WW II veteran pushes Canadian government to recognize 'ocean war graves'

When Paul Bender was 17, he helped bury three men at sea.

A convoy from Halifax had come under attack by German U-boats. Sailors from a torpedoed oil tanker ended up in the water, swimming through burning oil that was floating on the water's surface. By the time Bender's rescue ship reached the men, their skin was horribly burned, and they'd ingested some of the oil. They didn't survive the return trip.

"I can describe what these three sailors looked like," said Bender. "But I'll never be able to describe their screams of pain."

The 90-year-old merchant navy veteran is now urging the Canadian government to recognize the concept of "ocean war graves," in hopes of protecting shipwrecks from plunderers. 

If the government were to acknowledge ocean war graves, Bender says it would have the legislative authority to prosecute people that dive on sunken war ships. 

"I've written to just about every government department that has any jurisdiction in this matter," Bender said. "I get very sympathetic responses saying what I'm doing is a very good thing, but nobody has done anything about it."

Bender might finally be getting some traction, though. In March, he appeared before a House of Commons transportation committee, which is studying his idea. 

It's a lifelong feeling of comradery with his fellow sailors that led Bender to take up the task of trying to protect the remains of wartime wrecks.

"I got to thinking I was lucky, and an awful lot of people have not been so lucky," he said. "Many of them, their remains now lie in the bottom of the oceans, mostly the North Atlantic, and nobody thinks about them. Well, I've been thinking about them since I saw some of these things happening and decided it's about time somebody did something about it." 

This story appears in the Out in the Open episode "Protection."