by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (June 06/97) - Just like they did in the Second World War, reservists are still playing a major role in the Canadian Navy.

Take HMCS Yellowknife, for example. She was christened yesterday in Halifax, after launching herself by accident two weeks ago. One of 12 new warships being built for the navy, she is 55 metres in length.

That's five metres shorter than the famous corvettes that fought enemy submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic.

But both classes of ships were and will be crewed mainly by reserve sailors.

So how will life aboard HMCS Yellowknife compare with the rigors that war-weary sailors endured?

Jack Adderly was a telegrapher in the Royal Canadian Navy, escorting convoys of merchant ships carrying vital war equipment from Newfoundland to Ireland. He later served in Korean waters during that action, but on a much larger destroyer. Adderly vividly remembers life onboard corvettes.

HMCS Yellowknife has a cafeteria for eating, but on the corvettes the galley was above the upper deck in front of the funnel. Food was carried below decks to the living spaces called messes.

"One of the disadvantages in rough weather was you got seas splashing over so you got a little wet, and it was a little difficult carrying a can of food if the ship was rolling a lot."

There would be quite a few men sleeping in hammocks in the messes, but on HMCS Yellowknife there are bunk beds and small cabins holding a few sailors.

The fresh water situation should be a hundred times better on HMCS Yellowknife than it was on the corvettes.

Adderly says when they were at sea they had limited amounts of fresh water and would often only be able to fill a sink full of water and take a bird bath, by splashing water. They could have a salt water shower anytime.

While the corvettes criss-crossed the Atlantic, HMCS Yellowknife and her sister ships will primarily be used for coastal patrol. And they aren't designed to fight submarines. That task is left to the much larger frigates.

Life will be much more comfortable for the modern reservists, for HMCS Yellowknife has an enclosed bridge, but on the corvettes the bridge was open, which made for miserable watchkeeping in wet or cold weather.