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Welcome to the HMCS Kootenay 1969 website

This site includes photos of the ship and the crew from 1969 and over the years. Also included are Commemorations, Memorials, information, news and events related to the October 23, 1969 tragedy.

 

On Thursday October 23, 1969, during Naval exercises 210 miles west of Plymouth England, an explosion and fire in the engine room of HMCS Kootenay occurred and became known as the Royal Canadian Navy’s worst peacetime accident.

 

This tragic event not only took the lives of nine men but it also changed the lives of the survivors and their families.

 

IN MEMORY OF

CPO Vaino Olavi Partanen
CPO William Alfred Boudreau
PO Lewis J. Stringer
PO Eric George Harman
LS Thomas Gordon Crabbe
LS Pierre S. Bourret
LS Gary Wayne Hutton
AB Michael Alan Hardy
OS Nelson Murray Galloway

Slt Clark Reiffenstein
LS Sam Anderson
OS Garry Grant

and the survivors who have

since crossed the bar

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56th Commemorative Ceremony of the 1969 explosion and fire in HMCS Kootenay at the Bonaventure Anchor Memorial in Point Pleasant Park. And a visit to Lew Stringer's grave at Fairview Cemetery

Meet & Greet and Brunch at Parkside Pub for the 56th Commemoration of the 1969 explosion and fire in HMCS Kootenay

Photos of the Ceremony at the Damage Control Training Facility on October 23, 2025 from CFB Halifax

Global News coverage of the Ceremony at the Damage Control Training Facility on October 23, 2025

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