HMCS Wentworth
![]() HMCS Wentworth
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History | |
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Name | Wentworth |
Namesake | Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Sir John Wentworth |
Operator | Royal Canadian Navy |
Ordered | April 1942 |
Builder | Yarrows Ltd., Esquimalt |
Laid down | 11 November 1942 |
Launched | 6 March 1943 |
Commissioned | 7 December 1943 |
Decommissioned | 10 October 1945 |
Identification | pennant number: K 331 |
Honours and awards | Atlantic 1944-45[1] |
Fate | Scrapped 1947 at Sydney |
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 Wentworth was a
Wentworth was ordered in April 1942 as part of the 1942–1943 River-class building program.
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 locks on the Lachine Canal so it was not built by the shipyards on the Great Lakes and therefore all the frigates built in Canada were built in dockyards along the West Coast or along the St. Lawrence River below Montreal.[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 transiting from Victoria to Halifax Wentworth departed for Bermuda to work up. However while training, she developed defects and was forced to return to Halifax to undergo repair. Following that, she completed working up in St. Margaret's Bay.[3]
In June 1944 Wentworth was assigned to the
References
Notes
- ^ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ISBN 1-55125-048-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-00-216856-1.
- ^ a b c "HMCS Wentworth (K 331)". uboat.net. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f "Fact Sheet No. 21 – Canadian River Class Frigates". Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0-920277-22-5.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
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 0-00-216856-1