John Cameron stands on Pier C in front of the HMCS Gatineau, a river class destroyer brought to Pictou to be scrapped.

Part of John Cameron’s life has come full circle with the arrival of the naval destroyer Gatineau in Pictou Harbour.
It’s one of two destroyers arriving in Pictou after being retired to be scrapped at the local Aecon Fabco shipyard.
The Pictou resident and retired member of the Canadian Navy was on board the ship when it was commissioned 50 years ago in Halifax.
“It was Feb. 17, 1959,” Cameron said. “We sailed out of Halifax Harbour with snow falling off the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge.”
Cameron spent 20 years in the Navy after he joined on April 14, 1958.
“I’d just finished my basic training and went right to her,” he said. “It was great. We had a good crew.
"I was on the Gatineau for 16 months, until June 1961. After that, I just went from one ship to the other.
"In total, I had more than 1,000 days at sea. I’d do it all again if I could.”
One of Cameron’s excursions aboard the Gatineau took him to Quebec later in 1959 as part of the official opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
During his time at sea, Cameron was on ships all the way to the head of Lake Superior, as far east as Cyprus, as far north as Narvik, at the head of a giant fiord in northern Norway, and as far south as Montevideo, Uruguay.
He was on the former aircraft carrier Bonaventure when it took the first Canadian army contingents to Cyprus.
Cameron said he’ll miss the Gatineau, considered ultramodern in terms of design and technology when it was built.
“It was the most sophisticated warship at sea at that time,” Cameron said. “No ship had rounded hulls or enclosed anchors or anything like that.
“It’s great to see her again, but it makes you feel bad they’re going to scrap her. But that’s life.”