Dear Editor:
I have been reading the letters regarding the Flamborough Head stern with increasing amusement, but the latest letter (Feb. 5) has at last prompted me to try and set the record straight.
Flamborough Head never was a "Liberty" or "Victory" ship. She was built by Burrard Dry Dock at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue, keel laid July 1944 and launched October 1944.
Those were the days. She was a Beachy Head class fleet maintenance ship of which 21 were built for the Royal Navy. They were based on the Victory Ship hull and machinery, but were never freighters. They carried a large crew and were capable of maintaining and repairing the fleet combatants at remote locations. HMS Flamborough Head saw service off Normandy (after D-Day, obviously) and with the Arctic convoys to Russia.
In 1952 she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS Cape Breton. She was decommissioned in 1964 but I believe continued to serve as a floating workshop until the late 1990s. "Cape Breton," as we should call her, was not "cut up and scrapped" but was sunk as an artificial reef near Nanaimo, sans stern.
A number of years ago, I did a survey on the ship in Esquimalt where she was laid up.There was hope that she could be put into use as a demonstration/goodwill vessel. The propeller had been removed for scrap by underwater demolition which had also destroyed the tailshaft, so with that and a host of other issues it was not practical to restore the vessel as a seagoing concern. I was amazed to note that the ship had a full foundry so could cast or forge billets and then machine them, all on board.
I do agree with Mr. Ter Horst that the stern should be disposed of; without the context of the whole hull it is meaningless.
Gordon Passmore
North Vancouver
