In the dying days of the Nazi regime, German U-boats fight to the end. On April 16th, 1945, the U-190 sinks the minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt, the last Canadian warship lost in the Second World War. The survivors endure six hours in the frigid water before being rescued; only twenty-seven of the minesweeper's seventy-one crewmembers will survive. On May 11, the U-190 receives a transmission from headquarters: each U-boat must surrender to Allied forces. Two Canadian escort vessels are transferred from a convoy with orders to meet and board the U-190. The U-boat is now a prize of war and her crew is made prisoner. During the summer of 1945, the U-190, now property of the Canadian Navy, sets out on an exhibition tour which takes her to the main ports on the St. Lawrence River. The submarine 2 then travels to Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, Gaspé, Pictou, Sydney and each time, her presence attracts thousands of onlookers. The Canadian Navy decides to put an end to the U-190's career on October 21, 1947. The U-boat is towed to the spot where it had sunk the HMCS Esquimalt. For the RCN, the sinking of the U-190 was the final act of a drama which marked the end of enemy incursions into the country, and a symbolic way to end the war.
—Alain Vézina