Royal Canadian Navy White - HMCS Wetaskiwin.

Royal Canadian Navy White Ensign, HMCS Wetaskiwin, "Battle of the Atlantic".
This white ensign was formerly part of the collection of Wall Street financier, business man and promoter of Anglo-American goodwill Calvin Bullock. His 1 Wall street offices in New York City contained the world leading collections of memorabilia pertaining to Napoleon & Lord Nelson. In the 1930s he sought to collect Confederate Flags and during World War II he acquired a representative collection of US, British, French and other allied ensigns from his many international, military and naval acquaintances. After his death in 1944 his son, Hugh Bullock kept the flags on display as a memorial to his late father.

In 1864 the Admiralty decided to end the ambiguity caused by the Red Ensign being both a civil ensign and a naval ensign, and the White Ensign became the sole ensign of the Royal Navy. It was also used by vessels from the Empire serving with the Royal Navy.

When Calvin Bullock acquired the ensign of the HMCS Wetaskiwin in July of 1943, she already had a distinguished service record. Commissioned at Esquimalt, British Columbia on 17 December 1940, Wetaskiwin was the first west coast-built corvette to enter naval service.

She was named for Wetaskiwin, Alberta; a small city founded in 1892 and located 43 miles south of the provincial capital of Edmonton. The city name comes from the Native American Indian Cree word meaning "the hills where peace was made". However the crew loving referred to her as the 'Wet-assed-Queen', and her gunshield art boasted a stylized Queen of Hearts sitting in a puddle rubbing her aching back with one hand while holding her scepter in the other.

She was ordered on patrol out of Esquimalt until she left on 17 March 1941 for the Atlantic, where she arrived at Halifax on 13 April and left on 23 May, for St. John's, to become one of the founding members of the Newfoundland Escort Force. NEF was based in St. Johns, Newfoundland a forward base which allowed the Royal Canadian Navy to extend eastward the escorts they could provide to convoys.

In June she escorted her first convoy to Iceland and during the next eight months made six round trips there with eastbound convoys. During this period she distinguished herself in two major convoy actions.

Convoy SC.42, a Nova Scotia to Liverpool convoy comprised of sixty-three merchant ships which were strung out in 12 columns abreast, covering 25 miles of inhospitable ocean. The battle began on the night of 10/11September 1941, when the convoy was attacked between Greenland and Iceland by 14 U-boats from the Markgraf wolf-pack. "This convoy must not get through - U-boats pursue, attack and sink." This was the signal that Admiral Donitz sent to his commanders on 9 September 1941.

They had set sail from Nova Scotia at a time when the German U-boats were sinking more than one hundred ships a month. The battle lasted for 7 days and covered 1200 miles of ocean. 16 ships were sunk, and 1 was damaged, but the balance of the convoy made it safely to Iceland.

The next convoy action came the following month. On the night of 15/16 October 1941 the battle to protect the 52 ships of Convoy SC.48 began. Additional escort ships, including US Navy destroyers, were dispatched to the rescue of the convoy during the night of October 16th. The combined operations to protect Convoy SC-48 were fraught with problems: poor communications, inexperience, and mechanical breakdowns. SC-48 lost 9 merchant ships. On 17 October the Wetaskiwin rescued 24 survivors from the torpedoed and sunk Norwegian merchantman Barfonn, delivering them safely to Iceland.

Perhaps her greatest accomplishment was assisting the HMCS Skeena in the sinking of the U-588 with depth-charges on 31 July 1942. In mid-January 1943 she arrived at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, for refit, which was completed on 9 March and followed by further repairs at Halifax, Nova Scotia. In May 1943 she joined Escort Groups in the Atlantic, and it was during this time that her ensign was gifted to Calvin Bullock.

In December of 1943 she went to Galveston, Texas, for a long refit, including extension of her focsle. Following its completion on 6 March 1944 she returned briefly to Halifax before proceeding to Bermuda for workups in late April. Returning northward, she joined convoy C-5, leaving Londonderry on 23 September for the last time to join Escort Group W-7, for the remainder of the war. She was paid off at Sorel, Quebec on 19 June 1945 and sold to the Venezuelan Navy, which renamed her Victoria. She was scrapped in 1962.

This flag is good evidence of Calvin Bullock's high level connections as he acquired this ensign through the efforts of Major General Maurice Pope Chairman of the Canadian Joint Staff Mission in Washington; via the kindness of Admiral Percy Walker Nelles, Royal Canadian Navy and Chief of the Naval Staff from 1934 to 1944. He oversaw the massive wartime expansion of the RCN and the transformation of Canada into a major player in the Battle of the Atlantic. During his tenure the Canadian Northwest Atlantic command was created, and the RCN was providing up to 40% of all escort forces in the North Atlantic. He was sent to London as Overseas Naval Attach, coordinating the RCN operations for Operation Overlord. He retired in January 1945 as a full Admiral.

This White Ensign according to Bullock's documentation was "From His Majesty's Canadian Corvette WETASKIWIN, which for long had been flown in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans." '(Given by Major Maurice Pope, of the Canadian Joint Staff, Washington, through "kind instrumentality of Admiral Nelles". Chief of Naval Staff: Vice-Admiral P.W. Nelles, C.B., R.C.N., - July 1943.)"

The text on the tag attached to the hoist reads: "Canadian Flag Mfgt. Products supreme Peterbourgh, Ont". The text on hoist reads: "4 BDTL's". During WW II and sometime after the Canadian Navy used the United Kingdom's White Ensign for its military vessels.

This battle flag was presented to Calvin Bullock in 1943 and was hung in his offices as the seventh flag "Overhead in the Lecture Room...Third Row:...(on pole)...from left to right -- from podium" at One Wall Street, NY, NY. There it remained well into the 1980s, 40 years after Calvin Bullock's death on June 21, 1944.

It is interesting to note that the HMCS Wetaskiwin was a sister ship to the Free French ship, Aconite, another Flower Class corvette, whose ensign is also in the Zaricor Flag Collection, see ZFC0514.

ZFC Significant Flag

Publishing History:

Bullock, Hugh, Sixty Years, Calvin Bullock, New York, 1954.P.32.

Provenance:

• Made by Canadian Flag Mfg. Products, Peterbourgh, Ont. Canada, 1939 -1943.
• Given by Major Maurice Pope, of the Canadian Joint Staff, Washington, through "kind instrumentality Chief of Naval Staff: Vice-Admiral P.W. Nelles, C.B., R.C.N., and presented to Calvin Bullock, New York, New York, July 1943.
• Calvin Bullock Collection, until passing, June 1944.
• By bequest to Hugh Bullock, until passing. 1966.
• By descent in Bullock family to daughter of Hugh Bullock, until 1997
• Purchased for the Zaricor Flag Collection by private treaty from the estate of Calvin Bullock, New York City, 1997.




Sources:

---

Bullock, Hugh, Sixty Years, Calvin Bullock, New York, 1954.P.32.

United Kingdom: the White Ensign, Flags of the World, 17 November 2011, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb-ensw.html

White Ensign, Wikipedia, 17 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ensign

THE COLOURS OF THE FLEET, The Flag Institute, 17 November 2011, from: http://www.flaginstitute.org/pdfs/the_colours_of_the_fleet.pdf

White Ensign, Information about White Ensign, 18 November 2011, from: http://english.turkcebilgi.com/White+Ensign

Wetaskiwin, Wikipedia, 17 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetaskiwin

Maurice Arthur Pope, Wikipedia, 17 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Arthur_Pope

Percy Walker Nelles, Wikipedia, 17 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_W._Nelles

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection



RTZFC

Hoist & Fly
Width of Hoist	72
Length of Fly	36

Frame
Is it framed?	no

Stars
Are there stars on obverse?	no
Are there stars on reverse?	no

Stripes
Has a Blood Stripe?	no

Crest/Emblem
Description of Crest/Emblem	UK White Ensign as used by Commonwealth Navies

Nationality
Nation Represented	Canada

Fabric
Fabric	Wool

Attachment
Comments on Method of Attachmen	Cord with clips
Method of Attachment	Ties

Applica
Applique Sides	Single Faced = Mirror Image Reverse

Documentation
Documents	All original documents and drawings are held in the Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.
Drawings	All original documents and drawings are held in the Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.
Research Documents	All original documents and drawings are held in the Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.
Public Copy & Signs	All original documents and drawings are held in the Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.

Condition
Condition	Fair
Damage	Fly end wears. Dirty & Blackish.
Displayable	yes

Date
Date	1943

Publications
Publication Images	Cover p.32 P.32 w/ ZFC flags identified