She may be the oldest vessel in the Royal Canadian Navy, but the HMCS Oriole, scheduled to pay a visit to St. John’s Harbour this week, is still a real show-stopper.
The sailing vessel is a century old, and to celebrate the occasion, she’s visiting ports throughout Atlantic Canada.
The 31-metre vessel is scheduled to visit St. John’s from Friday, July 16, through to Sunday, July 18.
.@CityofStJohns @HMCS_NCSM_CABOT We are making progress and can't wait to sail through the Narrows! #ORIOLE100 @RoyalCanNavy @RCN_MARLANT @crowsnestnl1 @VOCMNEWS @GovNL @CBCNL @975krock @hot991fm @sjmorningshow @OnTheGoCBC @VOWR800 pic.twitter.com/rWcOxZx8V0
— HMCS/NCSM ORIOLE (@HMCS_NCSMORIOLE) July 15, 2021
Senior communications advisor with the Royal Canadian Navy, Gordon Laco, has sailed on the Oriole and says the training ship is special. As a newly-minted officer in 2008, he was put aboard the vessel to compete in the Swiftsure Yacht Race, an experience he won’t soon forget.
“Coming on watch before dawn one morning, the wind had come up and Oriole was, as we say, galloping hard heading out for the Pacific Ocean down Juan de Fuca Strait. I stood beside the man at the wheel before I took over from him to get the feel of things,” says Laco, and “he shouted to me, ‘She’s really feeling that wind!'”
Laco says when he put his hands on the wheel, he could feel the power in her weight and was rendered speechless.
He says sailing ships are often used to help train young sailors.
It teaches teamwork and team spirit says Laco. Sailing ships “pretend to teach how to sail, but what they really teach is self-confidence and courage—qualities that most people have within them, but ordinary life rarely calls upon.”
