The End of the Exercise
Steaming homeward from her cruise to the West Indies and South America, the training cruiser Quebec acted as plane guard for the Magnificent, returning to Halifax from the West Coast. The two ships rendezvoused at Colon, Canal Zone.
On occasion the Quebec streams a splash target to permit aircraft from the "Maggie" to carry out rocket-firing bombing and strafing. The spectacle of Avengers and Sea Furies screaming down from the sky and the subsequent bangs, whooshes, clouds of smoke and fountains of spray - all only 300 yards astern of the cruiser - provides some exciting moments for the midshipmen and men under training in particular and the personnel of the Quebec in general.
Then the exercise is over. Off in the distance, the "Maggie" is landing on her aircraft and on board the Quebec, silhouetted against the glow of the sub-tropical sky and sea, sailors run in the splash target against another day.