by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 12/97) - When HMCS Yellowknife steams from Nova Scotia to British Columbia later this year, she'll be carrying a display from our Chamber of Commerce that will be set up in ports en route to promote this city.

Lt.- Cmdr. Doug Bancroft, the first captain of the ship -- which is now being built in Halifax -- told chamber members during a Friday luncheon that they had between now and September to work out the details.

"It will be a tremendous opportunity to showcase Yellowknife," Bancroft said.

The ship will be launched in either May or June and when she sails from the Atlantic for the Pacific coast, visiting Puerto Rico, Aruba, the Panama Canal, Puerto Vallarta, and either San Diego or San Francisco along the way.

The 24-year-veteran of the Canadian navy reserve said the ship may always have the display aboard, to be shown over the years in whatever ports of call HMCS Yellowknife makes.

In a meeting at city hall before the luncheon, Mayor David Lovell said the city's namesake "would certainly be showing the flag" around the Pacific.

Bancroft told chamber members that every citizen of Yellowknife would be an honorary member of the ship's crew.

"If you're in Aruba, come on down to the ship," Bancroft said.

He also extended an invitation for the city's residents to go to sea with him on HMCS Yellowknife once it's commissioned next January in Victoria.

"I don't like to sail with empty bunks. Anybody here like to go to sea with me?" the skipper asked. Interested citizens would have to give plenty of lead time, he said.

One chamber member asked Bancroft if he would like to have various parts of the ship, like companionways or major corridors, named after streets in the city.

Bancroft said he would be delighted to have Ragged Ass Road as one of the names.

Would the ship fly the polar bear flag, one chamber member asked?

It is tradition that a ship flies a battle ensign, which in this instance would be unique and appropriate to Yellowknife, Bancroft replied.

Lovell asked about the process for the selection of the ship's crest. Bancroft said the design is approved ultimately by the Queen.

The crest will feature a raven on a bar of gold clutching a copper knife, Bancroft said. It is being prepared by heraldic experts in Ottawa.

Gabrielle Decorby, chamber president, presented the ship's skipper with a commemorative set of the $2 Chamber of Commerce 50th anniversary coin which circulated in Yellowknife.