When Micmac collided with the SS Yarmouth County in 1947, I was on loan from HMCS Iroquois to Naval Operations. It was my job to drive the stripped down Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) that was tied up at No 3 jetty. Usually I took the vessel out for target towing for the Flyboys out of Shearwater or any other job Cdr. Plomer or Operations required. Cdr. Plomer was the Dockyard Commander at the time.

While in the old Drill Shed, I received a call from Operations informing me that I was to pick up Cdr. Plomer, immediately and it was an emergency. Along the way I  picked up Captain Holms as well. Once on the MTB, Holms instructed me to head out at full speed. This I always enjoyed, until they informed me that Micmac had been in a collision with a merchant ship.

Going full speed on this stripped down MTB was not that easy as my vision from the wheel was not the best.
I could see well ahead but I still needed a lookout. Captain Holms decided to be the lookout and took a position to the right of me, while standing on a wooden box.

It did not take long for us to before we saw Micmac on the horizon. As the wind and waves were in our favor, I had no problem in closing at full speed. When we got close to the ship my three passengers got very interested in inspecting Micmac's damage.

While approaching the ship at full throttle from her port side, we hit something  that was underwater and all three officers went flying and ended up in the bottom of the boat. The MTB came out of the water and landed on it's starboard side. On hitting the submerged object, I had cut both throttles and we were lucky we did not flip over. Captain Holms seemed to be okay but Cdr. Plomer had a sore arm and the other officer had a hard job getting up. I radioed OPS but  they were too busy to worry about us.

After assessing the situation, I found that the Starboard engine could function but only at slow revolutions. The  port engine was off completely. There was utter silence in the boat as I headed for home base. The Micmac was well ahead of us and actually was in harbor well before we were.

When we got in, I informed Captain Holms I would go to Ops and make a full report. His reply was that  "He would do it." I could see myself locked up forever over what happened. However, the next day I went over to OPS and got a nice welcome from the Officer in Charge. "Well done", he said. "You see, Captain Holms took the blame in the report. As a lookout he failed in his duties etc. etc. Full credit to the coxswain for taking care of the boat and the so called crew. etc. etc."    He was not as bad as we were told. But what a day it had been !