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In memory of those who have Crossed the Bar
CROAL, James Patrick - A Canadian naval officer born in Galt (Cambridge), Ontario, on June 20, 1916. He lived with his Great Uncle in Dunbar, Scotland, where he did his high school studies. While in Dunbar, his love of the sea embraced him since he spent many happy days as a young lad helping North Sea fishermen. After High School he moved to Copper Cliff Ontario where he worked in Inco’s open pit nickel mines as a diamond driller. While in Copper Cliff, he met Jack Taylor (he became a celebrated Mustang pilot for the RAF) and together in 1938 they worked as ship hands on tramp steamers on the Oronoco River in Guiana . When the Second World War unfolded, he enlisted in the Merchant Marine and then Royal Canadian Navy and earned his commission in 1944. He served on the destroyer Annapolis and the frigate Orkney. After serving in the Atlantic during most of the Second World War, he was assigned to Exercise Muskox (1946), a Canadian cold-weather training project that tested men and equipment on a 3-month tracked vehicle expedition from Churchill, Manitoba to Edmonton, Alberta. There were 3 American observers on this expedition. In 1948, he was seconded to a U.S. expedition that scouted sites for the Distant Early Warning radar line. In 1949 he and Colonel Ward Ryan from the US Army went on a 2-week canoe expedition from the South Knife River in Manitoba to Churchill to again test equipment and strategies to operate in sub Arctic conditions. He then served on HMCS LABRADOR starting in 1954, as a LCdr. This was the first Canadian RCN icebreaker to navigate the Northwest Passage and circumnavigate North America. His speciality aboard the ship was navigating in ice. His skill at this was so astute that he saved the ship from steaming onto an unmarked shoal in Foxe basin, which is now known as Croal Shoal. He retired from the RCN in 1961 and later worked at the Arctic Institute of Canada and formed his own Arctic Consulting company called Kabloona Consultants. “Big Jim” as he was affectionately known, is credited with tripling knowledge of the Arctic, (Toronto Globe and Mail 13 Jan 2007). He became a Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America and was awarded a personal citation from the US Secretary of the Navy for his exemplary abilities and skills shared with the American Navy who had little knowledge about operating safely in the Arctic. In his later years he became a professional golfer, artist, and the best father and grandfather anyone could have. He and Barb Taylor (from, Coper Cliff) had 3 kids, Bonnie, James and Peter. His first son James (Jamie) was a bush pilot who suffered a catastrophic plane crash in a single Otter just outside Ottawa while employed by a survey company. The crash occurred on May 1, 1970. This affected Jim deeply and more than likely contributed to his early death at age 68 due to heart attack on January 13, 1985. Jim was a unique man of high character, ability, resourcefulness, humour, integrity, and love and is mourned to this day by many. (Written by Peter Croal)
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