Leading Seaman Trey Pennington grew up just outside of Nanaimo in Parksville before joining the Navy as a cook. He was back in town on HMCS Nanaimo for Canada Day as the ship made its final visit to its namesake city. The ship is set to be transferred to the Atlantic coast later this year.
Pennington joined the Royal Canadian Navy to learn a trade, but has found a career.
“I didn’t want to go away to university and pay for rent, I wanted to go to university here — pay a big amount, but stay at home for free,” he told The Discourse. “Then, my dad was like, ‘Or there’s a third option — join the military.’”
“I was like, ‘I’ll do that one — get paid to learn and you get to explore a lot more in the Navy.’”
Pennington has been serving on ships for four years. He has sailed as far as Mexico and made port calls in Seattle and Portland, as well as sailing further north as part of HMCS Nanaimo’s coastal defence mission.
Kingston-class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels, such as HMCS Nanaimo, are multi-role ships used primarily for coastal patrol, surveillance and training with a mix of regular force and reserve sailors.
As a cook, Pennington has to make sure that the crew is fed starting with making the 10 o’clock soup, a Navy tradition, and finishing up around 7:30 p.m.
Unlike other crew members who can go to their bunk when they get sea sick from rough seas, the cooks have to make sure the food is made.
“We’ll try and do it in shifts and try and get the food out,” he said. “But sometimes it’s a real struggle.”
Naval warfare officer loves the whales
Sub-Lt. Francis Fullwood is the naval warfare officer on HMCS Nanaimo, which includes driving the ship as well as managing boarding parties when the ship is involved in assisting law enforcement.
That can be dangerous work. The ship has deployed to the eastern Pacific as part of Operation Caribbe multiple times where the crew intercepted and boarded ships, seizing cocaine and apprehending suspected drug smugglers.
But what he really loves about his job is seeing whales.
As the ship entered the Juan De Fuca Strait near Buoy Juliet on its way to Nanaimo, Fullwood spotted 30 to 40 fishing boats surrounded by 40 to 50 humpback whales.
“They’re everywhere to be honest. Just in the past month and a half or two that I’ve been on HMCS Nanaimo I probably saw 100 whales easily. There’s a lot of them and I love them around us.”
On the more serious side of things, Fullwood also participated in a recent exercise shooting the .50-calibre machine-gun at a target on the water in an exercise with an American destroyer.
“It pretty much destroyed the target in no time, but that was pretty fun to see,” he said.
Fullwood sees a bright future in the Navy as Canada acquires new arctic and offshore patrol ships.
“These are icebreakers, and that’s pretty fun because we’re going to break ice and be in a different world,” he said. “If you like to travel, want to see the world, I think it’s the best job you can have.”
A patriotic farewell
Nanaimo resident Robert Anton was touring the ship with his wife.
“Being on a warship is something that you’ll never get to do unless you are in the Navy, so I was interested in that,” he said.
Anton said he felt “very patriotic” to get to meet some of the ship’s crew who he said were “very friendly and helpful in telling us what’s on the boat.”
The ship’s crest and flag also feature an image of the iconic Nanaimo Bastion tower built by the Hudson Bay Company in 1885.
“I appreciate that they use our name on one of the ships,” Anton said.
Acting Sub-Lt. Kim Wachockier said the crew was proud to be able to visit Nanaimo a final time for Canada Day.
“This is a moment to honour our West Coast roots and the people of Nanaimo who have always been part of our ship’s story,” he said.
