HMCS Cape Breton (K350)
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HMCS Cape Breton
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History | |
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Canada | |
Name | Cape Breton |
Namesake | Cape Breton Island |
Ordered | October 1941 |
Builder | Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Company, Quebec City |
Yard number | 26 |
Laid down | 5 May 1942 |
Launched | 26 November 1942 |
Commissioned | 25 October 1943 |
Decommissioned | 26 January 1946 |
Identification | pennant number:K 350 |
Honours and awards | Arctic 1944, Normandy 1944, Atlantic 1944-45[1][2] |
Fate | Sold 1947, hull expended as breakwater in British Columbia |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | River-class frigate |
Displacement |
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Length | |
Beam | 36.5 ft (11.13 m) |
Draught | 9 ft (2.74 m); 13 ft (3.96 m) (deep load) |
Propulsion | 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp (4,100 kW) |
Speed |
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Range | 646 long tons (656 t; 724 short tons) oil fuel; 7,500 nautical miles (13,890 km) at 15 knots (27.8 km/h) |
Complement | 157 |
Armament |
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HMCS Cape Breton was a
Cape Breton was ordered in October 1941 as part of the 1942-43 River-class building program.[3] She was laid down 5 May 1942 by Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Company in Quebec City, Quebec and launched on 24 November later that year. Cape Breton was commissioned into the RCN on 25 October 1943 at Quebec City.[4][5]
Background
The River-class frigate was designed by William Reed of Smith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees. Originally called a "twin-screw corvette", its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with the
Improvements over the corvette design included improved accommodation which was markedly better. The twin engines gave only three more knots of speed but extended the range of the ship to nearly double that of a corvette at 7,200 nautical miles (13,300 km) at 12 knots.
River-class frigates were the first Royal Canadian Navy warships to carry the 147B Sword horizontal fan echo sonar transmitter in addition to the irregular ASDIC. This allowed the ship to maintain contact with targets even while firing unless a target was struck. Improved radar and direction-finding equipment improved the RCN's ability to find and track enemy submarines over the previous classes.[6]
Canada originally ordered the construction of 33 frigates in October 1941.[6][7] The design was too big for the shipyards on the Great Lakes so all the frigates built in Canada were built in dockyards along the west coast or along the St. Lawrence River.[7] In all Canada ordered the construction of 60 frigates including ten for the Royal Navy that transferred two to the United States Navy.[6]
Service history
After her commissioning, Cape Breton worked up in St. Margaret's Bay before being assigned to Escort Group 9 in 1944 based out of
Cape Breton returned to Canada late in 1944 where she underwent a major refit at
References
Notes
- ^ Arbuckle 1987, p. 18.
- ^ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0-00216-856-1.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMCS Cape Breton (K 350)". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ^ "HMCS Cape Breton (1st)". ReadyAyeReady.com. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f "Fact Sheet No. 21 - Canadian River Class Frigates". Retrieved 3 April 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0920277225.
- ^ "A List of the Ships Scrapped or Broken Up By Capital Iron & Metals Ltd. in Victoria BC". The Nauticapedia. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
Sources
- Arbuckle, J. Graeme. Badges of the Canadian Navy. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing, 1987. ISBN 0-920852-49-1.
- Macpherson, Ken; Burgess, John. The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships. Toronto, ON: Collins, 1981. ISBN 0-00216-856-1.