A lieutenant in the R.C.N.V.R.
Eric Riordon enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, the “Wavy Navy", on June 10, 1940 at the new naval barracks on Mountain Street near Sherbrooke West in Montreal. He had always had an interest in ships and the sea, the navy was a natural choice for his military service.
He was made an acting lieutenant on enlistment, presumably based on his age, his family's social standing and Ashbury College and McGill University education. The navy also had a desperate need for suitable officers at that time, most experienced men had been activated in 1939.
At 33, Riordon was accepted at a relatively advanced age for a new recruit, before the war the age limit had been 32. Military service was a family affair, elder brother Harold became an Air Force flight lieutenant and younger brother Peter, a pre-war graduate of the Royal Military College, enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of major. Their father Carl had been captain, B Company, of the 19th St Catharines "Lincoln" Regiment for several years before the First War.
Riordon spent the next seven months at Montreal Division on a relatively light schedule. He underwent drill and basic officer training but was left with time at home and some freedom to paint. He was promoted to full lieutenant in November of 1940 and his duties picked up from there.
In mid January of 1941 he was posted to HMCS Stadacona at Halifax, East Coast navy headquarters and the main RCN training base. There followed an intensive fourteen week theoretical and practical course in ship handling, gunnery, navigation, signals and command.
On the first of May he was back in Montreal with a promotion to executive officer of two establishments, the largely English speaking Montreal Division and the mostly French speaking Cartier Division, located further north on Mountain Street in the original Montreal Division barracks. Lieutenant Commander Alan Easton in his excellent book, 50 North: An Atlantic Battleground, described, slightly tongue in cheek, an executive officers duties as: "working the seamen, the co-ordination of departments and the general co-operation of individuals so that harmony would endure and discipline would prevail."
This new designation placed Riordon second in command of the RCN establishment in Montreal under Commander Paul Earl. He was thus allowed the traditional informal Royal Navy title awarded to first lieutenants of "Jimmy the one". Nine years later Commodore Paul Earl would make the introductory speech on the opening day of the North Atlantic Convoy Exhibition in Montreal.
As executive officer Riordon was in day to day charge of training, recruitment and administration. A significant part of those duties involved "showing the flag". This included leading frequent naval parades through the streets of Montreal, sometimes with the entire complements of both divisions, upwards of five hundred men. On the ninth of May he made a radio broadcast appearance on CFCF Montreal to generate support for the North End Canteen Fund. This charitable orgaization assisted merchant seamen in Halifax to get by while they awaited their next convoy. Halifax was desperately overcrowded and far too expensive for the poorly paid sailors to manage on their own. Riordon advocated repeatedly for this cause while in Montreal and Halifax.
On the 10th of June, 1941 he supervised a large and very well attended public demonstration of gun, rope and boat handling skills at the McGill University campus (story below)
(Left) July 02, 1940, Montreal Star
Naval demonstration, Jun 10, 1941 Mtl Gazette
Riordon also represented the navy at formal dinners, church services and various commemoration ceremonies. The Montreal newspapers captured many of these activities, a particularly vivid account of the October Battle of Trafalgar commemoration in Jacques Cartier Square appeared in the Gazette.
Above image - Battle of Trafalgar Parade. October 20, 1941. Montreal Gazette.
There was relatively little time on the water for the officers and ratings of Montreal division though some ship handling training was undertaken on yachts provided by wealthy officers and local citizens. A newspaper article describes Riordon's efforts to get his sub-lieutenants navigation and crew management training. They were assigned to scheduled commercial riverboat service on the St Lawrence and Saguenay rivers.
(Left) July 09, 1941, Montreal Gazette
Montreal to Halifax, September 01, 1941, Montreal Star
A photograph of the full complement of Montreal and Cartier Division officers on August 31, 1941 shows Eric front and centre. Most of these men were on the way to Halifax or Esquimalt to continue training. Some would be going directly to their new ships as "subbies", sub-lieutenants.
Riordon posted to East Coast. Oct 30, 1941. Montreal Star.
It was his turn to be posted to Halifax for sea duty on October 31. He was assigned to HMCS Fundy, pennant number J88, the first of a small class of four minesweepers based on a British trawler design. Although she is a trim little ship it is obvious from her photo she was built neither for speed nor service on the open ocean. Her construction and commissioning in 1938 had been a major event for the RCN as she was the first warship built and launched in Canada since 1918. At the outbreak of war she was one of only four RCN ships on the East coast and only thirteen in the entire country. By the end of the war the fleet would number nearly four hundred, the majority from Canadian shipyards.
HMCS Fundy
As a unit of the Halifax Local Defence Force Fundy's duties consisted of patrolling Halifax harbour and approaches and conducting regular sweeps for mines on fixed, buoy to buoy, navigation patterns. Fundy served in this capacity throughout the war, escorting convoys on only a couple of occasions. The available deck logs from April of 1942 reveal that Fundy was on a regular daily schedule, raising anchor at Pier 5 and departing around 06:00, returning mid to late afternoon. She and her three sister ships became known around Halifax harbour as the "Teatime Trawlers".
Riordon served as an officer (Training), initially under RCNR Mate John Raine then RCNR Skipper Fred Heckman. Both men were experienced veterans of the merchant service before the war. They taught Riordon ship handling, navigation and command skills. He would also have aborbed the routines and particulars of life aboard ship. He qualified for his WK (watch keeping) designation in April permitting him to be in sole command of the ship during his watch.
His last day with Fundy was the 28th of April, 1942. An RCAF aerial photo of Halifax harbour on that very day is in the City archives. Fundy, though not individually identifiable, is tied up at Pier 5 on the Halifax (left or west) side of the Narrows, approximately where the arrow is indicating. The merchant ships for the next convoy to England, HX 188, are gathered at anchor and awaiting departure from Bedford Basin, upper left.
Halifax harbour, April 28, 1942. Courtesy Halifax Municipal Archives
After a period of leave and some further command training he was assigned at the end of May to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, where two new Bangor Class minesweepers were under construction at the PASCOL (Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co Ltd) yard. This shipyard had not seen much activity for several years but had previous experience building war service freighters and minesweepers for the navy in the first world war. Port Arthur was also in the federal riding of C.D. Howe. He was known as Canada's "minister of everything" and was the man chiefly responsible for Canada's prodigious industrial production in WWII.
The Bangor class was a new British design and first entered service in England in November, 1940. The first Canadian built vessel sailed in April of 1941. The Bangors were only 180 feet from stem to stern. Although their twin screws made them highly maneuverable and with a small turning circle, their length and shallow draught made them unstable in heavy seas and their short hulls exaggerated a tendency to bury the bow in a head sea. They were also slower than a surfaced submarine. The Bangors were overcrowded, cramming up to six officers and over seventy ratings into a vessel originally intended for a total of 40 or so. The smaller size of these ships did mean they could be built at Canadian inland shipyards as they were able to pass through the many short locks on the St Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal between Kingston and Montreal. They were not suitable for escort duties on ocean crossings and were destined to operate almost exclusively on the Eastern seaboard of North America. Most of the Bangors soon had their minesweeping gear removed as the threat of mines on the East Coast never developed. They did a fine job in the escort role despite their initially inexperienced crews and inadequate equipment. Later in the war, Kenora and fifteen other RCN Bangors were re-equipped for minesweeping and travelled to England to sweep the approaches to the D-Day Normandy invasion beaches. Kenora was in the vanguard, "the pointy end" of the whole invasion fleet off the American landing spot, Omaha Beach, on June 05-06. She continued her minesweeping duties in the English Channel until the end of August, well after the end of the war.
The white ensign, raised on HMCS Kenora, D-Day, 1944. Photo from Kenora's scrapbook, courtesy of the Lake of the Woods Museum in Kenora. The scrapbook was handmade and presented to the ship at Port Arthur by the townspeople of Kenora. It was regularly updated by the crew, The book was returned to the town after the war.
At Port Arthur, Riordon was effectively the on-site liaison between the RCN and the builders. As such he was ultimately responsible for the proper installation and functioning of all fittings and equipment. He was also in charge of organising the reception, training and integration of an almost entirely new complement of inexperienced sailors, most of whom had never seen the sea. A draft of four petty officers and thirty-two ratings from a variety of training establishments arrived at the Port Arthur CPR station at 10:45 on the evening of August 04. These men, representing about half the ship's company, boarded the following morning at 08:30. The hands were immediately set to work cleaning ship, just in time for Kenora's christening. They then sailed to the war the very next day.
The text is a little confusing, the ship was certainly not sailing to Kenora. Her CO and 1st lieutenant were to be in Kenora on a public relations visit. Kenora is about 300 miles west of Fort William, next door by Northern Ontario standards. The writer clearly expresses how proud and possessive the town was of "our ship". From the HMCS Kenora Book, courtesy of the Lake of the Woods Mueum in Kenora.
A plea for donations, likely clipped from a local newspaper.
From the HMCS Kenora Book, courtesy of the Lake of the Woods Museum in Kenora.
The Canadian Navy practice of naming many of its ships after towns and cities created an instant bond with those communities. It proved very beneficial to the navy and most particularly for the crews who received from the townspeople small personal luxuries and the funds to purchase many useful amenities for their ship.
The Kenora Daily Reminder, July 17, 1942. From the HMCS Kenora Book, courtesy of the Lake of the Woods Museum in Kenora.
The first of the two ships to be completed was commissioned and christened HMCS Kenora on the 5th of August. Kenora, named after the Northern Ontario town, was assigned pennant number J281 (the large number painted near the bow of warships). She was placed under the command of RCNVR lieutenant Frederick Robb Naftel, thirty-eight years old, a relatively experienced sailor who had commanded patrol vessels on the west coast. Riordon would act as first lieutenant.
The other RCNVR officers were newly minted lieutenants John M. Leeming (a policeman in Singapore, 1934-1940) and Marcel J.A.T. Jette, both fresh out of Royal Roads, the RCN sub-lieutenant training school in Victoria. Kenora did have considerable convoy escort experience provided by RCNR mate James J.H. Green. He had seen two years of active service in the corvettes Snowberry and Lethbridge. Green also had his Watch Keeping certificate and would become the navigating officer in September. Joseph Lazariste Bolduc, 41 years old, the commissioned RCNR engineering officer, came from a seafaring family and had spent his pre-war career on merchant vessels. Bolduc had recently been in action in the armed merchant cruiser HMCS Prince Robert. John Leeming would take over as executive officer on March 03, 1943 after Riordon was posted to Ottawa, and later command his own ship. In 1945 Marcel Jette was appointed executive officer of HMCS Donnacona, Montreal division, the same position that Riordon had held in 1941. Jette and Leeming would also have significant careers in the postwar navy, both rising to senior command positions.
Port Arthur, Ontario, Aug 05, 1942
Kenora is shown on her maiden voyage, sailing from the PASCOL builder's wharf, just beyond the United Grain Growers silos visible at left, to the Canadian National Railway pier on the Port Arthur waterfront. She had just completed her commissioning and christening ceremonies. A large delegation of civic notables from Kenora and Port Arthur and several naval and army officers are aboard for the twenty-five minute sail. Kenora is flying her full complement of signal flags in celebration. The Western Approaches standard camouflage paint pattern has been applied to her sides and her name painted on the stern. The pennant number, J281, has not yet been added to the bow. She would never again look so pristine. Her deck log describes a collision with the construction dock wall, which left a large black mark on her starboard side, while being moved by the builder's crew to the PASCOL wharf. Another scrape occurred with a small motor launch, White Dove, as Kenora cast off the next evening to begin her journey to the Atlantic Ocean.
This astonishing video survival, shot in brilliant colour, shows the christening and maiden voyage of HMCS Kenora at Port Arthur on August 05 of 1942. The video was miraculously rescued and the contents preserved by Braden Murray, director of the Lake of the Woods museum in Kenora. Ontario. Included here with permission of Braden Murray.
The archival footage featuring HMCS Kenora at Port Arthur begins with the ship's christening ceremony. Several individuals can be readily identified; unfortunately there does not appear to be even a glimpse of Lieutenant Riordon. He was certainly present all day, the deck log entries are all in his hand. He seems to have been in charge of running the ship, leaving the hosting and public relations duties to captain Naftel and lieutenants Leeming and Jette.
:01 - Edna Marie (Mrs. Hugh) Mckinnon christens HMCS Kenora accompanied by Gordon McDougall, general manager of the PASCOL shipyard. At right is Captain the Rev J.M. McMahon, minister of First Presbyterian Church in Kenora, who gave the blessing for the ship. Mrs Mckinnon is the wife of Hugh Mckinnon, MP for the federal riding of Kenora-Rainy River.
:36 - Behind Kenora is her sister ship, HMCS Milltown, lacking paint and still a few weeks short of completion. She would be commissioned on September 18.
:43 - Major George McMichael, mayor of Kenora and one of the leading organizers of the "Equip The Ship" fund.
:52 - The massive building in the background is the United Grain Growers terminal, still in operation today.
:54 - Several army officers were invited to the christening. The locally based Lake Superior Regiment was represented by her second in command, Major J.E.V. Murrell in the light uniform and Captain Norman Shields in the darker uniform. Murrell saw considerable action in France and would take command of the regiment in February of 1944.
1:06 - Taking the lead is Lieutenant John Leeming with Lieutenant Marcel J.A.T. Jette.
1:42 - Lieutenant John Leeming, hand on knee.
2:21 - Kenora's main armament, her 12 pdr, QF (Quick Firing) gun.
2:31 - The ship is now at sail on the waters of Thunder Bay.
2:32 - Edna Mackinnon with Captain Arthur C.M. Davy, director of shipbuilding, Naval Headquarters, Ottawa.
2:37 - Port Arthur shoreline, panning north.
3:00 - A brief glimpse of the Canadian Pacific Railway station.
3:01 - The CNR dock where Kenora would berth for the night is at the left, the long building is the Prince Arthur Hotel where the guests would have dinner that evening, hosted by the PASCOL company, builders of the ship. The hotel and large white office building to the right are still standing in Port Arthur.
3:17 - The officer at right is Lieutenant (Engineering), W. Black (RCNR) from Naval HQ. He supervised the construction of HMCS Kenora for the Navy.
3:24 - The bridge of Kenora; Eric Riordon must surely be there behind the glass windows, though unseen on the video. The Bangor minesweepers (unlike corvettes and most destroyers) were fortunate to have their bridge enclosed, a blessing in the terrible Atlantic storms, albeit at the cost of reduced all-round visibility.
3:38 - Kenora at the CNR dock, her bow pointing towards the lake.
Kenora's deck log, August 05, 1942, completed by Eric Riordon. The entries are ostensibly the official record yet all is not quite as it seems. It is obvious from the video and numerous photographs that the guests, a sizable group, boarded the ship at the PASCOL wharf after the 17:30 christening ceremony and stayed aboard for the brief sail to the C.N. Pier. Perhaps it was RCN policy not to allow civilians aboard a navy ship under sail which may explain why Riordon records that escorted visitors were permitted aboard, only after the ship had completed her voyage. The log notes that all visitors were ashore by 21:30, just minutes before sunset, 21:37 hours in Port Arthur on 05 August, 1942.
Kenora crew members posing with the 12 pounder QF naval gun, the ships main armament. The officers at right are petty officers, one of them may be the gun captain. Commssioning and christening day at Port Arthur, August 05, 1942,
Lieutenant Fred Naftel, captain of HMCS Kenora, showing off his ship to visitors. August 05, 1942, Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company wharf.
This still of HMCS Kenora from the video was possibly shot the morning of August 06, the day after the christening. She is moored at the Port Arthur CNR dock at the city centre. Her signal flags have not yet been stowed. The black scar from her encounter the prevous morning with the wall of the builder's dock is visible low on the hull, just forward of midships.
The very next day, August 06, at 18:45 hours, the mooring lines securing the ship to the CN jetty were slipped. Kenora and her crew began an epic, three week, wartime transit voyage to the ocean. They sailed across Lake Superior, through the locks at Sault Ste Marie, down Lake Huron and through the St Clair and Detroit rivers. Kenora then made her way east across Lake Erie, through the Welland Canal to Lake Ontario with a stopover in Toronto, down the St Lawrence River, a stopover in Montreal, then on to Quebec City, and ultimately Halifax.
At Toronto they spent an afternoon out on Lake Ontaro firing their guns, dropping real and dummy depth charges, testing flare pistols and communications equipment and performing evacuation drills.
What a journey that must have been for the largely green crew of a brand new warship, many of them passing through their home towns on the way. Some of the logbook pages for this journey are included under the Additional Documents Tab.
The next stage was the difficult transit down the St. Lawrence and its many locks then the Lachine Canal and Montreal. Several crewmen joined the ship in Montreal, finally allowing Kenora to sail with a complete complement. After provisioning and taking on a full load of ammunition and depth charges at Quebec City, and "posing" for her official photographs, Kenora was assigned her maiden escort duty on September 03. The shortage of convoy escorts was so acute at this time that vessels directly out of the shipyards, without any practical convoy training or experience whatsoever, were straightaway assigned to escort duties. She was attached to a convoy of eleven merchant ships designated as QS32, sailing from Bic Island, just west of Rimouski in the St Lawrence river, to Sydney, Nova Scotia. The journey was not without incident as inexperience and a heavy fog caused Kenora to lose contact with the convoy at 22:00 on the 3rd. They sensibly continued on their previously agreed course and speed until resighting their "sheep" at 05:10 on the 4th. The convoy arrived safely at Sydney on the 6th of September. The dangers of this route were vividly illustrated as the very next convoy, QS33, which left Bic Island September 06 on the same route, was heavily attacked by a pair of U-boats, U165 and U517. Four of the eight merchant ships were sunk as well as the armed yacht, HMCS Raccoon, torpedoed by U-165 and lost with all thirty-seven hands. In the next ten days the same submarines sank the corvette, HMCS Charlottetown, as well as four merchant ships from convoy QS36. These were very dangerous waters. The escort of convoy QS32 subsequently entitled Kenora to official, and uniquely Canadian, campaign honours for the Gulf of St Lawrence (1942), in addition to those she later earned for the Atlantic (1942-1945) and Normandy (1944).
The ship finally arrived at her new home port of Halifax on the seventh of September, making the brief transit from Sydney as escort of a two ship convoy.
Kenora then sailed through the Cabot Strait to Pictou, on the north shore of Nova Scotia, where ship and crew went through their "Workups". These were trials, conducted by training officers out of Halifax, intended to test and improve both the fitness of the ship and the skills and efficiency of the crew, from captain to the ordinary seamen. The workups were interrupted by equipment failures and a necessary thorough cleaning of the boilers, eventually taking four weeks to complete. Kenora's officer evaluations were performed by the RCN training commander, the legendary James C. "Jimmy" Hibbard. He would subsequently become commander of the equally legendary Tribal Class destroyer Iroquois. At this time he was one of a bare handful of fully qualified trainers and evaluators in the RCN. Kenora and crew were granted an "adequate" overall rating with the comment that they were "sure to improve with experience". The standard for a successful workup was much lower than normal given the then overwhelming urgency to get more escorts in service. Nevertheless given the inexperienced, hastily trained and ill-equipped crews of all the new ships "sure to improve..." would have been considered more than faint praise.
Riordon himself was favorably mentioned: "First Lieutenant is keen and works hard, reliable and should work up a good ship's company". It was also noted that he, and his captain, handled the ship well in exercises. This workup proved to be the only shipboard training in escort duties that the officers and crew of Kenora received during Riordon's time with the ship.
On November 02, while in St. John's, Riordon was officially designated as executive officer, second in command, his third stint as "Jimmy The One". It is interesting to note that when filling out Kenora's log he now took pains to describe himself as "First" lieutenant in his regular entries.
Signal dated October 31, 1942, effective Nov 02. Eric Riordon appointed executive officer in HMCS Kenora. The appointment made official what had been in practice since August. Riordon was then returning from St. John's having escorted convoy HX213 from New York to WESTOMP.
By the beginning of October 1942, Kenora was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force (WLEF). At this time the WLEF was not organised in groups as the mid-ocean escorts were. This would not occur until the summer of 1943, after Riordon had left for Ottawa. The ships were assigned individually to the convoys where and as needed. They were also frequently assigned to shepherd lone ships separated from their convoys by weather or straggling due to storm damage, mechanical breakdowns or faulty navigation. Kenora's log has many references to these duties. Her dedicated task however was escorting the initial stages of eastbound (designated SC and HX) convoys from New York and Halifax to WESTOMP. This was the Western Ocean meeting point, a variable point on a chart roughly 250 miles south southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland and south of Cape Farewell, Greenland. This is where the WLEF escorts would hand over screening duties to the mid-ocean escort groups based out of St. John's and it was here they would pick up the westbound (ON) convoys and screen them onward to Halifax and New York City (originally Boston). This became known to all the sailors involved as "The Triangle Run".
North Atlantic Convoy Operational Map, late 1943. Montreal Gazette, Dec 17, 1989. Kenora's area of operations with the Western Local Escort Force was Halifax, WESTOMP/St. John's and New York, the "Triangle Run".
Kenora, southbound from St John's, December, 1942
Kenora in 1943, probably at Halifax. The effects of rust and contact with docks and other ships while berthing clearly visible. There was no time, no available manpower and no imperative to keep the hull of the ship spic and span. The camouflage paint pattern visible in the previous photograph has largely worn off.
Riordon was certainly gaining first hand knowledge of the full range of fighting ships that shepherded the convoys across the North Atlantic. He would have seen, in harbour and at sea, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, corvettes, frigates, minesweepers and motor launches in all their different classes. Many of these would become subjects of his brush.
The duty was wearying, tedious, uncommonly stressful and physically very uncomfortable. The winter weather of 1942-1943 on the Atlantic seaboard was the worst in over fifty years. There were full gales or storms on 116 out of 140 days from mid-October to early March. The sailors waged a constant battle against the cold and perpetual damp, the blinding East Coast fogs and the violent motions of the ship in heavy weather. It also required nonstop vigilance, continual struggles with faulty equipment and wayward merchant ships, and attention to the smallest details on every watch.
The escort ships were constantly at sea, sometimes having only a few hours in port at New York, Halifax or St. John's, to refuel, take on food and ammunition and perform hasty and patchwork repairs.
In Kenora's deck log the entries by Riordon and other officers describe many instances of heavy weather scattering the convoys, continually malfunctioning equipment and frequent difficulties in station keeping and communications. Temporary loss of contact with their convoy, usually due to fog or heavy weather, was a frequent occurrence for Kenora and all the escorts. Occasionally they would detach to chase down reports of U-boats spotted by convoy ships, Riordon recorded multiple occasions in the log. The westbound ON convoys, composed mainly of empty ships riding high in the water, were particularly susceptible to the frequent gale force winds of winter storms on the east coast of Canada and the U.S. These merchant ships in ballast were very difficult to control in these conditions and ice accumulation could make them dangerously top-heavy.
The dangers of convoy escort duty are vividly illustrated in this description of a terrifying ordeal while escorting convoy ON 158 along the southwest coast of Nova Scotia on the Halifax to New York run. A near hurricane force gale was blowing, the winds not letting up for over two days and nights. In a January 21, 1943 log entry Riordon writes of the commanding officer's call for volunteers to rid the ship of a dangerous accumulation of ice. The log notes that everyone, including the officers, responded. The winds and icing made progress impossible, they were forced to heave-to for almost forty-eight hours. Later in the afternoon a massive green wave buried everyone in freezing water, injuring three crewmen and forcing an end to the ice clearing. Lieutenant Jette made a grim entry at 04:00 on January 22; “Unable to cope with severe and dangerous icing conditions”. Kenora somehow stayed afloat, managing to struggle up the narrow channel to safety in the harbour at nearby Shelburne. The crew was assigned to ice clearing, assisted in this task by a shore party from the local naval barracks; Shelburne was a major RCN repair and refit base. This experience surely inspired Riordon's Convoy Series painting #29, The Battle of Ice.
The merchant ship, St Sunniva, having just completed her conversion as a designated rescue vessel, and on her first voyage in that role with ON 158, iced up the same night as Kenora, capsized and vanished with all hands off nearby Cape Sable Island.
Kenora had fewer than 14 hours in harbour before urgent orders from N.S.H.Q. in Ottawa sent them back out at one o'clock in the morning into the by now diminishing storm to find and rejoin their convoy. They never did locate the bulk of the convoy but rounded up three "lost sheep" merchant ships, Fort Pelly, Asbjorn and Josefina Thorden, and brought them safely to New York. There were also the worries of a stoker taken severely ill with appendicitis on a ship with only rudimentary medical facilities, a fire in the No. 2 boiler room and a broken down Radio Direction Finder. The relief at finally reaching their berth at Staten Island docks on January 26 must have been tremendous. Riordon had also missed the previous day's wedding in Montreal of his brother Peter to his wife Mollie's sister Betty.
Some of the log book pages and signals for these days are included under the Additional Documents Tab.
The entries in Kenora's log tended to follow the British Royal Navy convention of recording only brief and dispassionate notes that rarely conveyed the fear and stress they must have been feeling in the difficult and dangerous environment in which they operated. The true emotions and feelings of the men on that January night described above were revealed months later in a Maclean's magazine story by the well-known writer Trent Frayne. He had recently sailed with Kenora to experience life on board a convoy escort and filed first-hand reports for the readers of the Toronto Globe & Mail.
One summer evening in port at St. John's, Newfoundland, Frayne joined Kenora's officers in their wardroom. With them were two friends of Captain Naftel, Lieutenants Gord Holder and Al Hunter from the corvette HMCS Rosthern which had only just berthed alongside after escorting a convoy from Britain.
Holder and Hunter told the tale of Convoy ON 166 which suffered grievous losses in an extended mid-ocean battle with U-boats in February of 1943. (The St. John's to Halifax portion of ON 166's journey was also Eric Riordon's last convoy duty). The officers of Kenora then told their story, not of submarine combat, but their near fatal battle with the weather those January nights off the Nova Scotia coast.
The full Trent Frayne story from Maclean's can be seen at Additional Artwork and Documents under The Exhibition tab.
left - August 01, 1943 issue of Maclean's magazine
Iced up Corvette - K218, HMCS Brantford, February, 1944, at St John's. The terrible danger from an accumulation of ice is readily apparent from this photograph. Numerous ships capsized from the top heavy condition induced by such icing.
The Battle of Ice, # 29 in the Convoy series
Riordon left Kenora on the third of March, 1943, and after a period of leave, was posted to Naval Service Headquarters (NSHQ) in Ottawa as a Duty Operations Officer in the Operations Division of the Naval Staff.
The NSHQ was housed in a large newly built complex that filled Cartier Square, just southeast of the Parliament Buildings by the Rideau Canal. Ottawa City Hall now occupies that space.
Cartier Square, Ottawa, Naval Service Headquarters
Ottawa was very familiar to Eric from his eight years at Ashbury College boarding school. Mollie was able to visit frequently and home leave was only a short train ride to Montreal.
The organizational order in the Navy List indicates he was on the personal staff of the Director of Operations, Captain George H. Griffiths, O.B.E.
Navy List - NSHQ Posting, Feb 1944
Riordon was now at the very heart of the navy's convoy organization. It was from Operations Division that escort ships were allocated, convoy routes chosen and sailing schedules co-ordinated. They were working with all the latest intelligence on U-boat dispositions and capabilities. Riordon was one of a select few to participate in and possess intimate knowledge of the overall convoy war.
A year in Ottawa was followed by a May, 1944 move back to Halifax and two months at HMCS Kings, the specialist officer training school for Eastern Canada. He was then posted in July to his first command, HMCS Pathfinder (pennant number T-1), the training vessel at HMCS Star, the naval division in Hamilton, Ontario. He was joined there for the summer by his wife Mollie and young son Eric Jr.
Pathfinder was a private yacht, built in 1896, which had been commandeered early in the war by the RCN for conversion at Collingwood dockyards to a naval training ship. Training was provided in specialized ship trades and for all ranks in sailing, communications, navigation, gunnery, engine room operations etc.
HCMS Pathfinder, The Star Weekly, November 8, 1941
HMCS Pathfinder, out on Lake Ontario. The photograph is undated. Could the officer on the bridge be Eric Riordon ?
Riordon was effectively reprising his role in charge of the training establishment at Montreal Division in 1941, of course in Hamilton he had his own ship to command and sail. Riordon remained in Hamilton until late October.
His final posting of the war was to HMCS Avalon, the RCN base at St John's Newfoundland. Although Newfoundland was then a British colony Canada had overall control of naval operations and commanded the Northwest Atlantic sector of convoy operations. As a consequence Canada had built up a large administration, repair and resupply base (over five thousand Canadians served here) for the mid-ocean escort groups in St John's. Riordon was familiar with the city having made several stopovers while with HMCS Kenora. It may not have been coincidental that he was again serving under Captain George H. Griffiths, his Director of Operations during his posting at N.S.H.Q. in Ottawa. Griffiths was now Chief of Staff at Avalon, directly under the Flag Officer Newfoundland Force.
Perhaps in anticipation of what must have appeared an approaching end to the war Riordon was appointed a Staff Officer - Rehabilitation. His remit was to prepare servicemen for the postwar transition to civilian life, a goal with which he must have been wholeheartedly in agreement.
The European war finally ended on the 9th of May, Riordon resigned his lieutenant’s commission on the 12th and was back home in Montreal with Mollie and the boys on the 15th.
He could now apply himself to resuming his artistic career. It was certainly on his mind that it would include the making of a painting record of the convoy war from his sketches, notes and, most importantly, direct personal experience of the ships and events of that war. The record would, after his death, become the North Atlantic Convoy exhibition.
At some point after the war Riordon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-commander in the R.C.N.(R), the new Naval reserve division created by the amalgamation of the R.C.N.V.R. and R.C.N.R. on January 01, 1946.