Whatever the merits, whatever the failings, whatever the political fallout, the choice of second-hand submarines for use in Canada's Naval Service was marked with a fatal accident at sea which took the life of a young officer, Lieutenant Chris Saunders of New Brunswick, leaving a bereaved wife, two children too young to realize they had lost a dad, his parents, relatives, friends, fellow submariners, and an entire nation to grieve his loss.

The saga of HMCS Chicoutimi will now enter the long history of disasters at sea. Perhaps something useful will be learned. Perhaps the tragic death of Lieutenant Saunders will lead to greater safeguards and precautionary measures that will save other lives. Perhaps.

One immediate, if regrettable consequence, was a linking of two nations, Canada and Ireland, in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. Via television, the world saw the hapless submarine dead in the water, about 100 miles off the Irish coast in very rough seas, waves rolling it from side to side. Without power, without the means to communicate fully its plight to would-be rescuers, it lay at the mercy of the North Atlantic.

The sight is still in everyone's memory.

After a harrowing three days, three of the nine injured men on board were winched aboard a Royal Navy helicopter which delivered them to Sligo in Ireland. At the Sligo General Hospital it was discovered that Lieutenant Sanderson was dead on arrival. Medical aid was focused on his two comrades, one of whom was in critical condition. Happily they responded to the treatment they received from doctors and nursing staff. They survived.

That it should have been the death of a young Canadian sailor that linked our two countries together one more time is, as noted above, regrettable. But Canadians can be assured that whatever could be done to assist was done. The Irish authorities paid a fitting tribute to Lieutenant Saunders as his body began the sad journey home to Canada.

At Dublin Airport a guard-of-honour of 30 sailors from the Irish Naval Service bowed heads and reversed rifles as eight officers from the Canadian navy carried his casket to a waiting Canadian Forces jet transport.

Earlier, Canadian Navy Presbyterian chaplain Padre Bonnie Mason and Irish Army Roman Catholic chaplain Fr. Alan Ward joined in holding a brief ecumenical service over the casket.

Those attending the removal at the airport included the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lt. General Jim Sreenan; the Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service, Commodore Frank Lynch, and the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Mark Moher.

Mr. Moher later paid tribute to the Defence Forces, the Gardai, Sligo General Hospital and State Pathologist Dr. Marie Cassidy.

The Irish response to the tragedy had been "first rate", he said.

How the submarine was eventually towed to port in Scotland is another part of the story, eerily reminiscent of another epic in the seas close to Ireland, that of Captain Carlson and the Flying Enterprise now fast fading from human memory. It was in December 1951 and January 1952 that Carlson and his ship commanded world attention, he as the lone man to remain on board while waiting for help to arrive.

An enterprising Irish journalist working for the Express newspaper brought the first pictures of the captain aboard his stricken vessel to public notice when he chartered an airplane to fly out to sea and capture the event on film.

By sheer coincidence I met the journalist years later in Ottawa where he was visiting two of his brothers, Pat and Tim Murray, of the architectural firm, Murray and Murray.

The Enterprise finally foundered while being towed to port, ending a fifteen-day struggle to save her.

That Canada appreciated the help received from Ireland following the Chicoutimi disaster was shown by the visit of HMCS St. John's to Cork on October 21. The Canadian naval vessel was expressly diverted to express formal thanks.

At a brief ceremony on board, Commodore Mark Norman, the ship's captain, presented Commodore Frank Lynch, the Flag Officer Commanding the Irish Naval Service, with a certificate in appreciation of the help provided by the Navy, the Coastguard and a Killybegs trawler, the Western Endeavour.

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