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Friday, January 15, 2010

Boy William Wallace

The Maritime Museum of BC is not just a collection of artifacts. They do an excellent job of bringing us closer to the people who are represented by the historical objects and documents, as in the display below.

An ornate scroll beside this photo identifies the young subject as "Boy William Wallace" of the Royal Canadian Navy and states, "He whom this scroll commemorates was numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten."

Below is the ship on which this young sailor served, the Auxiliary Patrol Ship Galiano. "On October 30, 1918 while carrying supplies northward for the Triangle Island Lighthouse crew, situated 14 miles off the northern tip of Vancouver Island, GALIANO was caught in a fierce storm and foundered. All 40 aboard were lost. Among the crew of officers and men was Boy Seaman William Wallace."
All the information in this post is from displays in the Maritime Museum of British Columbia and should not be used or reproduced elsewhere without their permission.

7 comments:

Carolyn said...

I love this place and its amazing collective of marine history, not enough people know about it. Yesterdays photo is stunning. Thanks for sharing this gem with us.
Smiles

Small City Scenes said...

Excellent post. I wonder how old Boy William really was. He looks about 12. Rough life for anyone.

I love the Maritime Museum. MB

JoJo said...

Well that explains the origin of Galiano Island's name.

Chuck Pefley said...

Another group from the Graveyard of the Pacific. The ocean has an insatiable appetite.

Louis la Vache said...

We often romanticize the ocean. We need these reminders that, as Chuck wrote, she has an insatiable appetite.

Trillian said...

Thanks for the interesting things about this museum and I agree with Carolyn: the photo of yesterday is beautiful!

Suzanne said...

Hey, I just dug out some family history and the one I'm interested in (a politician) was William Wallace Cory. But it seems there are an awful lot of William Wallaces.
Love getting my history lessons from your website.