Relationships With the Crew
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Media Information
- Medium: Video
- Owner: Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration: 6:15
- Copyright / Permission to Reproduce
More Clips
1. Relationships With the Crew
2. Becoming an Officer of the Watch
3. Importance of the Merchant Navy
Details
Relationships With the Crew
Mr. Guindon talks about his relationships with members of the ship’s crew.
André Guindon
Mr. Guindon was born in Ville-Marie, in Témiscamingue county, Quebec. He entered military service by going to the offices of HMCS Montcalm in Quebec City in 1942. After three years of university military training at the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps (COTC), he attended Kings College naval academy in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He enlisted in the Navy on a corvette assigned to protect Merchant Navy ships from enemy submarine attacks. He provides interesting insights about the importance of the Merchant Navy.
Transcription
Relationships with the crew
I learned the importance of a crew in the Navy. I learned more from the petty officers and the leading seamen than I learned from the ship’s officers. I was lucky, really lucky. On board the Chambly, there was an officer from out West who unfortunately thought he was better than everyone else. He liked the men to salute him and he liked everyone to know that he was the one in charge. It was the best opportunity I ever had, to see how that was the worst attitude you could have with the crew. When I arrived on board the ship, I was an officer. I didn’t know a thing about life on the ship, but I learned from the others. I learned not to interrupt them when they had work to do. They knew how to do their jobs and they did them well. On board that ship, they were more important than me. I learned with them. I was lucky because I got along well with the crew, with the junior officers, the sailors, the leading seamen and the leading signal men. We joked around together. They knew, and they were comfortable with me, and I was comfortable with them. I was demanding, that’s true, I was demanding and they knew it, but they were okay with that. When we had the opportunity to go ashore together, I went of course, because I liked it.
They called me Mister Ding Dong
I learned a lot in the Navy. I learned how to lead men, something I hadn’t learned before that. I learned that crew are like a rope. You attach something to it and pull and it moves. You push it and nothing moves. It’s the same with the crew. I succeeded in the navy because I learned from the crew enough to know to let them do their jobs, and congratulate them when things were going well. On board the Chambly, they called me Mister Ding Dong. The captain was insulted. “How can you let them call you Mister Ding Dong?” “Well,” I said, “they get a kick out of it and it doesn’t bother me.” As I said earlier, I learned something from an officer who liked being saluted. Me, no way. I chatted with them. When I needed them to do something, bang, there they were. I knew they’d never go behind my back.
Interviewer – Well, I have to ask – why did they call you Mister Ding Dong?
My name, Guindon. They couldn’t pronounce it. Say it in English!
Interviewer - Guindon…
Guindon… Ding Dong. That’s how I got the name, and I didn’t fight it. It didn’t bother me at all.
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