Fine Captain and Officers

Heroes Remember

Fine Captain and Officers

Transcript

Captain MacFarlane, he was on the Fisherman’s Reserve when the Navy picked him up and made him a captain and he was my kind of a guy. He was just a fine captain and he had 60 people that he was responsible for and he was like a Dad, you know. I shouldn’t say this, but it seemed to me we had a class of supervisors that were a little different than some others. I’m not saying they’re better than the Army or the Air Force or that, but we had some,we had some fine gentlemen and I appreciate working under them and I did my job the best I could for them. I think that most of the fellows on the ship always wanted to take something a little more than what they’ve got. They wanted to learn something more than what they had. And, you know, if we went for whaler practice where you get 40 guys in a whaler and see how long it takes you to get it down and get it back, there was always a fun competition and not a bunch of ballyhooing and calling somebody that’s slow, you know. And everything, every time we went into something new practice, everybody tried their best and it could be because of the captain and because of the officers that were training us as we went along.

Description

Mr. Matheos discusses having what he felt were a fine captain and group of officers, and attributes his success, and that of many others, to their ability to motivate their crews.

James Matheos

James Matheos was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on September 9, 1924. He was one of three children. His father, a Greek immigrant, was a restaurateur. Mr. Matheos joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942, with the intention of “seeing the world.” After training in Victoria, British Columbia he served aboard HMCS Sans Peur, a converted British Admiralty yacht, and spent the war in the dual role of patrolling for U-boats off Halifax, and training naval recruits.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:52
Person Interviewed:: James Matheos
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: 415 Squadron
Rank:: Ordinary Seaman
Occupation:: Deck Crew

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Date modified:: 2019-06-20