A new composition debuting this Saturday in Lunenburg, N.S., tells the story of a Second World War ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat just outside Halifax harbour in 1945.

Within Sight of Shore, written by Halifax composer Scott Macmillan, is a four-part piece for guitar, banjo, piano, brass and string instruments.

The piece is a commemoration for Macmillan's father, Commanding Officer Robert Cunningham Macmillan, one of only 27 men who survived from a crew of 71 aboard HMCS Esquimalt.

"Basically there were two ships that left Halifax harbour to search for German U-boats and the Esquimalt went over to the east side ... and the Sarnia, the sister ship, went over to the west," composer Scott Macmillan told CBC News.

"They agreed to meet at 8 a.m. in the morning rendezvous. The Esquimalt was sunk at 6.30 and went down so fast that the radio went down with it."

Some of those who died were blown up on deck or trapped in the ship, while survivors spent six hours in the frigid Atlantic.

"A torpedo actually hit the stern of the ship and that's where the depth charges were stored and it blew up the stern of the ship and it just went down stern first. So it was four minutes [from a] lovely April 16 sunrise to under the water," Macmillan said.

When HMCS Sarnia turned up to look for its companion ship, it found nothing. Only later, when the alarm came from shore that Esquimalt was not responding, did it begin searching.

Instruments used to represent characters

Macmillan has used different instruments to represent the characters in the drama.

"Saxophones represent the Germans and I represent my father, playing guitar," he said.

The piece are divided into four movements: The Hit, The Wait, The Rescue and Ashore.

Macmillan said the composition starts with music to conjure the beauty of sunrise.

"It's a beautiful sunny day and it's sunrise. Then there's a part where the music speeds up and that's the torpedo coming toward the boat. And then it hits the boat and from there it's kind of a frantic movement," he said.

During the wait, four brass players call to each other and to the guitar player from different corners of the room.

The rescue layers piano with louder and louder sound to represent the ship coming closer.

"Once the ship arrives it goes into kind of a weird little tune, like a real melody, and that represents sort of the happiness and the sadness at the same time, of the ones that were alive, but their mates are lying dead on the deck of the ship," Macmillan said.

The composer talked to survivors of Esquimalt and the chief engineer of German U-boat 190 in his research for the composition.

Every year on April 16 in Esquimalt, B.C., there is a memorial service held in commemoration of the sinking of HMCS Esquimalt.

Macmillan plays guitar and banjo, David Greenberg and the Tempest Baroque Ensemble play string instruments and members of the Stadacona Band of the Maritimes Atlantic also play in the piece, which premieres Saturday at St. John's Church in Lunenburg.

There will be a second performance on Sunday night at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.

With files from Phlis McGregor