The crew from YORK was on board the Fort Steele for a 10 day study break cruise at the end of February 1984. After passing Sea Safety Checks with flying colours, as YORK always did, we were tasked with going to Canso to escort a small patrol boat coming out of refit back to Halifax. I got the weather briefing from the MET guys who stated that the weather was good and there was no ice between Halifax to Canso. So off we went -- great fun. At about 0200 Lt. Rob (Killer) Johnston and Lt. John (Little John) McNally had the watch. We were doing 18 knots. in calm seas, very cold and no moon. Now remember, Little John came from the Merchant Service and had lots of bridge experience in the North Atlantic. He was peering at the radar and noticed an intermittent broken line across the radar ahead at about 2 miles. Little John shouted “ICE AHEAD”. They called me to the bridge. I jumped out of bed and while trying to pull on my pants ended up on the deck as the ship went to full stop, both engines reversed. Coming to the bridge, the line on the radar was solid now, less than a half a mile ahead. We turned on the lights and slowly crept up to it. In no time, there it was a wall of ice 3 feet high. The story goes on with more interesting events, but the point is, Little John had saved our lives. The Fort Steele, had it rammed head long into the ice, with its thin aluminum hull, she would have gone down like a stone, with the loss of all hands. That's the mettle of our Little John. ------- Commander Lee (Magoo) Maguire