Join the Navy to See the World

Heroes Remember

Join the Navy to See the World

Transcript

Being 18, you’re so full of life and everything is so exciting, that I found it very exhilarating to think that I was going to be going on a ship and not knowing exactly where I’d end up. And certainly, that’s the way it happened. We were very, very fortunate in getting on a cruiser, because we didn’t go back and forth across the Atlantic. We took off and went places where most corvettes or frigates didn’t go. So, even though we were in the navy less than three years, we had a trip around the world and as they say. You join the navy to see the world. We took our basic training, or some basic training, in Chippewa, in Winnipeg. And then we went down to HMCS Cornwallis, which is a base near Digby, Nova Scotia, that had just been opened up, and it was right on the Bay of Fundy. So we spent three months there, taking basic training. And then, after that, we had to decide what trade we would take. And I decided that I would like to become a torpedo man. Now, I’m not sure why, but that seemed to fascinate me more than anything else. A torpedo man encompasses a fair bit of different fields, such as, well, torpedoes naturally. But it covers communication maintenance, it covers electrical, depth charges, and demolitions. So there’s a full range of things that you could be doing within that trade. So that made it fascinating, and I certainly enjoyed that aspect.

Description

Mr. Jervis talks about the excitement he felt when deciding to join the navy and the opportunities it provided.

Rea Jervis

Mr. Jervis was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, the youngest of six. His father came to Canada from Ireland to work on the railroad. At age 18, Mr. Jervis enlisted with the Royal Canadian Navy. Shortly after enlisting, the Canadian government agreed to send 1,500 Canadian sailors to Britain, to man the British cruiser HMS Belfast, and Mr. Jervis was one of those sailors. As a result, he became a member of the British fleet and found himself on a convoy to Murmansk, Russia. He was a torpedo man aboard the HMS Belfast and the HMS Uganda until the HMS Uganda was re-commissioned by the Canadian government. After the war, Mr. Jervis studied accounting and worked with the Public Service for 35 years. He then transferred his family from Winnipeg to Edmonton, where he operated his own company, Edgewood Batting Ltd.

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