HMCS Stormont (K327)
![]() HMCS Stormont
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History | |
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Name | Stormont |
Namesake | Stormont, Ontario |
Ordered | October 1941 |
Builder | Canadian Vickers Ltd., Montreal |
Yard number | 167 |
Laid down | 23 December 1942 |
Launched | 14 July 1943 |
Commissioned | 27 November 1943 |
Decommissioned | 9 November 1945 |
Identification | Pennant number: K327 |
Honours and awards | Arctic 1944, Atlantic 1944–45, English Channel 1944, Normandy 1944[1] |
Fate | Sold to Aristotle Onassis as yacht Christina |
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 Stormont is a former
Stormont was ordered October 1941 as part of the 1942–1943 River-class building program.[2][3] She was laid down on 23 December 1942 by Canadian Vickers Ltd. at Montreal and launched 14 July 1943.[3] She was commissioned into the RCN at Quebec City on 27 November 1943 with the pennant K327.[2]
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.[4]
Canada originally ordered the construction of 33 frigates in October 1941.[4][5] 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.[5] In all Canada ordered the construction of 60 frigates including ten for the Royal Navy that transferred two to the United States Navy.[4]
Wartime service
Stormont joined the RCN's Atlantic Fleet at
In July 1944, she towed the damaged
Civilian use
Originally sold in 1947 for conversion to a merchant ship, Stormont was re-sold to
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Hacker_tender_and_Christina_O.jpg/220px-Hacker_tender_and_Christina_O.jpg)
After Aristotle Onassis' death in 1975, his daughter Christina inherited the vessel, and donated it to the Greek government in 1978 to serve as a presidential yacht. As such, she was rechristened Argo and was, over time, allowed to decay and deteriorate. In 1998, she was purchased by another Greek shipowner, John Paul Papanicolaou, who restored her and renamed her into Christina O.[2] As of 2013, she was still in operation.[8]
See also
- List of ships of the Canadian Navy
References
- ^ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0-00216-856-1.
- ^ a b c "HMCS Stormont (K 327)". uboat.net. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f "Fact Sheet No. 21 – Canadian River Class Frigates". Retrieved 3 April 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0920277225.
- ^ a b c d "Christina O: From Snowy Nova Scotia to the Sunny Mediterranean, how a Canadian Frigate Became the World's Most Famous Super Yacht". The Marine Curator: Artifacts, Images and History from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
- ^ a b Boswell, Randy (23 February 2012). "Canadian war ship turned luxury yacht opens to London sightseers". The National Post. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
- ^ a b c Boswell, Randy (4 July 2013). "'The last word in opulence': Lavishly refitted D-Day warship, Christina O, on sale for $34-million". The National Post. Retrieved 23 March 2014.