Mail Always a Huge Morale Booster

We’d received thousands of letters and posters, everything from school children to elderly people had sent this stuff. And contrary to regulations they were posted all over the ship and it was a huge morale booster. It was unfortunate that probably a good portion of the letters never got answered. We tried to answer as many as possible but there were just thousands. You couldn’t write, they were coming in… the mail drops, we were getting, on average we were probably getting fifteen mail bags a day full of letters and packages and stuff like that. Once Christmas passed, Boxing Day arrived and that’s when reality set it again. All of these letters and posters had to be taken down and the morale of the ship took a dip, quite a big dip.

Mr. Snell speaks about the thousands of letters and packages received on board the HMCS Athabaskan and the huge lift it gave sailors.

Bartley Snell

Mr. Bartley Snell was born February 2, 1956 in Regina, Saskatchewan. In 1977, he decided to join the military and with some encouragement about joining trades within the navy, Mr. Snell made the choice of naval electronic technician (tactical) holding rank of master seaman. During his time in the navy Mr. Snell sailed on the HMCS Athabaskan in active support of the Persian Gulf War. After almost 26 years of naval service, Mr. Snell retired from the military and now resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his family.