In what might be a first for Powell River’s sea cadets, a Canadian Coast Guard officer performed the cadets’ annual inspection.
Captain Marc Rothwell, who grew up in Powell River and was himself a member of Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corp (RCSCC) Malaspina, inspected the corps last month. He is stationed out of Newfoundland.
Rothwell is the captain of the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, the flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard, named after Canada’s 12th prime minister.
“I often reflect on how I got into the business of being a ship’s captain,” Rothwell said to the cadets at Timberlane. “It all started with puttering about in those little boats on Powell Lake.”
Rothwell explained that as a youngster he spent his evenings, weekends—whenever he could—on the water. Weekend trips to Thornton Bay were particularly special as well as the Easter cruises up to Squirrel Cove and Desolation Sound.
He spent summers with fellow sea cadets at HMCS Naden or HMCS Quadra, summers which would set the stage for his four-decade-long career working for the Canadian Coast Guard.
In 1975 Rothwell, then a sea cadet, was chosen to sail across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and Japan with the Royal Canadian Navy.
Rothwell said he has spent over half his career in command positions in the coast guard’s Atlantic fleet of buoy tenders, search and rescue vessels and ice breakers.
“I’ve been involved with many search and rescue cases,” he said. “One that stands out was that of the Swiss Air 111 tragedy off Peggy’s Cove.” Two hundred and twenty-nine people perished September 2, 1998 when the Swiss flight, bound for New York, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia killing all on board.
Rothwell said that in the midst of that mayhem and sadness, he heard a friendly voice on the radio. “I has very happy and heartened to recognize that it was that of naval officer Nigel Greenwood.” Rothwell said he had been a cadet in Malaspina the same time as Rear Admiral Greenwood was.
Throughout his speech at Timberlane he emphasized the importance of his years as a cadet.
“I take great pride in knowing that it all started here, on this parade ground, in these barracks, and on our little boats in Powell Lake,” he said.
After more than 40 years working on boats, Rothwell said he is preparing to hang his lifejacket up next year, but the captain hopes for one more trip to the North Pole. And, with any luck, he said, he will be able to place an RCSCC Malaspina flag there with the names of all the cadets he inspected.
