Banged Up Pretty Bad

We ran aground over in Korea with the ship. Fourteen knots straight into an island. Well it banged us up pretty badly. This was in North Korea where we run aground. So we had to get out as quick as possible. What the captain did he wanted to lighten the bow of the ship, sink the stern so we can slide off the rocks. We were very lucky we got off. And my understanding was about five North Korean gun positions ashore. Because it is so hilly in Korea, north and south. When the trains come along the coastline they come into an opening, go into the next mountain, if you will, and our job is to go in and “bang, bang, bang, bang, bang” and tryand get them out of there. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t but what we had to do you did a “bang, bang, bang” you had to get out of there then because of shore batteries might start firing back at you. But you didn’t know your success or not, you really didn’t know. I am down in the radar room, I’m not in the upper deck to see if anything is going ashore, you know. So I think we were about 1800 yards off the mainland there. And then, of course, when we run aground and the Americans got hold of this, those poor Canadians are up there on the rocks, we got to get them off. We got off on our own. Now we had to go all the way back to Sasebo, took us 24 hours at 24 knots to go from Sasebo up to where we ran aground. Took us 4 days to come back stern first with an American tug pulling us. We couldn’t come ahead on our own because the bulkheads under water were going to cave and we had to be careful there. But we successfully got off the rock on our own and let them tow us back.

Mr. Guertin provides detail of the circumstances that caused HMCS Huron to run aground off the coast of North Korea

George Guertin

Mr. George Guertin was born in Ottawa October 16, 1931. With 9 family members, Mr. Guertin experienced a fairly rough childhood growing up a time when the Depression hit families very hard. Through Children's Aid Society, Mr. Guertin had the opportunity to move in with a new family and life seemed to improve. As he became old, with the support from a friend Mr. Guertin made the choice to volunteer for the Korean War and found himself recruited with the navy, accepting training as an ordinary seaman specializing in radar technology and travelled onboard the HMCS Huron to Korea. When the Korean war ended, Mr. Guertin remained in the navy for several more years where he became injured onboard the Labrador, in the artic, and sustained injuires caused cost him his naval career. Mr. Guertin loved the navy life and never wanted to leave. After medical discharge Mr. Guertin accepted a job with the Post Office in Ottawa where he and his wife retired and remain today. Mr. Guertin is an active member with Dominion Command, belongs to the National Color Party in Ottawa, a lifetime member with his legion and since 1990 has played an active role as member with the Korean Cultural Centre.