HMCS BONAVENTURE Badge

HMCS BONAVENTURE Badge

Blazon

On a field barry wavy often argent and azure a horseshoe with toe to base or in which a wyvern wings displayed guMs gorged with a coronet of Canada.
(Glossary of Heraldic Terms)

Significance

This ships name is famous in the annals of British naval history and retains the original RN badge with one addition, the coronet of Canada as a collar on the wyvern. The name is derived from an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence which is a bird sanctuary to thousands of nesting sea birds. Bonaventure is a carrier which serves as a resting place for aircraft that leave and return to her decks. The horseshoe in the design is a symbol of bonne adventure or good luck. The wyvern, while having no particular heraldic significance of its own, does display the tail of a fish and is winged, illustrating its ability to fly.

Remarks

Originally HMS Powerful, the aircraft carrier Bonaventure was commissioned into the RCN in January 1957. She wore pennant 22 until she was paid off in July 1970.

Motto

Non por nos toz seus (Not for us alone)

Colours

Gold and scarlet.

Battle Honours

Lowestoft, 1665; Four Days Battle, 1666; Orfordne.ss, 1666: SoLe Bay, 1672; Schooneveld, 1673; Texel, 1673; Barfleur, 1692; Malta Convoys, 1941.

References

Badges Of The Canadian Navy by Arbuckle, J. Graeme. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 1987.