Swimming Against the Current

As I Was Saying is a forum for a variety of perspectives to foster faith-related conversations among our readers with the goal of mutual learning, even in disagreement. Apart from articles written by editorial staff, these perspectives do not necessarily reflect the views of The Banner.

Being people of integrity can be hard. The apostle Paul calls this virtue painful. “For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man” (2 Cor. 8:21). It takes real effort to be people who do what is right and true—much like swimming against the current.

One story, in 1940, illustrates what it looks like to be people of integrity. War was raging in Europe. Germany had invaded nine different countries in quick succession, including Poland, Denmark, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. No wonder they called it The Blitzkrieg—lightning-fast attacks by an efficiently strong army. Then the German army set its sights on Britain.

British war preparation began in earnest—gathering troops, supplies, equipment, and safeguarding the nation’s gold. The question was, where to store the gold out of reach of German aggression. Canada, part of the Allied forces and an ocean away from the German front, became the chosen destination.

Operation Fish was implemented in May 1939. Under the cover of darkness, three tightly guarded ships sat in the harbour as tens of millions of gold bars and securities were secretly loaded into their holds. “Fish” was listed on the docket for each crate. Then in broad daylight, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth boarded one of these ships, effectively concealing the “other” purpose for this transatlantic trip. “Operation Fish” was now ready for its passage to Canada.

Trouble began early in the journey; one of the ships was urgently called back to England. The cargo, which had filled three ships, now had to be redistributed to the remaining two. Every nook and cranny on the other two ships was used to store the hundreds of crates. Even the captain had to step around cargo boxes stored in his own cabin.

Fierce hurricane-like winds battered both ships on their journey, but the captain and crew surprisingly welcomed this extreme weather; it would ensure that lethal German U-boats, called wolf packs, would be kept at bay.

The shipments arrived safely in Halifax, where five heavily guarded trains secretly transported this precious cargo to the Bank of Canada in Ottawa.

Over the next several months, many more “Operation Fish” ships arrived in Canada.

In all this movement of gold, not one single bar went missing. The crew didn’t “accidentally” hide a crate; the captain didn’t quietly slip a gold bar under his bed; the bank manager didn’t fudge the books to allow him to take some home. All the gold was accounted for—none went missing.

Such integrity is hard to find, but in this case, it helped to alter the outcome of the war.

May we be people of integrity who are swimming against the current, “taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.”

You can read more about this and other stories of Canadian history here.