HMCS Haida National Historic Site
In 2002, at the urging of Hamilton, Ontario MP Sheila Copps, Parks Canada purchased the Haida from the provincial government and towed her (with great difficulty) from her Ontario Place dock to a shipyard at Port Weller for a $5 million refit to her hull. She was taken to a new home on the Hamilton waterfront and arrived to an 11-Gun Salute from 31 Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Lion and her 12 pounder Naval Field Gun on 30 August 2003, the 60th anniversary of her commissioning into the RCN. She is now a National Historic Site of Canada and is a museum ship on the Hamilton waterfront. Haida has become a focal point of a revitalized waterfront near Catharine Street North.
In July 2006 the Haida was "twinned" with the Polish destroyer ORP Błyskawica in a ceremony in Gdynia, Poland. Both ships served in the 10th Destroyer Flotilla during World War II. The ceremony was attended by former crew members of both ships and the general public. The ship was visited in 2009 by Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and on 29 June 2010, at Government House in Nova Scotia, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, presented to representatives of HMCS Haida the World Ship Trust Certificate.
Read more about this topic: HMCS Haida (G63)
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