Description
Mr. Welland expresses his gratitude to his captain, who had made it possible for Mr. Welland to take command of HMCS Assiniboine ahead of other candidates, after he himself had fallen ill.
Robert Welland
One of five children, Robert Welland was born in Oxbow, Saskatchewan on March 7, 1918. His parents immigrated to Canada from England, where his father had been an officer in the British Merchant Navy. Influenced by his father, Mr. Welland decided at the age of 14 that he would some day be a warship’s captain and an admiral. In 1936, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy, but had to go to England and join the Royal Navy in order to obtain officer training. His first active wartime service was aboard the F class destroyer, <em>HMS Fame</em>. Aboard her, he was involved in the rescue of survivors of the <em>Athenia</em> sinking, and the destruction of U-353. Mr. Welland then joined <em>HMCS St. Laurent</em>; she took part in the Dunkirk evacuation and the rescue of survivors from the <em>Arindora</em> Star torpedoing. In 1943, he assumed captaincy of <em>HMCS Assiniboine</em>; this vessel was involved both in convoy duty and harassing German shipping in the English Channel. Captain Welland remained in the Canadian Navy, and took <em>HMCS Athabaskan</em> into service during the Korean War, assisting in the NATO blockade there. He was later to become Commanding Officer of naval airbase CFB Shearwater, and his distinguished career saw him retire with the rank of rear admiral. He had fulfilled his boyhood dream! Mr. Welland later had great success as an entrepreneur, retiring at the age of 82.
Transcript
I was sent to the destroyer the Assiniboine. That was in early 1943 and I was the executive officer, the second-in-command of her, and I had a very good captain. In fact, he was a super captain, because after I had been there, he got sick. We were on an Atlantic convoy back and forth between St. John’s, Newfoundland and Londonderry, mainly Londonderry, not always. It was the other end of the convoy run where the escorts refuelled and restocked, ready for the next trip and we did that for a number of months. On one of these trips he got ill and when we were ready to go from St. John’s he couldn’t make it. And it turned out he almost died from appendicitis. But he didn’t admit it until the last moment and I took the ship to sea because ... he organized that I did that, rather than declare himself sick and have the command put - there was spare captains around the place that they had just for this kind of thing. But he’d forestall that and literally made me the captain. I was 25 years old then. I thought I’d be relieved when I got back, that they’d get a more experienced ... never did. I got promoted to acting lieutenant commander and I was, I just kept … stayed in command of her for quite a while, until 1944. And then I was moved to be captain of the Haida.