Sackville gets set to celebrate 2010 Canadian Navy centennial

The town of Sackville is planning a number of activities this spring that will recognize the national celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy.

Sackville is a small community in size but very big in heart. And that big heart holds a very soft spot for the Canadian Navy.

The romance really began on May 15, 1941, the date when the corvette HMCS Sackville was launched from her birth in the Saint John Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.

The entire Sackville town council of the day had travelled the roughly 150 miles to stand in a nasty, driving rain as the ship was christened and slipped into the Courtenay Bay.

Although she was not completely ready for war, the HMCS Sackville was needed for immediate action. Sackville native Marc Milner, now a history professor at UNB and a member of the board of governors of the Royal Military College of Canada, writes of this event in the first pages of his book HMCS Sackville 1941-1985.

As it turns out and "with a lot of water under the bridge," the HMCS Sackville is now the only remaining corvette and is carefully maintained by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust in Halifax.

So to commemorate the special anniversaries of both the Canadian navy and launch of the HMCS Sackville, a new memorial garden - including interpretation on the special relationship between the ship and the community of Sackville - will be unveiled on Saturday, May 15.

This new garden will be located in Sackville's Memorial Park.

The unveiling will take place at 2 p.m. and the public is invited to join in the festivities.

WWII Wrens will do a ceremonial planting of the new Navy Lady rose that has been specially developed by the Wren Association of Toronto for this centennial year of the Canadian Navy. Forty Navy Lady roses will be incorporated into the new garden and other areas of the park. The rose is named in honour of the thousands of Canadian women who served in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS), known as Wrens, and to the women who continue to serve as members of the Canadian Navy.

During the ceremony, a picture of the HMCS Sackville will be presented to the town by a representative of the Canadian Navy Centennial. A group from the HMCS Sackville national Naval Memorial Trust will also participate and will give several artifacts to the town.

Following the ceremony at Memorial Park, a 'Maritime Tea and Talk' by Milner will be hosted at the Sackville Legion Branch on Lorne Street. Entitled The Town, The Ship and The War: Sackville, her warship and the town's war effort, 1939-1945, the talk will be held from 2:30-4 p.m.

That same evening, starting at 6 p.m. at Live Bait Theatre, the Tantramar Heritage Trust will hold its annual 'Taste of History' dinner. Guest speaker at the event will be Milner, who will present a talk entitled New Brunswick and the Navy: The First 400 Years.

Milner will delve into the rich history of the province (and the local area) to examine relationships between the region's beloved coastal land, its people and the Navy. Other evening festivities will include music, a trivia game featuring short skits from popular "sea-themed" materials (plays, movies, books etc.), and more.

For dinner tickets, contact the heritate trust at 536-2541 or tantramarheritage@nb.aibn.com.