Sharing the townsite’s namesake, the HMCS Agassiz (K129) was a Flower-class corvette commissioned in Vancouver in 1941. She sailed as an escort ship, battling in the Atlantic during World War II. Following the war, she was broken up in Moncton, Nova Scotia in 1946.
Blackmud poet laureate Garth Ukrainetz shares the story through poem.
The Sasquatch are having a wedding
In the mist of the Bridal Veil Falls
Fearsome grizzly bears dance in the moonlight
In the distance a loon softly calls
A steam rises high in the valley
All is well in the district of Kent
From peaceful ol’ British Columbia
To a war zone was Agassiz sent
Down the river that flows to Vancouver
Where the salmon do faithfully spawn
The crew waves farewell to the people
As they wonder how long they’ll be gone
As Agassiz sails for her valor
All the grizzly bears roar to the sky
And high on the tops of the mountains
All the Sasquatch are waving goodbye
On her way to the Battle Atlantic
A quick stop in L.A. for some sun
Many Hollywood movie stars dancing
Mary Pickford and friends having fun
Then soon she is leading the convoys
With the Newfoundland Escorting Force
Guiding thousands of ships cross the water
Guarding wartime supplies on due course
Day in and day out on the ocean
Back and forth on the high rolling waves
If the enemy cut the supply lines
Allied soldiers would soon fill the graves
So the wolf packs kept stalking and hunting
On the orders of Hitler’s foul Reich
And Agassiz fought like a grizzly bear
When torpedoes and U-Boats would strike
She rescued and sheltered survivors
From the ships that came under attack
She picked up the crew of Seattle
And safely to port took them back
As the grizzly bears fished in the Fraser
While the Sasquatch in secret did play
Brave Agassiz fought for their freedom
For the British Columbia way
With a deck full of ice she was covered
In the wintertime frozen and cold
They pushed through the pain of the frostbite
Like a prospector suffers for gold
Back home all their grandmas knit mittens
For the boys with the hands on the guns
And dear mothers sent cake and sweet candy
To their handsome Canadian sons
And such were the days of the struggle
For the Battle Atlantic was long
Bloody month after month in a war zone
In a world where so much had gone wrong
Then when the world war finally ended
A new hope in the drying of tears
Brave Agassiz sailed home to Canada
To the Sasquatch and Grizzly bear cheers
In celebration and remembrance of the 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War 1945 – 2020 “Lest We Forget”
