Hamilton

William Couttie Hamilton

Bill Hamilton's parents, William Sr and Rosina Sloan, married on July 14, 1905 in the Scottish west coast town of Ayr. Rosina, also known as Roseanna, lived in Ayr and worked as a hosiery machine knitter. William Sr was born in the southwest in Wigtown, but lived in Irvine, a few kilometres up the coast from Ayr. He was a mechanical engineer/fitter. The family settled in Irvine and soon had two daughters, Janette (b. ca. 1906) and Jessie (b. 1909). Eleven years later they had a son, Miller, and Bill followed on January 26, 1922, born in their small flat at 13 Eglinton Street.

The family decided to move to Canada and set sail on August 28, 1925 on the SS ATHENIA, arriving in Quebec City on September 6. Janette and Jessie, who were young women, came with them. The family's whereabouts are unknown until 1927, when they were living in Toronto, in an apartment at 78 Grosvenor Street, west of Bay. William Sr worked as a machinist and his daughters were both employed at the Toronto Hosiery Company, doing similar work as their mother had done in Scotland. Bill likely began school at Wellesley. In 1931 the Hamiltons moved to 608 Church Street and William Sr became the building's superintendent. Janette and Jessie took an apartment together in the building until they got married a few years later. Bill and his brother continued attending Wellesley.

Bill claimed in his enlistment papers that he left school when he was 16 and apparently did not attend high school. When the war broke out in 1939, he was keen to enlist in the navy and in 1940 he joined the merchant marine on an Imperial Oil tanker. He worked the job for six months, gaining naval experience, and then immediately enlisted in the navy on January 15, 1941. He spent two months in basic training in Toronto. Two months later he arrived at HMCS STADACONA, the naval base in Halifax where he was given practical training.

Once qualified as an ordinary seaman, the lowest rank on a ship, he was assigned in May to HMCS LYNX, an armed yacht. The vessel had been acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in 1940. When war broke out in 1939, the RCN needed to requisition steel-hulled yachts as their fleet was lacking in patrol vessels. Most suitable yachts were in the United States, but as America was neutral at the time, their sale was forbidden to the Canadians for war purposes. So, the RCN came up with a creative way of acquiring them by circumventing the American neutrality laws. The RCN requisitioned the unsuitable yachts of Canadian yachtsmen and the yachtsmen were sent to the US to purchase the American yachts that the RCN desired. Once the acquired yachts arrived in Canada, the navy requisitioned them and returned the original yachts to their owners. LYNX was acquired in this manner and was commissioned in August 1940 with one 4 inch gun, one Lewis machine gun and 15 depth charges. It was assigned to the escort force operating from Sydney, Nova Scotia but it promptly broke a crankshaft and was still under repair when Bill joined it. At this point it was likely undergoing sea trials. In July Lynx returned to service with Gaspe Force, the unit which protected the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River. The yacht suffered another broken shaft and Bill joined the crew of the HMCS RACCOON on September 16.

HMCS RACCOON. Canadian War Museum collection.

RACCOON was another former American yacht, acquired in the same manner as LYNX. 45 metres long, it was equipped with one quick firing 12-pounder gun and had a crew of 38. It was also part of Gaspe Force, responsible for escorting convoys between Quebec City and Sydney, Nova Scotia. When the river froze over in November, the yacht's base shifted to Sydney. At the end of January it moved again to Halifax.

TORONTO TELEGRAM, September 1942.

During the period in Halifax, Bill had a serious disciplinary entry in his record. On April 3, 1942, he took “improper leave” and his punishment was fourteen days in cells. RACOON sailed back to Sydney in mid-May and returned HMCS FORT RAMSAY, the base on the southern shore of Gaspe Bay, near the town of Gaspe,. Once again, the yacht protected the convoys sailing between Quebec City and Sydney. In July, RACCOON was sent to aid a convoy from Quebec which had been attacked by a U-boat. It found three vessels which had lost contact with the convoy and escorted them to Sydney. The spring of 1942 marked the beginning of the Battle of the St. Lawrence and saw tremendous U-boat activity in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Bill was given two weeks' furlough at the beginning of August and he returned home to visit his family. He left Toronto on August 16 to rejoin RACCOON. On September 2, while escorting a convoy, RACCOON was attacked by a U-boat. Two torpedoes were fired on her, one passing ahead of the ship and one under it, forward of the bridge. The U-boat had set the torpedo depth too deep. RACCOON tracked the submarine and dropped depth charges, but found no trace of the enemy submarine.

On the afternoon of September 6, RACCOON, along with a corvette, a minesweeper and two motor launches, escorted eight merchant vessels from Quebec City. The vessels were carrying timber, steel, tanks and coal, mostly bound for the United Kingdom. During daylight hours, three Hudson light bombers provided air cover.

The convoy came under attack by U-165 near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The U-boat had been shadowing the convoy and waited until nightfall. The first torpedoes were launched around 2300 hrs. A Greek merchant vessel, AEAS, was hit and sank in four minutes. The corvette, HMCS ARROWHEAD, traced the paths of the torpedoes and found nothing as the U-boat had moved on. She returned to pick up the AEAS survivors while RACCOON screened the corvette. It took half an hour to rescue the merchant vessel's crew. RACCOON then took up position astern of the convoy. At 0210 hrs on September 7, the convoy heard two detonations and a short blast of a whistle. It was assumed that RACCOON had discovered a U-boat and was dropping charges. ARROWHEAD turned and sailed to RACCOON's position. Visibility was poor and ARROWHEAD did not find her. RACCOON did not have a radio-telephone and could not be reached anyway. ARROWHEAD returned to her position to the head of the convoy. No communication was attempted with RACCOON until 0717 hrs when ARROWHEAD radioed for RACCOON's position and received no response.

At daybreak, the weather was poor and it prevented an air search of the area where RACCOON disappeared, however, a sea search was performed. Later that day another U-boat spotted the convoy and sunk three of the merchant ships.

No remnants and no survivors of RACCOON were found. A few weeks after the attack one crew member and part of the bridge washed up on Anticosti Island. The explosions that the convoy heard were RACCOON's boiler exploding when it was hit by a torpedo from the same U-boat that sunk AEAS. Bill, aged 20, perished with the rest of the crew. He is commemorated on the Halifax Memorial.

In 1942, William Sr and Rosina moved to Crawford Street and William worked as a planer for a lathe manufacturer. Within days of receiving word of Bill's death, the couple were informed that his brother Miller had been wounded at Dieppe. Miller survived the war. William Sr returned to superintending apartments after the war and in 1950 he resumed looking after his previous building at 608 Church Street where he remained until 1956.