rcnhistory.org :
ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY
HMCS YUKON
Photos submitted by Mike Cashaback

Even before the destroyer escort Yukon was commissioned, a link was established with the territory in which the Yukon River, after which the ship is named, rises.

Twelve-year-old Betty Flynn of Dawson City, gold rush capital at the turn of the century, was on her way home from the Shrine Hospital in Portland, Oregon, where her crippled limbs had been undergoing treatment for the past nine months, when the ships' officers learned of her presence in Vancouver.

The little Indian girl was welcomed on board the nearly completed ship at Burrard Dry Dock Company Ltd., North Vancouver, in early May by the captain-designate, Cdr. R.W.J. Cocks, his executive officer, Lt.-Cdr. H.H.W. Plant, and Captain J.C. Gray, Senior Naval Officer, Vancouver area.

Although she has to use crutches, Betty gamely toured the ship with the captain. Later she and her mother, Mrs. Rowena Flynn, were luncheon guests of the captain.

The Yukon's sailors plan to write letters and send photographs to Betty regularly to keep her advised of the ship's travels and adventures. Betty will thus serve as a continuing link between the ship and the northern river after which the Yukon was named.

-- From The Crowsnest, June, 1963.