Three Notable Cruises

The Ontario's training cruises followed in such quick succession this year that the ship decided to issue a single certificate to cover all three, and this was duly executed by Cdr. H. W. S. Soulsby, RCN (Ret'd) of Victoria, whose vocation is woodcarving but who shows an equal facility with the pen.
Two cruises for Venture cadets, were to Japan, in the first instance, and to the West Indies, in the second. The Caribbean cruise involved participation in the largest RCN exercise ever conducted in that area.
The third cruise, to Mexico, the Canal Zone, and Ecuador, was notable for the fact that it was the first training cruise arranged specifically for the naval cadets training under the Regular Officers' Training Plan. In other years the cadets, drawn from Canadian service Colleges and universities, had been assigned ti the general summer training cruises conducted by the RCN.
For the ship's company of the Ontario, the training program stacked up to almost eight months of almost continuous cruising- a lot of miles, a lot of water and a lot of hard work, leavened by shipboard fun and shore leave in faraway palaces.