Duff Publishing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Book, WASKESIU: Canada's First Frigate, Relives the Battle of the Atlantic

SURREY, BC, CANADA, December 3, 2008 — HMCS Waskesiu is the subject of a newly published book of Canadian naval history. Veterans who served aboard the country's first ship of its class relate what life was like at sea during World War II. At their request to keep their story alive, Duane Duff of Surrey, British Columbia, compiled personal accounts and photographs into this 215-page volume.

Waskesiu, a Cree word meaning "red deer", was an anti-submarine warship named after the townsite in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan. Her task was to search for submarines in the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the English Channel, shielding merchant vessels from marauding German U-boats.

Waskesiu experienced several near misses by torpedoes, but a sister ship was not so fortunate, a devastating scene that haunts the veterans to this day. She was the first frigate to sink an enemy submarine, but the book includes a moving story of a friendship that developed between members of the crew and the survivors of that doomed U-boat.

Surviving veterans periodically reunite and did so on one occasion at the ship's namesake in Prince Albert National Park in June 2003. A chapter is dedicated to that reunion.

WASKESIU: Canada's First Frigate ($24.95, 215 pages, ISBN 978-0-9810784-3-4, Duff Publishing) has 29 chapters and features a glossary to help readers understand the navy terminology used by the sailors. Don Ravis, chair of the Waskesiu Community Council, wrote the foreword.

Duane is the author of six books, including his autobiography. He is a retired high school teacher and librarian of thirty-eight years, having taught in Manitoba, Ontario, and Alberta. His wife, Pamela, is from Saskatoon and remembers visiting Waskesiu Lake as a child.

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