Winnipeg MB

Originally reported as missing. (see Anthology - Destruction Came Fast )

Mr. McVarish is shown below with Alberni Project Director Lewis Bartholomew in 2004 in Winnipeg at the memorial for the men of HMCS ALBERNI.

You can read more about Leo HERE.

You can view or purchase his artwork HERE.

The following is a quoted story from Legion Magazine:

The Royal Canadian Navy and Canada’s Merchant Navy are often forgotten when it comes to stories about VE-Day. However, their huge contributions helped make victory possible. Thankfully, the Veterans Affairs Canada delegation includes more than a dozen navy veterans, among them Leo J. McVarish, Ron Rhine and André Rousseau. Able Seaman McVarish was on HMCS Alberni when she was torpedoed in the English Channel by U-480 on Aug. 21, 1944.

McVarish, 83, of Winnipeg was having lunch in the seamen’s mess when all hell broke loose. “I was one of the lucky ones because there were a lot of others who were sitting there beside me who did not get out.” The former sailor said the corvette sank in about 20 seconds. “I just had enough time to run maybe 15 feet and grab my life-jacket…. If you didn’t move right away, you were lost.”

With one arm through his life-jacket, McVarish began to sink with the ship. “It was very dark, but I reached the surface and wow I didn’t realize how rough it was. I could hear the wind howling and then noticed a few other sailors, but I lost sight of them in the trough. I remember looking around and saying ‘Gee, the ship is gone.’ I remember being worried about the depth charges, but none of them went off because they were all set to safe. Thank God for that.”

McVarish grabbed hold of a wooden plank and remained in the frigid water for over an hour before being rescued. Of the 90 sailors on board, 59 perished. “I still have my bad dreams…. They never go away. There is one recurring nightmare in which I am in the asdic hut on the bridge of Alberni. I look out and see this lookout standing there on the starboard side. He has his back to me and there is a name on his back which I can’t make out. I know this is wrong because we never put our names on our backs. I decide to leave my station—something I would never, ever do—and go out to see him. He was wearing a duffle coat and when he turned around he was a skeleton….”