More and more veterans pass away each year, and when they pass, often their remarkable stories go with them.

However, an ambitious new project aims to preserve their experiences online.

More than 2,800 veterans are sharing their stories and experiences as part of the Memory Project – a national treasure trove of testimonials in the veterans’ own words.

“When they are not here to tell them, who will? How will they be remembered? How will their sacrifice be known?” says Anthony Wilson-Smith, president of Historica Canada.

Earle Wagner, 89, is among the thousands of veterans who shared their stories.

Wagner was just 17 years old when he sailed out of Halifax Harbour in 1941. His salary as a merchant mariner – one of the most dangerous jobs in the Second World War – was $45 per month.

In the spring of 1942, Wagner was sailing along the U.S. coastline aboard the Reginolite. One morning near Chesapeake Bay he started to count the sunken ships that had been torpedoed by German U-boats.

“I counted a total of 14 ships sunk, lying on the ocean floor,” says Wagner. “At least hundreds of men that lost their lives, that’s the reality of warfare at sea.”

Glennis Boyce of Saint John also shared her story with the Memory Project. She was a five-foot-tall, 96-pound teenager when she signed up with the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division.

Stationed in Halifax, Boyce and her girlfriends used to keep a date jar, at 10 cents a date. At the end of the month they would use the money to buy cheese and crackers for an after-hours picnic in the barracks.

“We heard an officer coming down the hall so we all grabbed what we could, got in under the covers and pretended we were asleep,” says Boyce.

The Memory Project is still collecting stories, a process that is becoming more urgent, with the average age of a Second World War veteran ranging from 91 to 93.

“I think it’s excellent but it started a generation too late,” says Wagner.

“We are losing veterans now on an average of 500 a week,” says Wilson-Smith.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jayson Baxter