52 years later, survivors of HMCS Kootenay disaster find strength through each other

Survivors of the Canadian navy’s worst peacetime accident are finding healing through their shared experience.

On Oct. 23, 1969, a gearbox failure caused the explosion in the engine room of the HMCS Kootenay as it took part in sea trials off the southwest coast of England.

“As I was walking up the flats, the engine room blew up and I looked down the flats and could see this big fireball towards me,” said David William Gourley, who worked in the operations room as a radar plotter.

“We ran like hell up the ladder out onto the bridge on the flag deck, and the ship was just full of smoke.”

Of the more than 240 crew members on board the ship that day, nine died and 53 others were injured.

“There was 10 of us in the engine room, only three of us got out alive,” said Allan “Dinger” Bell, who was on duty in the engine room at the time.

The memory still haunts him, he said. “I’ve been trying to get out of the engine room for 52 years, can’t seem to get out, can’t forget it.”

1:06 How the explosion aboard HMCS Kootenay continues to prepare Canadian sailors 50 years later

Gourley said many of the survivors got PTSD.

“We’d never seen anything like that before. We were peacetime navy, we never shot a gun at the enemy and we never thought anything like that would happen,” he said.

“Even today, it’s emotional.”

Leaning on each other

But they, and many of the other survivors, have found healing through each other.

At the time of the incident, there was very little support for the survivors, so they turned to each other to cope — and that continues to this day.

“We lean on each other,” said Andrew Richard, who worked as a cook onboard HMCS Kootenay.

“It’s great to get down and see the guys. We talk stuff over, it kind of helps with what we’ve gone through.”

Each year, a group of survivors meet up in Halifax to mark the anniversary. The bond between them is still holding strong.

“They’re great friends,” said Gourley.

“Normally when you’re on a ship and spend your career in the navy like I did, you don’t even remember half the people. But these guys here, we’ve been together for years and they’re my best friends.”

The Kootenay disaster has had lasting impacts on the navy. It’s changed the way firefighting equipment is stored and used and has also led to improvements in escape hatches.

Nova Scotia has proclaimed Oct. 23 as HMCS Kootenay Day, something that means a lot to these survivors.

“So it’s not forgotten, so those people are not forgotten,” said Bell.