As a kid growing up on the shores of Eastern Lake Ontario, I had always heard tales of old ships and gunboat battles that occurred in the waters in front of our house near Millhaven, On. With Kingston being a strategic military location throughout Great Lakes history, I always imagined the vessels that may have plied the waters offshore from my home. Tales of mighty gun battles between opposing sides from the 18th and 19th centuries always filled my imagination with shipwrecks, cannon fire and buried treasure. One such tale, perhaps more of a legend, was that of lost gold from a French gunboat during the Seven Years War that apparently still lies buried in the sands of Prince Edward County, about one hour west of Kingston. The gold was reportedly buried in 1758 and never recovered, fuelling local folklore since then. Now, with time I had over the Christmas holidays, and resources never before available, I finally researched this legend of lost gold and hit the sands on a quest for lost gold…

THE STORY 

The Seven Years War pitted British and French against each other on the Great Lakes in a battle to secure Upper Canada and control the area north of the the United States. Gunships from both sides sailed the waters of Lake Ontario, exchanging cannon fire in an attempt to gain lake superiority.

On such incident had a French gunboat sailing across the southern shores of the Eastern end of the lake near what we call the “Gap”, an open space between two of the larger islands on that end. Laden with military documents and a barrel of gold headed to Fort Frontenac (presently Kingston) the French ship was nearing the gap when a Bristish ship under the command of Captain Bradstreet spotted the French vessel on his way across the lake from Oswego, NY.

Bradstreet gave chase to the French ship, cutting it off before it could reach its destination of Fort Frontenac. Evading a most certain engagement and possible capture, the French ship reversed direction and sailed back west trying to escape Bradstreet’s ship. The French ship headed west along the southern edge of what is now Prince Edward County trying to outrun Bradstreet. Realizing evading the British was impossible, the French ship headed for a bay called ‘Little Sandy Bay”.

 

Not giving up, Bradstreet chased the French ship into the bay, and with their fate almost certainly sealed, the French captain beached his ship, ordered the crew to evacuate with the documents and gold, then torched his ship to the ground to avoid it being captured by the British. The captain and crew then headed inland towards their destination of Fort Frontenac on foot, and as the story goes, buried the heavy barrel of gold to return with reinforcements from the fort to retrieve it later. They arrived at Fort Frontenac only to find it had been attacked and destroyed by the British. The gold, now on British controlled land, was never recovered and apparently still lies buried where it was placed over 250 years ago.

 

LEGEND OR TRUTH?

Over the years, the story of the lost gold has evolved through many incarnations, some more fanciful than others, but they all tell of how the gold remains buried and is waiting to be discovered. Always ready to solve a “history mystery”, I thought it would be fun to re-visit the story in more detail and use some new resources that we may not have previously been able to use. One such resource was a book I came across from 1892 that outlines the story in exacting detail…a story I have never seen written down before, which adds some credibility to the story. Next, we can use old maps and overlay them with current satellite imagery to pinpoint exact areas that are mentioned in the 1892 story. Regardless of what we find, it is a fun and interesting exercise with some fascinating results that I will share with you below…

 

THE QUEST

Using the text from the book “Picturesque Prince Edward County” from 1892 that outlines the story, I studies the details mentioned in the account.

Carefully noting details in the story, I was able to create a list of landmarks mentioned, and using a map of the same time period in the 1870s, mark them on the map.

“Little Sandy Bay” is shown on the map as well as a bridge and cabin, mentioned in the story where the tale tells us the gold was buried “half-way between the bridge and the bay”…

 

Now using a current Google satellite map we can overlay it on the old map:

 

This gives us an approximate location which we can zero in on to explore for more clues…mostly being the location of the “Old Bridge” which no longer exists since new roads have been built since 1878.

So with some rough ideas of where the bridge and the half-way point could be, I went off with a neighbour in search of some real evidence to help confirm their existence.

So now that we have confirmed the location of the old bridge, we can now mark the “halfway” point where the gold was buried near a “cofferdam”, which is a small dam that would have built from stones.

Heading to the halfway point and where the cofferdam should be, there are some collapsed stones….

…but they are now replaced with a modern bridge.

Could this new bridge have been built upon the old cofferdam location which was the half-way point where the gold is supposedly buried? I decided to explore the rest of the area and see if anything else unusal could be found that may give us some further clues. If not, then at least it would be fun to re-trace the supposed steps of the French captain back to the bay where he burned his ship in 1758.

 

Further along the river, I came across what looked to be a man-made mound in the forest on the banks of the river. Some cut logs were supporting it, but the date of this structure is unknown.

Reaching the end point of the quest, which was actually the start point for the French captain in 1758, no gold was recovered nor were there any further clues to investigate. The empty land is part of Sandbanks Provincial Park, and remains as a beautiful place to walk and fuels the imagination as to what may have happened all those years ago according to the recorded tale below from 1892:

Having successfully re-traced the reported path of the French captain from 1758, the gold could very well still be buried under the shifting sands of the area, and perhaps it will remain as it has for the past 250 years….a LEGEND OF LOST GOLD.

SOURCES

“Picturesque Prince Edward County”, 1892, by Helen Merrill

Google Maps

Hastings and Prince Edward County Historical Atlas, 1878

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bradstreet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years’_War

 

 

IT’S A WONDERFUL TOWN

No matter how many times I watch it, I never tire of the holiday classic “It’s A Wonderful Life”. Year after year, Frank Capra’s 1946 film stirs up the Christmas spirit in me more than any other holiday film. Its timeless message of the how the good of mankind ultimately prevails through the hardships of life brings an annual tear to my eye, and for me, captures the true essence of the holiday season.

The film was released in 1946 produced/directed by Frank Capra based on the short story “The Greatest Gift” and features the fictional town of “Bedford Falls” where the life of George Bailey played by actor Jimmy Stewart takes place. Bedford Falls does not really exist, but it bears a remarkable resemblance to a real-life town called “Seneca Falls” in upper New York state. Capra apparently visited Seneca Falls in the 1940’s so perhaps this influenced his screenplay for the film and provided the backdrop for this classic film.

There are numerous references in the film to various places in New York state, including Rochester, Albany and Syracuse, all towns that are in close proximity to the real life Seneca Falls. So let’s visit Seneca Falls through the use of technology and Google Streetview maps to see what other similarities may exist in this wonderful town….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A recent drive back to my hometown along the 401 highway brought back memories of the same trip 30 years earlier with my family in our little Volkswagen Beetle. Like most family road trips in the late 1970s we’d stop in at one of the rest stops along the 401 to go to the bathroom, grab a bite to eat and fuel up the tank. Spending less than few minutes at these rest stops, I now think I took for granted what was a remarkable piece of lost architecture.

My re-collection of these rest stops was of a unique dome shape that I distinctly remember as a 10 year old kid. Of course, the ten year old me could care less about the architecture at the time, my thoughts were more focused on the green Jello in the glass display cases housed underneath this great domed 401 oasis. With fond memories of these restaurants with their vinyl clad fake wood panelled booths and smell of sizzling burgers, I hoped to re-visit one of these places, but unfortunately they have all been recently demolished and replaced with the new, modern “On Route” rest stops.

There is little record of these once grand domed rest stops, but I did manage to find some background info on what I think was an important part of our Canadian culture and a unique architectural icon.

These unusual rest stops, looking somewhat like a landed UFO, were designed by a Toronto architect by the name of Harry B. Kohl. Kohl was one of the premiere architects of the 1960s, having designed cutting edge pre-fab model homes for the National Home Show. After graduating from University of Toronto in 1947 Kohl designed a number of homes, apartment towers and eventually, the Millhaven Maximum Security Penitentiary . Kohl died in 1973, but many of his designs still live on in the Greater Toronto Area.

Kohl was into the use of architectural geodesic domes, of which he incorporated into his design for the 401 rest stops that he was awarded in the early 1960s when the newly built 401 highway system was opened. Kohl believed circular shapes accommodated the circulation of people better than square shapes, and his designs, including the 401 rest stops, reflect this theory.

 

Built of wood and stone in typical mid-century modern fashion, Kohl designed his 401 rest stops in a unique shape with a domed red roof that included a tall spire to catch the attention of passing motorists. Teaming up with the Texaco Oil Company, Kohl’s rest stops were completed in 1962 and usually contained a restaurant that was either an independent diner with typical 1960s decor, or a Scott’s Chicken Villa Kentucky Fried Chicken, as the case was at the Kingston, Port Hope and Woodstock locations.

 

 

I remember vividly pulling up to Kohl’s domed masterpieces as a kid in the back of the car and being in awe of the futuristic space age design and its fascinating exposed geodesic dome above the restaurant as I ate my Jello and greasy burger. As a I grew up and moved to Ottawa, I still stopped into these domed stations on my way home or on road trips, but they evolved over time and were drastically altered to try and keep up with current, more modern design trends. The original spires were removed, the dome was painted brown, the covered breezeway from the gas station removed, and the independent restaurants were replaced with typical fast food chains.

Eventually, the Kohl stations slowly began to be demolished in the early 2000’s to make way for new “On Route” stations, until all of them eventually disappeared. Google Streetviews still show the Kohl rest stops from their 2009 streetview photo collection, which is possibly the only remaining record of these Ontario icons. None remain, all traces of them wiped off the 401. They will remain for me a valuable part of my childhood memories and continue to be a rest stop in my mind when I daydream of days gone by.

 

SOURCES

GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Delcampe.net

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/a-modern-home-retooled-for-a-new-generation/article9759534/

http://www.genx40.com by Alan McLeod

 

 

A familiar sight to many Ottawa residents enjoying the river-front path along the Ottawa River, the concrete bunker at Remic Rapids has been a mystery to many, myself included. Having lived nearby for over 20 years, I have always been curious as to what purpose this odd concrete structure had situated on the picturesque shoreline of the Ottawa River.

Once and for all I thought I’d get to the bottom of what this architectural oddity was, and find out what purpose it had, or still has. What was revealed was a fascinating hidden history that includes the fact that Ottawa once  had a NUCLEAR REACTOR.

The year was 1970 and the Atomic Energy Canada Limited, or AECL, was placing a SLOWPOKE-2 class nuclear reactor at Tunney’s Pasture. According to The Canadian Society For Mechanical Engineers documents, this nuclear reactor was installed in Tunney’s Pasture at 20 Goldenrod Avenue. It was constructed as a commercial testing reactor to determine its feasibility. This nuclear reactor was in full operation after it reached critical mass in 1971 until 1984 when it was then moved to another test site located in Kanata, later decommissioned in 1992.

The reactor, nicknamed SLOWPOKE, (an acronym for Safe LOW-POwer Kritical Experiment) which used 93% enriched uranium. The reactor core sits in a pool of regular light-water, 2.5 m diameter by 18 feet deep, which provided cooling. The reactor built at Tunney’s Pasture achieved “Critical Mass” or the point at which a nuclear reaction is self-sustaining on May 1 1971 and continued operating until 1984.

The concrete bunker that remains on the shore of the Ottawa River directly opposite the old nuclear reactor site was built at the same time as the reactor in 1969-70. It was built to facilitate the increased “cooling” needs of Tunney’s Pasture, one of them you could speculate being the addition of a small nuclear reactor.

A 1969 November 11 Ottawa Journal article describes in detail the construction of the bunker and a trench used to contain a pipeline to provide this cooling water to Tunney’s Pasture. A 3,000 foot long pipeline was placed in an underground trench that ran from the Ottawa River bunker building to Tunney’s Pasture to provide, as the article states: “river water which will be used for condensing in the air conditioning system.”

 

The concrete bunker built in 1970, just before the nuclear reactor began operation, housed a pumping station that provided a 35,000 gallons per minute water intake from the Ottawa River through a 42 inch diameter pipe underneath the Parkway over to Tunney’s Pasture. A current satellite image of the area clearly shows the trench line from the bunker to Tunney’s Pasture.

 

The pipeline would then return used water back to the Ottawa River at a temperature 8 degrees warmer. The pumping station concrete structure and the pipeline was built at a cost of $2.5million and was constructed in co-operation with the NCC who owned the land the project was built on. The NCC at the time re-assured Ottawa motorists the construction of the bunker and pipeline would not disrupt traffic as it crossed the Parkway saying “We Insisted that they install four lane detours,”

The pumping station bunker and pipeline were finished in 1970 and the reactor began operating a year later. Whether or not the bunker pipeline bringing cooling water to Tunney’s Pasture was directly related to the addition of a nuclear reactor remains speculation but it is interesting to note the proximity and similar timeline of both projects.

 

 

 

 

The SLOWPOKE reactor was shut down in 1984 and the building it was housed in has since been demolished and is now a parking lot. However, the bunker at Remic Rapids is still there, and you crawl on top of its roof and listen to the hum of machinery working away below almost 45 years later, still bringing cooling waters from the Ottawa River through a 3,000 foot pipeline over to cool the hot air being generated at Tunney’s Pasture.

 

SOURCES

geomap Ottawa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLOWPOKE_reactor

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/44420893/

Click to access CSME-Slater.pdf

http://media.cns-snc.ca/history/canadian_nuclear_history.html

Google Maps

Bing Maps

Over 400 years ago the famous explorer and geographer Samuel de Champlain mapped out a course through the uncharted territory of the Ottawa Valley in an effort to reach the Northern Sea. His journey up the Ottawa River in 1613 lead him through what is now Ottawa, the Chaudiere Falls, Lac Deschenes, Chats Falls and portaged lands beyond. Champlain’s quest up the Ottawa River took him as far as Pembroke where his journey ended and he turned back. This journey was documented by Champlain in his journal and later mapped out by him in 1632. This famous “Champlain Trail” was later substantiated when a French astrolabe, presumably Champlain’s, was found near Cobden in 1867, which is now on exhibit in the Canadian Museum Of History. Then in 1953 two men discovered a large glacial erratic stone on top of a hill near Renfrew with a large stone near its peak with an inscription carved into a flat side of the imposing rock. The carved letters spelled out “CHAMPLAIN JUIN 7 1613” .

 

The stone was later deemed a hoax because 17th century French placed the number date ahead of the month, and used an “I” as the first letter of the month instead of a “j”. It was thus deemed a mysterious hoax, with no one ever confessing how or why they made it. The Champlain Stone was soon forgotten and it once again became lost in the deep woods from whence it was found. It is this mysterious stone of Champlain that I sought out to find once again, and examine it myself in more detail, hopefully shedding more light on this remarkable piece of Canadian folklore.

FINDING THE STONE

The stone was originally found in 1953 near Renfrew on top of hill located off the Ottawa River. Using a map from the excellent 1970 book “The Upper Ottawa Valley” by Clyde C. Kennedy from where I read about the Champlain Stone, I was able to overlay the 1970 map on a current map of the area to get a rough idea of where the stone was located.

Packing a rucksack and camera my girlfriend and I headed into the forest and began our climb through this terribly mosquito infested forest. Using the 1953 photograph of the Champlain Stone discovery, I had an idea of what it may look like, but was prepared for years of vegetation to conceal our prize. After about an hour of fruitless searching and 200 mosquito bites, I finally came across a rock that resembled the one in the 1953 photo. Holding the photo up to the rock, it was determined to be a match. We had found the mysterious Champlain Stone.

 

An initial inspection of this large stone revealed a definite carved inscription on one of the flat sides of the glacial erratic. Covered in lichen, it was impossible to make out what exactly it said, but pouring a bottle of water over the rock inscription brought out the detail in the lettering more clearly which was then photographed and studied. Measurements were made and we returned back through the forest to our car.

ANALYSIS OF THE CHAMPLAIN STONE

The Champlain Stone is an impressively large pair of boulders that balance on top of one another. It is a unique rock formation that stands out among the other nearby forest features. It is about ten feet in length and 8 feet tall. The inscription was made on the flat surface on the top stone. If you had no idea it was carved with lettering, you would not notice the inscription as it is covered in years of lichen growth. It was only when water was poured over the lettering did the letters become visible. Photographs did not pick up the lettering as well as viewed in person, so I have used Photoshop to overlay what I saw on the stone.

 

CHAMPLAIN’S ACTUAL JOURNEY

If we are to prove this Champlain Stone as a hoax, we must look at the actual documented journey of Champlain for comparison. His journey through the Renfrew area is a recorded and documented fact that occured in June of 1613. Champlain later mapped his journey along the Ottawa River and his portage to Pembroke on a map he made in 1632.

It is this 1632 map of Champlain’s that we will study and compare to the actual existing geography of the region. Leaving the Chaudiere Falls in Ottawa on June 4 1613, Champlain made his way up the Ottawa River with his canoes and native guides, making it as far as Chats Falls near Fitzroy Harbour. Here they portaged around the falls and made it to the Chenaux Rapids where they decided to portage west, through an area just north of Renfrew.

 

It is at this point that details fade, and Champlain’s exact route is unknown. What is known, is that Champlain left the Ottawa River in an area called Brown’s Bay on June 6 to traverse overland following a string of lakes up to Pembroke. His journal makes account of travelling west: “Thus after having passed four small ponds and walking two and one half leagues, we were so tired that we could go no further…therefore we stayed by the edge of a pond, which was pleasant enough, and made a fire to drive away the mosquitoes which molested us greatly.” Champlain on the next day June 7, states in his journal entry “We passed this pond, which may have been a league long” and carried onwards towards Pembroke, losing his astrolabe near Cobden as he travered the difficult terrain. Studying Champlain’s 1632 map, I made some observations in relation to his journal entries. The map is actually a fairly accurate representation of the land and indicates prominent landmarks when compared to a modern satellite map of the same area (see diagrams) After overlaying his route with current maps, it is actually plausible that Champlain did indeed travel near the Champlain Stone on his portage, and the stone does actually in fact lie very near the shore of a large pond.

 

 

THE CHAMPLAIN STONE QUESTIONED

If the Champlain Stone is indeed a hoax, then why was it made and who did it? Comparing the map route of Champlain, it does put him in the area where the stone was found. It does lie on the shore of a pond that is mentioned in Champlain’s journal. It is a unique rock formation that stands out and would make a good landmark if one wanted to leave a record of your travels past it. The date inscribed on the stone is June 7, which also matches the date he would have been in that exact area according to his journal entries. If the stone is not authentic, then why would someone make a stone with an inscription in the deep woods with the hopes that someday someone would find it? How did the potential hoaxer know so much about Champlain and his journey to write the date of June 7 that exactly matches Champlain’s journal entry?

The Champlain Stone was never studied further or analyzed for authenticity, so it is unsure how long ago the letters were carved into the rock. Were they carved 400 years ago or were they carved 60 years ago? Without further study, we can not definitively prove its age. The Champlain Stone remains a mystery as to why and who would make an inscription on a rock deep in the Renfrew woods. Possibly some day someone will come forward with more information on this oddity, but until then, it sits silently forgotten, slowly being enveloped by the woods from where it was discovered. It remains a piece of an Ottawa puzzle that may never be solved.

SOURCES

The Upper Ottawa Valley: A Glimpse Of History Clyde C. Kennedy 1970

historicalatlas.ca

Google Maps

 

 

 

I have been keeping my eye on a special piece of Ottawa history at risk and thankfully the owner of the property at 320 Lisgar St. recognized the importance of the landmark sign on his property and saved this Ottawa icon. According to to a new Ottawa Citizen article, Arthur Loeb saved the sign after the building on his property was slated for demolition.

On July 4th demolition crews demolished the building at 320 Lisgar St, a former laundromat and more recently, home to Venus Envy, a business that has since moved from that location. Now the building itself was nothing special, a typical late 1960s concrete and glass structure. But it was not the building that was special, it was what was outside it that was: THE NORGE BALL. A complete and detailed look at this unique sign can be found here at RoadSideArchitecture.com

Once part of Norge Village Cleaners, a nationwide laundromat chain out of Chicago, these signs were a unique aesthetic. Norge developed these plastic, polka-dotted ball signs, appropriately nicknamed “Norge Balls” during the 1960s as their corporate signage. Approximately four feet in diameter, these rare signs would be illuminated and rotated on a fixed pole.

Ottawa had a few locations across the city and ads of the time boasted that the user could do “personal dry cleaning similar to a coin-operated washer. You simply open a glass door, toss in an arm load of clothes, insert quarters, and the machine whirls gently and quietly through a 50-minute cycle.”

A popular landmark in the city for anyone that passed it off Bank St. this polka-dotted elevated orb elevated on a metal pole was a unique piece of history that has been removed like many other classic signs in Ottawa. It reminded us of a time when signs were carefully designed and built, adding to the unique visual streetscape of our city.

Of the 3,400 original Norge Balls made, only 60 are known to exist, with Ottawa having the only one known to still exist in Canada. A rare sign whose fate is thankfully safe from destruction. So many of these classic Ottawa signs are lost and I’m very grateful to Loeb that the sign has been thoughtfully removed and stored for possible future use. I have been working with a local business over the last few months designing their new signage and we have discussed how we would like to re-purpose and restore this sign and bring it back to its former glory so residents can continue to enjoy this rare and unique Ottawa icon.

 

 With info from http://www.agilitynut.com/signs/norge.html

And the Ottawa Citizen.

A look at how an adandoned 1950s railway to Ottawa’s Airport could solve some traffic problems…

Being the Nation’s Capital, Ottawa is host to many conventions and events at the newly constructed Ernst & Young Centre, a marvellous convention space located at the Ottawa Airport. It is widely used and attended by thousands of people each year but unfortunately it can only be easily accessed by the Airport Parkway and Uplands Drive, which undoubtedly causes traffic woes when an event at the EY Centre is taking place. Compound this with air travellers trying to catch their flights at the airport and you now have people missing flights because of convention traffic if they don’t allow for the delays. This problem will get worse as our city grows and more people use the convention facility. A solution may be to resurrect a long forgotten 1950’s railway spur that used to connect the still operating O-train/CP line to the airport.

A LOOK BACK

When the Ottawa Airport was a World War Two training base, it was called Uplands Air Base, or No.8 Service Flying Training School. It trained pilots for service as fighter pilots during the war, but when the Second World War ended, Uplands became home to the jet age, and CF-86 Sabre fighter jets were stationed there as well as many other military aircraft. This called for a massive extension of the old airport with new runways and hangers having to be built. To accommodate the large scale construction, materials had to be brought in on a massive scale, so a rail spur line from the existing Canadian Pacific railway was built. Materials for the new air base construction could now be easily transported into the airport from the St. Lawrence river docks at Prescott.

 

The 1950s rail spur line curved west from the CP line and crossed the current Airport Parkway where it terminated over by the airport hangers and terminal. It was used to bring in munitions, equipment and other material during the busy Cold War days of Uplands Air Force Base. The rail line was abandoned sometime later when the base closed and the railway was no longer needed. The tracks were pulled up, but the the gravel rail bed still exists and remnants of it can be seen today.

USING IT TODAY

With the O-train currently using the existing CP track, an extension spur could possibly be resurrected using this old 1950s rail bed. The old railway passes very close to the new EY Centre and with a station there, it could be used to bring visitors to the convention centre from the downtown with ease and also ease car traffic congestion that seems to be a growing problem. The line could then continue west right over to the airport terminal, giving air travellers a swift, efficient option of entering and departing our airport.

 

The old Uplands ghost train could be brought back to life by placing new tracks on the old railbed and in the long term, provide our fine city with the airport train service it needs and deserves.

As cottagers sipped lemonade on the shores of the Ottawa River near Britannia on a hot July afternoon, relaxation turned to terror as they witnessed the tragic crash and sinking of a 100 foot flying boat. Five of the seven man crew perished that warm summer day as their flying boat quickly sank under the glassy surface of Britannia Bay. Trapped inside the sinking hulk of the Consolidated PBY-5A Canso, it would only take five minutes for the men inside to be taken to their watery grave at the bottom of the Ottawa River.

WHAT HAPPENED?

It was just after 3 o’clock on a hot, calm July 23 in the year 1945 and the waters of the Ottawa River were as smooth as glass. Having just returned from active duty in Iceland patrolling for German U-boats during the last months of WW2, the giant PBY Canso flying boat, serial number 11023, was now part of the Rockcliffe based No.162 Squadron which specialized in photo reconnaissance. Originally built in Montreal in 1943 at the Vickers Canada factory, the 100 foot wingspan radial twin-engined flying boat was conducting practice take-off and landings in Lake Deschenes, a body of water that stretches north upriver from Britannia Bay.

The still, calm waters may have seemed pleasant for the many boaters and swimmers in the area, but proved deadly for the floatplane since the surface can be like smooth cement at high speed. This is thought to have contributed to what happened next. The plane took off without incident near the shores of Aylmer and circled over Shirley’s Bay, dropping low to land heading towards Britannia Beach. Suddenly the still, glassy water caught the plane in a disastrous manner, tearing off part of the wing, flipping the aircraft over and tearing a gaping hole into the hull.

Listing to one side with 5 of the 7 man crew still inside and 2 men thrown clear of the aircraft, the plane quickly filled with water. Shocked cottagers watching the incident from their lawn chairs quickly jumped into their boats and sped towards the crash to assist in retrieving survivors from the wreckage. Within a minute the hull had slipped sideways into the depths of the river, tipping the 100 foot wing on end, like a massive sail sticking straight up out of the water. Two men trapped inside desperately tried to free themselves from the sinking wreck, but within minutes the aircraft submerged, taking all those still aboard with it. Two of the crew were pulled from the water into waiting boats as an RCAF crew member in a nearby boat courageously jumped into the water trying to reach the submerging plane in a desperate attempt to free those trapped underwater. AC Nightingale would later be awarded a medal for his bravery trying to save the doomed crew members. The plane quickly dropped into the murky depths and sadly no one else could be saved. The wreckage of the Canso settled and sank into the muddy bottom of the river where it would remain for several days.

Pieces of the plane, equipment, fuel, oil, log books and other remnants floated to the surface as well as a few of the dead crew members. Divers tried to recover the remains of the crew members still inside but were hampered by the muddy silt now enveloping the plane. A tug boat was hired to attach cables and chains to pull what was left of the Canso to shore in Aylmer where it was hauled out of the water.

The salvaged remains of the once mighty flying boat were then transported to Trenton, ON No.6 Repair Depot where records show it was catalogued as “scrap” and never heard from again. Does Canso 11023 still exist in a scrapyard somewhere? Is this tragic piece of history sitting in a junkyard, its story slowly becoming lost in time? It is unclear if the remaining underwater wreckage of the ill-fated Canso were ever recovered from the depths of Britannia Bay. If the plane broke apart upon impact it is likely that pieces still remain on the bottom today, covered in almost 70 years of silt and mud.

The Canadian Aviation and Space Museum here in Ottawa has a complete un-restored example of this unique flying boat in their collection and the Canadian Warplane Heritage in Hamilton, ON has a flying example of this famous U-boat hunter that once patrolled the waters of the North Atlantic. Perhaps one day we will search below the waters off Britannia and recognize the plane and the crew that slipped below the calm waters of the Ottawa River on that hot summer’s day in 1945.

Sources:

http://www.news-stage.com/newspage/400520/

http://www.news-stage.com/newspage/400510/

http://www.warplane.com/vintage-aircraft-collection/aircraft-history.aspx?aircraftId=11

http://casmuseum.techno-science.ca/en/collection-research/artifact-consolidated-pby-5a-canso-a.php

Google maps

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