The Venture Mast
The schooner Venture was commissioned in October 1937 for service in the RCN as a sail-training vessel for Canadian sailors. Venture was dis-masted at the beginning of WWII. The vessel served as accommodation for the staff of the RN 3rd Battle Squadron and later as a picket vessel working out of Tuft’s Cove.
The mainmast from Venture was installed as the flag-staff for the newly opened Naval Training Base, HMCS Cornwallis in the summer of 1943. During discussions of the closure of HMCS Cornwallis in September 1994, Jim MacIntosh (Class of ‘56) identified the Cornwallis flag-staff as the original mainmast of the Naval training schooner HMCS Venture. Letters were sent, around the end of 1994 early 1995, asking to have this Naval artifact preserved in the current location at NOTC (Venture) on the West Coast. The mast came down in Cornwallis on 8 April, 1995 and was delivered to Halifax by the end of May, thanks mainly to the efforts of Bob Lancashire (Class of ‘56).
The assembly was transported to the West Coast in four pieces aboard HMCS Huron, arriving in Esquimalt 21 July, 1995—thanks mainly to the efforts of VAdm Garnett, and the Commanding Officer, Randy Maze, and the Ship's Company of HMCS Huron. Venture classmate (Stan Rimek) ensured the courier delivery of eight solid brass belaying pins, weighing a full Kilogram apiece.
John Pirquet (Class of ‘60) was inveigled to provide help from NEU(P) and the Esquimalt Dockyard to land, survey, and refurbish the mast. The Commanding Officer of Venture (NOTC), Cdr Williams, and the Base Commander, Capt(N) Stan Verran (Class of ‘65), combined to accomplish the refurbishment during 1996 and 1997.
The mast was stepped in concrete in front of the Vice Admiral A.L. Collier Building in November, 1997 and it was dedicated on 12 December, 1997 by VAdm Maddison, the Commanding Officer of Venture (NOTC), Cdr Bellows, and the President of the Venture Association, Cdr (retd) J. Cunningham.
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