HMCS Charlottetown (1943)
{{Short description|River-class frigate}}
{{for|the K244 launched in 1941|HMCS Charlottetown (1941)}}
{{other ships|HMCS Charlottetown}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMCS Charlottetown (River class) S-1057-R.jpg |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|naval-1911}} |Ship name=Charlottetown |Ship namesake= Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island |Ship ordered= June 1942 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Davie Shipbuilding, Lauzon |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=23 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=26 January 1943 |Ship launched=16 September 1943 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=28 April 1944 |Ship decommissioned=25 March 1947 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= pennant number:K 244 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= Atlantic, 1942; Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1942, 1944.{{cite web |url=http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-2/par1/charlott-eng.asp |work=National Defence of Canada |title=Volume 2, Part 1: Extant Commissioned Ships : HMCS Charlottetown |access-date=26 March 2014 |archive-date=19 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719154413/http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-2/par1/charlott-eng.asp |url-status=dead }} |Ship fate= Sold 1947, hull expended as breakwater in British Columbia. |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class={{sclass2|River|frigate}} |Ship displacement=*{{convert|1445|LT|t ST|lk=in}}
|Ship length=*{{convert|283|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} p/p
|Ship beam={{convert|36.5|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|9|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}; {{convert|13|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} (deep load) |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, {{convert|5500|ihp|abbr=on}} |Ship speed=*{{convert|20|kn|km/h|1}}
|Ship range={{convert|646|LT|t ST|abbr=on}} oil fuel; {{convert|7500|nmi|km|0}} at {{convert|15|kn|km/h|1}} |Ship endurance= |Ship complement=157 |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*2 × QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun/45 Mk. XVI on twin mount HA/LA Mk.XIX
|Ship armour= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
HMCS Charlottetown was a {{sclass2|River|frigate}} that served with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War. She was the second vessel of the name, {{HMCS|Charlottetown|1941|6}} having been a {{sclass2|Flower|corvette}} that had been sunk earlier in the war. They are unique for being the only two ships to have shared the same pennant number, K 244. She was named for Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Charlottetown was ordered in June 1942 as part of the 1942-1943 River-class building program.{{cite book |last=Macpherson |first=Ken |last2=Burgess |first2=John |year=1981 |title=The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships |publisher=Collins |location=Toronto|isbn=0-00216-856-1}}{{cite web|url=http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/175.html|work=uboat.net |title=HMCS Charlottetown (ii) (K 244) |access-date=26 March 2014}} She was laid down on 26 January 1943 by G T Davie Shipbuilding Ltd. at Lauzon and launched on 16 September of that year. She was commissioned into the RCN at Quebec City on 28 April 1944. She visited her namesake city of Charlottetown on 22 May en route to Halifax.
Background
{{main|River-class frigate}}
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 Royal Navy at the time, including the Flower-class corvette. The first orders were placed by the Royal Navy in 1940 and the vessels were named for rivers in the United Kingdom, giving name to the class. In Canada they were named for towns and cities though they kept the same designation.{{cite web|url=https://www.friends-amis.org/index.php/en/document-repository/english/fact-sheets/44-canadian-river-class-frigate-1/file |title=Fact Sheet No. 21 - Canadian River Class Frigates |access-date=3 April 2014}} The name "frigate" was suggested by Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles of the Royal Canadian Navy and was adopted later that year.{{cite book|title=Frigates of the Royal Canadian Navy 1943-1974 |last=Macpherson |first=Ken |publisher=Vanwell Publishing |year=1989 |place=Lewiston, New York |pages=6–7, 15 |isbn=0920277225}}
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 {{convert|7200|nmi|km}} at {{convert|12|kn|km/h}}. Among other lessons applied to the design was an armament package better designed to combat U-boats including a twin {{convert|4|in|mm|adj=on|0}} mount forward and a 12-pounder gun aft. 15 Canadian frigates were initially fitted with a single 4-inch gun forward but with the exception of {{HMCS|Valleyfield|K329|6}}, they were all eventually upgraded to the double mount. For underwater targets, the River-class frigate was equipped with a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar and depth charge rails aft and four side-mounted throwers.
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.
Canada originally ordered the construction of 33 frigates in October 1941. 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. In all Canada ordered the construction of 60 frigates including ten for the Royal Navy that transferred two to the United States Navy.
Service history
Charlottetown proceeded to Bermuda on 18 June for a 1-month work-up period for her new crew. She returned to Halifax and was assigned to convoy escort group EG 16. EG 16 moved from Halifax to Derry, Northern Ireland on 7 March 1945 and later Portsmouth, England. Charlottetown escorted two convoys to and from Gibraltar and left Derry in mid-June for {{HMCS|Protector}} in Sydney where she completed a tropicalization refit in preparation for service with Operation Downfall in the Pacific War. She completed the refit in Halifax on 28 February 1946 after the Surrender of Japan and left on 3 March for new duties at Esquimalt. She spent the rest of 1946 training crew with the University Naval Training Divisions at the Royal Canadian Naval College in Royal Roads.
She was paid off from the RCN on 25 March 1947 at Esquimalt. She was sold the same year and scuttled for use as a breakwater at Oyster Bay, British Columbia.
References
=Notes=
{{reflist|30em}}
=Sources=
- [http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-2/par1/charlott-eng.asp Department of National Defence: Official Lineages - HMCS Charlottetown] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719154413/http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-2/par1/charlott-eng.asp |date=19 July 2011 }}
- 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
- [http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/search3.php?query=Charlottetown&Submit=Find+Vessel HMCS Charlottetown on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.]
- [http://www.readyayeready.com/ships/shipview.php?id=1081 HMCS Charlottetown (River-class) at readyayeready.com]
{{River class frigate}}
{{coord missing|British Columbia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlottetown, HMCS}}
Category:River-class frigates of the Royal Canadian Navy