be speaking in the library about my father's time in the Canadian cavalry in the Great War and Soldier of the Horse.
My talk is the first of four scheduled in the VPL to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One.

In the meantime, across the Pacific, the huge naval, land, and air exercise RIMPAC 2014 continues. But the Royal Canadian Navy finds itself short of seagoing ships. Our submarine Victoria is there, along with frigate HMCS Calgary and minesweeper HMCS Nanaimo (she is in California waters, as opposed to the central Pacific/Hawaii).
Missing in action are HMCShips Algonquin (destroyer, rusting out),  Protecteur (fire damaged supply ship), and minesweeper Whitehorse (bad behavior by members of the crew). You have to sympathize with navy personnel who in typical Canadian fashion carry on with less. Less money, less fuel, lesser numbers of ships. One has to wonder who will protect Canadian interests at sea in case of need.