| Destroyers |
Tribal
class destroyer HMCS Haida, 4
July 1944. Built at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
England and commissioned 30 August
1943. After WWII Haida participated
in NATO exercises and served in
Korean War. Now a naval museum,
Haida is in the harbour at Hamilton. |
| Photo
by Gilbert A. Milne. Department
of National Defence / National
Archives of Canada, PA-112359. |
|
At the end of the Thirties, the smallest,
autonomous warships are destroyers, a fast
ship that can reach 30 knots, especially
designed for anti-torpedo and anti-submarine
warfare. Displacing over 1,000 tons, a destroyer
can typically sail high seas and enjoys
enough autonomy to cross the Atlantic. In
1939, destroyers are viewed by Allied navies
as the essential weapon for anti-submarine
warfare. The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has
only six, the River class HMCS Fraser, Ottawa,
Restigouche, Saguenay, St-Laurent and Skeena,
all built in the early Thirties for the
Royal Navy.
Names of ships of a same
type are selected according to their class.
Thus, River class destroyers are named
after Canadian rivers (Fraser, Saguenay,
St-Laurent, etc.); Town class destroyers
have names of Canadian cities (Annapolis,
Hamilton, St. Croix), and Tribal class
ships are named after native nations (Haida,
Huron, Iroquois).
Between 1939 and 1944, the RCN receives
eight additional River class destroyers
from the Royal Navy. In 1940, six U.S.-built
ships are added, called Town class destroyers;
those are older vessels, built in 1918-1919,
requiring major upgrades. Finally, the four
Tribal class destroyers were built in Great
Britain during the war and added to the
RCN fleet in 1942 and 1943.
In 1943, convoy escorts are normally comprised
of a destroyer and five corvettes. The RCN,
however, never had enough destroyers to
meet its escort needs, and relied on the
Royal Navy to fill the ranks.
Canada could not build its own destroyers
as it did for corvettes and frigates: it is
a long process requiring high technical expertise
and tools that Canadian shipyards did not
possess. Construction on four Tribal class
destroyers started at the Halifax Shipyards
Ltd. in 1942 and 1943, but the first of that
series, HMCS Micmac was not combat-ready before
September 1945, after the end of the war.
|
| Suggested
Reading: |
Ken
Macpherson and John Burgess, The
Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-1981,
A Complete Pictorial History of Canadian
Warships, Collins, Toronto, 1981.
Ken
Macpherson, The River-Class Destroyers
of the Royal Canadian Navy, C.J,
Musson, Toronto, 1985. |
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Next:
Corvettes
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Canada in WWII
