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A Tribute To My Great Uncle Frank Sampson, His Crew Mates, And Their Ship G07 HMCS Athabaskan

    Until a few years ago, my family had very scant details of what happened to my Great Uncle Frank, during the sinking of the HMCS Athabaskan on April 29, 1944. Until the year 2000 my family was under the impression that there was no knowledge of my Great Uncles' fate and that his body had never been recovered.

    Very surprisingly, a great deal of new information came to light while watching a documentary called The Unlucky Lady, The Life And Death Of HMCS Athabaskan. It was broadcast on History Television here in Canada. Having lost a family member aboard the Athabaskan I have always been interested in the history of what happened to her. And so with that interest I sat down to watch this documentary one evening.

    About half way through the documentary a gentleman named Herm Sulkers begins to describe an incident, after the ship was sunk, of trying on 3 separate occasions to save a man named Frank "Sammy" Sampson. Needless to say I was pretty dumbstruck, overwhelmed, and excited all at the same time. Here was a gentleman I did not know at all describing his heroic efforts to save my Great Uncle's life. I would try and repeat his story here but the anguish this man suffered over the death of my Great Uncle can only be seen by watching the documentary. History Television airs the documentary from time to time. You can check their website for details from my links page. I highly suggest it. It is hard to believe what all of these men went through.

    Due to his efforts Herm Sulkers has become one of my personal heroes. Not only for what he tried to do for my Great Uncle but also for the anguish he has suffered all of these years. I also hold all of the crew as personal heroes for the sacrifice they made.

    Again I have used my little known talent to design and tie a fishing fly. It was designed on Remembrance Day, 2006. I felt the fly was needed to round out the set of Support The Troops flies I tied for the Military. It is also in honor of Great Uncle Frank, Herm Sulkers, the crew of the Athabaskan G07 and all veterans, but inspired by the heroic efforts of the Athabaskan G07 and it's crew. Try tying one yourself. The pattern can be found on my Salmon Wet Fly Pages.

    The fly is named CFV, for Canadian Forces Veterans. I got the idea for this fly early on Remembrance Day 2006. I was thinking about my Great Uncle and the sinking of his ship. I decided a nice little display fly was in order. I decided to make the fly mostly in the colors of the red poppies that Canadians wear proudly to salute our veterans. That should explain the large amount of red and the small amount of black. I chose the silver rib to signify the Silver Cross which is presented to the mother of every Canadian soldier killed in action. I know one was presented to my Great Grandmother and my father had it for years. We are still looking for it so I can get a picture for this site. Maybe we will get lucky someday!

   So as it turns out the ships colors of the HMCS Athabaskan are red and white. So I put my thinking cap on and came up with the fly you see above. I added a little silver on the rear half of the fly with some embossed tinsel. It is again my way of showing the silver color for the Silver Cross Mother's. The sinking of this ship, unfortunately, created 128 of those mother's. Again the pattern is available, by going to my Salmon Wet Fly Pages, if you would like to tie your own.

    I have managed to get a few very old poor quality pictures of the Athabaskan, her Captain, her crew, and my Great Uncle Frank of course. Check them out below. Just click on an image to see a larger version. I have just updated a few of the pictures below. I work at Stadacona, CFB Halifax. We have a Chapel Of Remembrance there. The Chaplains office was kind enough to let me take pictures of the remembrance displays they have in the Chapel. If you have ever lost a family member or are interested in this stuff, I highly suggest a visit if you get a chance.

Captain of the Athabaskan Lieutenant-Commander John Stubbs	Some of the Athabaskan Crew
Some more of the crew	My Great Uncle Frank and a few of his ship mates
My Great Uncle Frank Sampson	My Great Uncle Franks Head Stone in Plouscat Cemetary, Northern France
The Stained Glass window from the Chapel Of Remembrance at Stadacona, CFB Halifax. It is in honor of the Athabaskan	A memorial Plaque dedicated the the Athabaskan outside the Chapel Of Remembrance at Stadacona.
This is a page from the Book Of Remembrance kept in the Chapel Of Remembrance at Stadacona. It is opened to the page where my Great Uncle's name is.	This is the actual line from the Stadacona Book Of Remembrance with my Great Uncle's name on it.

Copyright © 2007 by Joel Sampson. All rights reserved.
Revised: Friday, November 16, 2007 1:47 PM
Saj's Fly Tying Pages banner graphic is copyright © 2007 by Tanya Marchenko and used with permission.
All other banner graphics are copyright © 2007 by Joel Sampson. All rights reserved .

Due to constant spamming I cannot provide you with a clickable link to my e-mail. You will have to type it into your own mail program in the correct format. For site problems or questions write sitemanager at flyfishingns dot com to contact me write flyfisherman at flyfishingns dot com.