Her keel was laid down on the 27th of November 1943 at the Harland & Wolff in Belfast, the same shipyards that were responsible for building the Titanic and her sister ships. Fifteen months later she slipped into the waves with the name HMS Powerful emblazoned on her hull. That same year she would go into mothballs at the end of World War Two. There she would sit in an incomplete state for 7 years until the RCN (Royal Canadian Navy) purchased her for $21,000,000.00 dollars. The deal was contingent on the unfinished carrier being fitted with an angled flight deck, a steam catapult and a mirror landing system. The Canadian government was looking for a fleet carrier that could operate in the jet age.
In a statement to the Toronto Telegram, Captain H.V.W. (Harold) Groos, CD, RCN said, "Canada is getting a good value in this ship. Our country is growing and so is the need for naval air power. That is why it is so important that we have made this advance, no matter how modest."
The RCN's fourth carrier and new flagship was commisioned on January 17th, 1957.
It's new name HMCS Bonaventure taken from the island bird sanctuary in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Affectionately known as the "Bonnie", she carried a force of about 34 McDonnell Douglas F2H-3 Banshee jet fighters, Grumman CS2F Tracker ASW aircraft (built by de Havilland in Toronto), and Sikorsky HO4S helicopters. Even with the refit, landing a Banshee on the Bonaventure’s relatively short flight deck was pushing the envelope. A number of American Banshee pilots actually refused to try landing on the Bonaventure's short flight deck. The wide-winged Trackers also proved to be a tight fit.
Despite this, and because of the hard work and dedication of her crew (numbering 1,320 in all), the Bonaventure was able by 1958 to conduct around-the-clock sustained operations, keeping four Trackers and two HO4S's in the air at all times, saturating an area of 200 square nautical miles with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft.
HMCS Bonaventure never saw first line combat during her career. She was involved primarily in flying training in support of the RCN's various roles. These included control of the North Atlantic and adjacent areas, tracking Russian submarines operating in considerable strength there, and supporting North Atlantic Treaty Organization commitments. Her jet fighters, until 1962, were designed to provide protection in the event of enemy attack, while her Trackers and the helicopters assisted attendant destroyers and frigates in their anti-submarine searching and attack roles.
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One of her closest brushes with a role in active war service was in late October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. On October 18th Bonaventure had just finished NATO excercises with British, Danish and Norwegian ships in the North Atlantic and was docked at Portsmouth. The next day Commodore Robert Welland (former commander of HMCS Haida) took up his new post as SCOA (A) (Senior Canadian Officer Afloat (Atlantic)) onboard the Bonnaventure. Welland was stepping into a pontentially dangerous situation. Tensions were begining to rise between the the United States and the Soviet Union over missle bases in Cuba. A confrontation appeared to be unavoidable. On October 23, Amercian President John F. Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba. Because of Canada's commitments thru NATO, the Bonaventure and her escorts were ordered back into North American waters.
Captain F.C. Frewer (commander of the Bonaventure, August 1961 to August 1963) put to sea with all dispatch. "The Cuban Missle Crisis was really exciting. I don't think, still, the public are aware how near a thing it was." He would later say.
"Aircraft carriers were spaced about 150 miles apart all the way north of Cuba. One of the Essex Class Carriers was just to the south of us, the LAKE CHAMPLAIN, I believe it was. We were at the northern end of the picket line, and I think the decision was going to be made within two to three hours as to whether we were going to war. So we were part of the operation, covering the northern flank alert and ready to go with war-loaded aircraft. It was exciting because we knew at the time that there were some submarines accompanying the missle-carrying freighters."
Grumman Tracker, part of Bonaventure's Air Group
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