As the world hunkers down for a 2021 winter in the vise of a pandemic, the Lake Country Museum and Archives is offering a glimpse of a summer’s day on the lake in 1986.
On Saturday the museum shared a photo of the Okanagan Centre Submarine, taken more than 30 years ago with Navy members waving from aboard.
Named the Henry D. Redecopp (HDR), the submarine is noted as the “pride of the Okanagan Centre Navy.”
As legend would have it, the submarine’s arrival quickly led to the construction of a shipyard built by Tobias Redecopp, who was also a naval crew member.
“Scorning traditional old-fashioned construction methods, innovative materials were sourced with scant regard to cost. The resulting D-grade plywood and lightly used Styrofoam quickly took shape finished with a high-tech outer skin of military grey supplied by General Paints,” the museum notes.
In its heyday the HDR provided fire protection with its high-powered water pump, starred in a nationally renowned parade and even escorted world prime ministers to the Commonwealth Conference in 1987.
“Having served with distinction and with peace returning to our valley she was retired and now lives on only in our history and the memories of all who remember those days of glory,” the museum writes.
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