OTTAWA—“I don’t know what the heck is going on with my sailors.”

That sentiment — aired by the chief petty officer on HMCS Whitehorse — best sums up a port visit in 2014 that turned into a publicity nightmare for the Royal Canadian Navy.

And the alcohol-fuelled troubles of three sailors sparked some deep reflections within navy ranks, prompting one commander to write that a “hard reset” of attitudes was needed.

The incidents involving the crew of HMCS Whitehorse in 2014 were well-publicized at the time. But documents released to the Star under Access to Information after more than a year shed some new light on the discipline woes that left navy officials shaking their heads.

The coastal defence vessel, based in Esquimalt B.C., was slated to take part in RIMPAC, billed as the world’s largest maritime exercise. But the ship’s mission was cut short by three weeks because of the onshore exploits of its sailors during a port visit in San Diego.

One sailor was held overnight in a police drunk tank; another was arrested for shoplifting and held for several days in a local jail; and a third was left facing allegations of serious misconduct though the details have remained under wraps.

In the wake of the incidents, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, the navy commander, quickly ordered the ship home.

Documents obtained by the Star, including email exchanges between navy commanders as the incidents unfolded, reveal disbelief and anger.

The first indication of the troubled port visit came in a June 28, 2014 email from Chief Petty Officer, Second Class, Don Reid, the coxswain onboard Whitehorse.

“Unofficial head’s up. We have a missing crewman . . . He was out last night . . . and has not returned to the ship yet,” Reid wrote to another chief petty officer.

The navy reached out to civilian and military police, hospitals and jails, searched area lodging and even scanned social media sites for any hint of where the crew member may have gone.

“No-one (sic) knows where he went after leaving the bars last night,” the coxswain wrote.

Soon after, word comes that the missing member has been found after spending the night in a police cell. “He was in the tank overnight and is on his way back to the ship,” Reid wrote in a follow-up email.

The missing sailor had been arrested for public intoxication but not charged by the police.

The trouble didn’t stop there. On July 1, Canadian consular staff in San Diego, Calif., organized a Canada Day reception at a local pub and crews from both Whitehorse and HMCS Nanaimo, another coastal defence vessel, attended.

In the aftermath of that party, another personnel problem arose early the next morning. “A potentially very serious disciplinary incident occurred overnight,’ Reid wrote in an email.

The navy has not said what happened. A later email reveals that military investigators were looking into a “sexual assault-related incident.

For a small ship now juggling two incidents of misconduct, it was enough already. “I hope to god (sic) no more incidents occur,” Reid wrote on July 2.

But Reid doesn’t get his wish. Two days later, in an email with subject line “unbelievable,” Reid broke yet more bad news to Lt. Lucas Kenward, the ship’s executive officer.

“As if it hasn’t been enough already, one of our crew has been caught shoplifting,” Reid wrote in the afternoon of July 4.

Later that night, Kenward provides an update that the sailor, a reservist, was being processed by San Diego police officers. The female sailor was held at the Las Colinas Detention facility, a facility for women prisoners operated by the sheriff’s office in San Diego County.

For reasons that weren’t specified, the charges against the sailor did not go ahead and she was released on July 9.

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The ship’s commander, Lt.-Cmdr. Michael Sorsdahl advised senior officers that he intended to gather the ship’s company for a “serious talk about behaviours, conduct and expectations.

“I’m very confused and concerned about this string of incidents as these are not new people to my ship and standards and this kind of things hasn’t happened to me before since taking command,” he wrote.

The navy has dished out discipline in two of the incidents. The sailor accused of drunkenness was fined $200. The sailor accused of theft was fined $750 and sentenced to seven days of extra work and drill.

In February 2015, the Director of Military Prosecutions preferred one charge of sexual assault and one charge of drunkenness against another sailor. His case continues.

The incidents were described as “atypical” for the ship. But still, the Whitehorse was ordered home to send a shot across the bow of all navy personnel.

A July 16, 2014 memo distributed by Lt. Cmdr. Lorne Carruth, a senior officer at the Canadian Forces base at Esquimalt, and Chief Petty Officer, First Class, Michel Vigneault, framed the incidents as “good sailors by record who made bad choices.”

“(Whitehorse) is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and it was decided that a firm message was needed in order to resonate throughout the fleet,” the memo read.

The memo said senior personnel and “responsible” junior members have a duty to “intervene, onboard or ashore, when things may look to be going sideways.

“Of course, we know that sailors are an archetype of ‘good times in foreign ports’ but we need a hard reset on some attitudes, I believe,” it read.

The memo raised the issue of sexual assault and misconduct and said that relationships must be founded on “mutual choice” and “mutual respect.”

“To truly evolve as a professional as a professional force from the stereotype of filthy sailors of Austin Powers, we need to change our mental models,” it said.

“I have no time for misogynists, predators, machismo, harassment, bullying, peer pressure, rampant promiscuity, exploitation,” the memo said.

The advice was prescient, coming a year before an independent review served up a disturbing wake-up call about sexual attitudes within the military.

A navy spokesperson declined to comment on this story but did point to changes made in the aftermath of the incidents to improve training and reinforce standards of conduct.

“The RCN tackled that situation head on,” the spokesperson said.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Norman issued a statement saying that the “vast majority” of naval personnel serve with “distinction and professionalism.” But he sped up a planned review of the rules governing how sailors conduct themselves onshore.

Several months after this incident, Norman announced that alcohol consumption would be banned while Canadian warships are at sea.