New digs for the Maritime Museum of B.C.?
As of this month it’s reported that the Maritime Museum of B.C. is hoping to have new and permanent waterfront quarters in time for the 150th anniversary of B.C. joining Confederation. Evicted from its longtime home in the old provincial court house in Victoria’s Bastion Square in 2015, it has had to make-do with a paltry 3000 square feet of display space in Nootka Court on Humboldt Street. Meaning that the bulk of its fantastic collection of artifacts is in storage and unable to be shown. What a sad commentary that it has been up to volunteers to carry the ball over the years for an institution that should always have been fully funded by various levels of government. Victoria and B.C.’s maritime heritage is nothing less than phenomenal and deserves telling to the present and future generations. Much...
Read MoreHMCS Sackville, Last of Canada’s Corvette Navy
HMCS Sackville Anyone who knows anything about Canada’s naval contribution in the Second World War should be pleased to learn that one of our two surviving veterans is getting $3.5 in federal funding for “extensive repairs”. HMCS Sackville is the last of the Royal Canadian Navy’s famous Flower-class corvettes and Canada’s oldest warship. She has been owned and maintained by the non-profit Canadian Naval Memories Trust since the 1980s and serves as a museum ship in Halifax, home port to most of the Canadian naval vessels which fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic. Commissioned in December 1941, HMCS Sackville‘s active naval career was quite short; she was paid off in November 1944. Canada’s fighting corvettes became legendary and have been termed unique—“born of particular necessity at a particular moment—nothing like [them] had ever been seen before, nothing...
Read MoreNo smoking in movies? Cowboys without their tobacco pouch or chaw?
The latest in the war against tobacco is a movement by some American public health officials to discourage smoking in the movies (I mean on screen) by giving them an R-rating. It sets a bad example for young people, they say. The restricted rating is meant to spare millions of kids a year from being exposed to the filthy weed. And, no doubt, by reducing the potential audience, impact on the movie’s profits thereby encouraging studios to comply. They’re targeting actors who deliberately light up on screen, not as part of their character or role but as a subliminal advertisement. Just like when your favourite star reaches for a clearly labelled Coke. It could be anything, even water, but, no, it’s made very clear with a close-up for the world to see that he’s/she’s drinking a Coke even if...
Read More‘Balloonatic’ Daniel Boria Recall’s British Columbia’s First Air Fatality
Dare-devils have always been with us, probably as long as Man’s fascination for flying, so Dan Boria isn’t unique. Hot-air balloons have been around a long time, too—originally in default of powered flight, latterly as recreational toys. But none like with which Dan made aviation ‘history’ at the 2015 Calgary Stampede. The mid-20s former Victorian launched himself an estimated 14,000 feet high on a lawn chair ‘powered’ by more than 100 large helium balloons! With the intention of parachuting over the chuckwagon races, he said, as a publicity stunt for his cleaning company. But high winds forced him to jump early, before he made it to the race track. He managed to land safely, into the arms of police who charged him with the dangerous operation of an ‘aircraft’. In March of this year he received a scathing lecture...
Read More