HMCS Coaticook
{{Short description|River-class frigate in the Royal Canadian Navy}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Ff hmcs coaticook.jpg |Ship caption=HMCS Coaticook }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|naval-1911}} |Ship name= Coaticook |Ship namesake= Coaticook, Quebec |Ship owner= |Ship operator= Royal Canadian Navy |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= 1 February 1943 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Davie Shipbuilding, Lauzon |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=553 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=14 June 1943 |Ship launched=26 November 1943 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=25 July 1944 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=29 November 1945 |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 410 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours=Atlantic 1944–1945,{{cite web|title= Battle Honours | url=http://www.britainsnavy.co.uk/Battle%20Honours/A%20Battle%20Honour%20Date.htm#1900|work=Britain's Navy|access-date=30 March 2014}} Gulf of St. Lawrence 1944{{cite web|title=Royal Canadian Warships that Participated in the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence|url=http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/battlegulf/canwarship|publisher=Veterans Affairs Canada|access-date=11 October 2018|archive-date=27 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927080617/http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/battlegulf/canwarship|url-status=dead}} |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sold 1948, sank as breakwater; raised 1961 and scuttled 1962 at Race Rocks off Vancouver Island. |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=River-class frigate |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |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 height= |Ship draught={{convert|9|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}; {{convert|13|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} (deep load) |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=2 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, {{convert|5500|ihp|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan= |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 test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement=157 |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=
|Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
HMCS Coaticook was a River-class frigate that served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She fought primarily in the Battle of the Atlantic as a coastal convoy escort. She was named for Coaticook, Quebec.
Coaticook was ordered on 1 February 1943 as part of the 1943–1944 River class building programme.{{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/188.html|work=uboat.net |title=HMCS Coaticook (K 410) |access-date=30 March 2014}} She was laid down on 14 June 1943 by Davie Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd. at Lauzon, Quebec and launched 26 November 1943. She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 25 July 1944 at Quebec City.
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 12 knots. Among other lessons applied to the design was an armament package better designed to combat U-boats including a twin 4-inch mount forward and 12-pounder 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.
War service
Coaticook was sent in mid-September 1944 to Bermuda for workups after commissioning. Upon her return she was assigned to escort support group EG 27 based out of Halifax. During this period, German U-boats, the main foe of the River-class frigates, had adapted to the increased anti-submarine patrols with the introduction of the schnorkel, which allowed the U-boats to remain underwater while they recharged their batteries. This led to the German "inshore offensive" which targeted convoys along the Canadian and American coastlines that led to more forces being deployed in this area.{{cite web|first=Douglas M. |last=McLean |url=http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol03/tnm_3_4_19-35.pdf |title=The Battle of Convoy BX-141 |work=The Northern Mariner |date=October 1993 |pages=19–35}} Coaticook remained in this duty until June 1945 when she sailed for Esquimalt. She was paid off into the reserve there on 29 November 1945.
Postwar service
In 1948, Coaticook was sold for stripping and in 1949, she was sunk as a breakwater at Powell River in British Columbia to replace the floating breakwater that had been installed.{{cite web|url=http://www.nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Capital_Iron.php |title=Capital Iron & Metals Ltd. – From Ship Breakers to Department Store |last=MacFarlane |first=John M. |work=nauticapedia.ca |date=2011 |access-date=30 March 2014}} In 1961, the hull was refloated in an effort to tow it to Victoria, British Columbia to be broken up. However en route, a storm arose and the hull suffered damage. The damage was considered significant enough to render the hull structurally unstable. The decision was made to scuttle it instead of continuing on to Victoria. Four cases of forcite, a gelatin dynamite, were placed throughout the ship. The ship was sunk near Race Rocks, off Vancouver Island in February 1962. Photos of the resulting explosion were taken and distributed through The Canadian Press.
References
;Notes
{{reflist}}
;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}}
{{River class frigate}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coaticook, HMCS}}