This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele. Here’s an excerpt from an interview I conducted in 1985 with my grandfather, Stan Cochrane (left), a gunner in the 3rd Division, CEF, in 1917-19:

SC: That Passchendaele was the worst of any place I ever saw in my life.

JW: Why is that?

SC: Just a sea of mud – just an absolute sea of mud. If you got an animal off that plank road they laid down, and… The old road, you could still travel on it, but you’d be up to your knees in that watery mud, you know. But the plank road was laid down so that these, uh… big motor lorries, they’d go up as far as they could go on these plank roads, you see, because it was fairly solid for them.

There was a shell come over every so often, the shells would come over & hit and everything would fly in the air in pieces, tanks and mules and men and anything else. But you daresn’t stop, they had to keep going right steady, no stop was made — you just keep going that’s all, and if you happened to be in an unlucky spot, you got it, that’s all there was to it.

A few years ago I posted a web essay about his WWI military service on Flickr:

Gunner Cochrane

Lest we forget.

JW
11-11-2017

MV Saint Laurent at Charlottetown, June 2015

My inaugural cruise on Haimark Line’s new vessel Saint Laurent was a grand adventure with outstanding ports of call. The first few days were typically cool & soggy, but the fog lifted for Halifax and fine weather persisted all the way to Quebec City. Cruising under the Confederation Bridge at sunset was a highlight. Memorable sights also included spectacular seabirds of Bonaventure Island and Beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River. All in all, a voyage of discovery in waters once navigated by the likes of Cartier, Champlain and Cook. I gave talks on 20th century Halifax, Maritime Canada, Gulf of St Lawrence wildlife and New France.

Have a look at this photo essay on my Flickr site: Stalag XXIA Schildberg

In ‘Selected Articles,’ an essay on major explosion accidents has been added. Contrary to popular belief, the explosion in Halifax harbour in 1917 may not have been the largest man-made explosion prior to the atom bomb. My essay explains why.