HMCS Matane
![]() HMCS Matane
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History | |
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Name | Matane |
Namesake | Matane, Quebec |
Operator | Royal Canadian Navy |
Ordered | October 1941 |
Builder | Canadian Vickers Ltd. Montreal, Quebec |
Laid down | 23 December 1942 |
Launched | 29 May 1943 |
Commissioned | 22 October 1943 |
Decommissioned | 11 February 1946 |
Identification | Pennant number: K 444 |
Honours and awards | Atlantic 1944, Normandy 1944, Arctic 1945[1] |
Fate | Sold for scrapping 1947 |
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 x 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 Matane was a
Matane was originally ordered as Stormont[2] in October 1941 as part of the 1942–1943 River-class building program.[3][4] She was laid down on 23 December 1942 by Canadian Vickers Ltd. at Montreal, Quebec and launched 29 May 1943.[4] Her name was changed to Matane in 1942.[2] She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 22 October 1943 at Montreal.[3]
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.[5]
Canada originally ordered the construction of 33 frigates in October 1941.[5][6] 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.[6] In all Canada ordered the construction of 60 frigates including ten for the Royal Navy that transferred two to the United States Navy.[5]
War service
After working up in St. Margaret's Bay and
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/HMCSMataneCrewmenOnUboatMay1945.jpg/220px-HMCSMataneCrewmenOnUboatMay1945.jpg)
While operating off
After completing one round trip to
References
- Notes
- ^ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-935149-07-1.
- ^ ISBN 0-00216-856-1.
- ^ a b c d Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMCS Matane (K 444)". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f "Fact Sheet No. 21 – Canadian River Class Frigates". Retrieved 14 May 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0920277225.
- ^ This was a postwar assessment.
- ^ MacFarlane, John M. (2013). "A List of the Ships Scrapped or Broken Up By Capital Iron & Metals Ltd. in Victoria BC". nauticapedia.ca. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
- References
- Macpherson, Ken; Burgess, John. The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910–1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships. Collins: Toronto, 1981. ISBN 0-00216-856-1
External links
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