In this episode of the Quadra Alumni Podcast you’ll hear from Colin Henthorne, a former Sea Cadet from RCSCC Hampton Gray VC in Nelson, BC.  Colin joined the Corps in 1966 at 12 years old and made his first trip to HMCS Quadra in the summer of 1967.  Colin goes through, in detail, some of his memories from his very first day at Goose Spit.  Colin later took his Boatswain Course at Naden and then attended an International Exchange to Holland (Netherlands) before returning to Quadra in 1972 to attend the Officer Cadet Course.

Colin was determined to be a Flotilla Officer and was so thankful to learn from people like John Treen and Doug McLaughlin.  We spend some time chatting about Flotilla legend “Red Fullerton”.  The Quadra Flotilla led Colin to a career in the marine industry that includes the Coast Guard Hovercraft and Cutters, then offshore oil exploration in the Arctic, tugboats, the Department of Fisheries of Oceans and then moving over to BC Ferries for 18 years.

Very thankful that Colin was willing to talk about his service as Captain on the Queen of the North (BC Ferries route – Prince Rupert to Port Hardy), where unfortunately on 22 March 2006 the ship struck Gil Island and sank in Wright Sound.  Colin gave the order to abandon the ship, they all watched her sink below the surface on that dark Westcoast night; 2 people perished in the incident.  To read more about the incident look for Colin’s book – “The Queen of the North Disaster – The Captain’s Story”.

Audio editing done by Todd Mason.

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