| March's
esoteric list of mountains PEAKS
NAMED BY J. NORMAN COLLIE
Having the peaks of the Canadian Rockies in a database
makes it easy to generate innumerable lists possibly of
interest to mountain enthusiasts. This one has been
made by selecting the 31 mountains named by Norman Collie, one
of the most important of the early explorers and climbers in
the history of the Canadian Rockies.
Mount
Alberta, Mount Athabasca, Mount Bess, Mount Bryce, Mount
Cline,
Mount Columbia, Mount Conway, Coronation Mountain, Mount Dent,
Diadem Peak, Mount Freshfield, Gilgit Mountain, Mumm Peak,
Mount Mummery, Mount Nanga Parbat, Nigel Peak, North Twin
Peak, Mount Noyes, Mount Phillips, Mount Sarbach, Mount
Saskatchewan, Snow Dome, South Twin Peak, Stutfield Peak,
Survey Peak, Mount Thompson, Mount Walker, White Pyramid,
Mount Wilcox, Mount Wilson, Mount Woolley
Select
"J. Norman Collie" in the Mountain People section of
Peakfinder to learn more about him. Enter
the names of the peaks in the search box on the main page to find out
more about the mountains he named.
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Look who's honoured in the Canadian Rockies
JACK CORNWELL VC-The Boy Hero of the Battle of Jutland
John
Trevers Cornwell was a fifteen year old member of a gun crew
aboard HMS Chester, a Royal Navy cruiser which was severely
damaged during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. His teacher
described him as "an ordinary English boy" and it is
said his days were spent in "rambling over the streets of
London" but that his "one great desire was to be a
sailor." In October, 1915 he enlisted as "Boy, 2nd
Class" in the Royal Navy. He was referred to as, "a
good boy, quick and ready, and always spick and span" and
for these reasons was selected for the post of messenger to
the commander of the naval barracks at which he was learning
the elements of seamanship and gunnery.
Cornwell was soon promoted to "Boy, 1st Class" and
on May 31st, 1916 was aboard the cruiser HMS Chester as it
sailed into the greatest sea battle of the First World War. As
part of the crew of the forward six inch gun it was his duty
to set the gun to the range telephoned to him from the fire
control. In a letter to John Cornwell's mother, Captain Lawson
of the Chester described the "Boy Hero of the Battle of
Jutland's," actions when he wrote, "The wounds which
resulted in his death were received in the first few minutes
of the action. He remained steady at his most exposed post at
the gun, waiting for orders. All but two of the ten crew were
killed or wounded, and he was the only one who was in such an
exposed position. But he felt that he might be needed, and
indeed he might have been; so he stayed there, standing and
waiting, under heavy fire, with just his own brave heart and
God's help to support him."
Boy, 1st Class Cornwell was awarded the Victoria Cross
for his actions during the battle.
Cornwell's ship was honoured by a Canadian Mountain as well.
Mount Chester is part of the Kananaskis Range and may be seen
from the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail.
Enter Mount
Cornwell and Mount Chester to learn more about these peaks.
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| The
Battle of Jutland
During
the time that the Interprovincial Boundary was being surveyed
between the Bow Valley and the Crowsnest Pass the First World
War was raging. The greatest sea battle of that war must have
made a considerable impression on Arthur Wheeler, Richard
Cautley and others involved with the survey because 34
mountains in the Canadian Rockies were named to honour various
ships and individuals who played a role in the battle. Mount
Jutland was named in honour of the battle itself.
The Battle of Jutland was the only major naval
confrontation between the British and Germans during the First
World War. The German Navy was facing the greatest battle
fleet the world had ever seen when it challenged the Royal
Navy in 1916. When the smoke had cleared the British had lost
six cruisers, and eight destroyers while the Germans had lost
one battleship, five cruisers, and five destroyers.
The tactical victory is said to have gone the Germans as they
had inflicted double their own losses in terms of tonnage
against a greatly superior opponent. In addition, the British
lost over twice as many men as the Germans. However, the
German fleet was forced to retreat and never again ventured
forth from its protected harbour of Helgoland. Thus, it is
argued, the British were victorious as Britannia continued to
rule the waves for the duration of the Great War. At any rate
this great battle at sea did little to change the ratio of
strength between the two fleets or the strategic situation in
the war.
The power of the guns and explosions, the massiveness of the
ships, and the devastation wreaked upon their crews is evident
from the recollections of those who watched the destruction of
two battle cruisers, Rear Admiral Hood's flagship HMS
Invincible and HMS Queen Mary.
An officer watching the battle from another ship recalled,
"Rear Admiral Hood (aboard the Invincible) pressed home
his attack, and it was an inspiring sight to see this squadron
of battle cruisers dashing towards the enemy with every gun in
action." Initially Hood's ships were successful in
landing some heavy blows on enemy ships but suddenly the
ever-shifting low cloud and mist began to favour the enemy and
German shells began to strike the Invincible. "Flames
shot up from the gallant flagship and there came again the
awful spectacle of a fiery burst, followed by a huge column of
dark smoke which, mottled with blackened debris, swelled up
hundreds of feet in the air, and the mother of all battle
cruisers had gone." The North Sea is relatively shallow
where the Invincible was struck with the result that the ship
created her own tombstones for her 1026 dead. "She blew
up exactly in half. The two ends then subsided, resting on the
bottom, so that they stood up almost vertically with the stem
and stern standing an appreciable distance out of the
water."
HMS Queen Mary came under the concentrated fire of two enemy
battleships, the Derfflinger and the Seydlitz. Her final
moments were described by Von Hase of the Derfflinger,
"First of all a vivid red flame shot up from her
forepart. Then came an explosion forward which was followed by
a much heavier explosion amidships. Black debris flew into the
air and immediately afterwards the whole ship blew up with a
terrific explosion; a gigantic cloud of smoke rose, the masts
collapsed inwards and the smoke hid everything." An
officer aboard HMS New Zealand reported, "We passed the
Queen Mary about 150 yards on our port beam, by which time the
smoke had blown clear, revealing the stern from the funnel aft
afloat and the propellers still revolving, but the forward
part had already gone under. When we were abreast, this after
portion rolled over and blew up. Great masses of iron were
thrown into the air and things were falling into the sea
around us. Before we had quite passed, the Queen Mary
completely disappeared." Of the crew of 1275, all but
seven were killed.
Although it seems almost tedious at times to have so many
mountains in the same area named after ships and people
involved in the Battle of Jutland, it is easy to imagine how
this monumental sea battle and the others of
The Great War could have had a powerful impact on the
people of the day. Most of those involved in the surveying of
the Interprovincial Boundary would have had relatives and
friends directly involved and these great battles would not
have been far from their minds as they did their work in the
peace and tranquility of Alberta's Rocky Mountains.
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