Burlington, Ontario
Constructed in memory of ships and crews that served in the Royal Canadian Navy
and the Canadian Merchant Navy during World War II.
This Naval Ships Memorial monument is located in Spencer Smith Park, facing
Lake Ontario,
50 yards away.
The Naval monument has three components. The main component is the
memorial cairn listing on the front face the names of 31 war ships of the Royal Canadian
Navy and the date they were lost. Also, shown is the lost 2024 Naval
Personnel
and 1466
Merchant Seamen. The second component topping the cairn a six foot bronze statue
of a Canadian Seaman in the rig of the day saluting his lost shipmates. The
main
remembrance wall along the rear of the monument list all the warships that served
in the Royal Canadian Navy. On the rear of the remembrance wall are listed the
names of the 370 ships that served in the Canadian Merchant Army. Directly behind
the wall are four 25' flagpoles flying the flags of Canada, the province of Ontario,
the White Ensign of the Royal Canadian Navy 1939 to 1945 and the Red Ensign of the
Canadian Merchant Navy 1939 to 1945.
The monument is lit by floodlight every night. The Cairn and the memorial wall are
Cambrian Black Granite. All of the ships' names are sand blasted in and
painted gold.
The deck is blue marble, with black trim. The size is 14' wide by 16' deep. On
each
side of the memorial are two flower beds with two benches. At the present time the
Naval Veterans' maintain the monument.
Funding for this Naval monument came from club members, many Royal Canadian Legions
in Ontario, cities and towns in Canada that has a ship named after their city, and
many residents of all areas and from all parts of Canada, and local business
and
service clubs. From start to finish it took 22 months to complete the monument.
Since it was dedicated, May 14, 1995, the 50th Anniversary of VE day, about 30,000
people have visited the naval monument.
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