ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY USED TRENT WATERWAY TO LAUNCH WARSHIPS DURING WW2

Tuesday November 15th at 7:30 pm

Peterborough Public Library, Lower Level Meeting Room

Peterborough Historical Society is pleased to welcome Alan Brunger who will present the history of the seven Fairmile motor launches which were delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy via the Trent Severn Canal over the four year period between 1941 and 1944.

During WWII many warships were constructed on the Great Lakes at several shipyards. These included the seven Fairmiles constructed at Hunter Boats Ltd in Orillia from 1941 to 1945. Their length just fitted the locks and they proceeded through the Kawartha Lakes and down the Otonabee and Trent Rivers during the summer and fall of those four years.

These were among eighty such motor launches built in Canada during WWII. They served as armed anti-submarine patrol vessels in the coastal waters of Eastern Canada and Newfoundland.

Join us to hear and see the little known story of this forgotten aspect of our local waterway – and the history of the seven Hunter Boats Ltd Fairmiles during WWII.

Alan Brunger is interested in historical geography, a subject in which he was fortunate to lecture at Trent University before retiring three years ago. His main interest is in the settlement – particularly by organized groups – of early Canada as well as a persistent fascination with naval historical geography.

The Peterborough Historical Society welcomes everyone to this fascinating evening.

Admission is free however donations are gratefully received at the door.

PHOTO: caption – Hunter Boat Fairmile HMC ML 061 in the Otonabee River in October 1941, en route to the North Atlantic.” (Photograph courtesy of Kay Hooke).