HMCS Edmundston

{{main|Flower-class corvette}}

Flower-class corvettes like Edmundston serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were different from earlier and more traditional sail-driven corvettes.{{cite web |last=Ossian |first=Robert |url=http://www.thepirateking.com/ships/ship_types.htm |title=Complete List of Sailing Vessels |website=The Pirate King |access-date=13 April 2011}}{{cite book |editor-last=Fitzsimons |editor-first=Bernard |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons & Warfare |location=London |publisher=Phoebus |date=1978 |volume=11 |pages=1137–1142 }}{{cite book |title=Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II |location=New Jersey |publisher=Random House |date=1996 |isbn=0-517-67963-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/janesfightingshi00fran/page/68 68] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/janesfightingshi00fran/page/68 }} The "corvette" designation was created by the French for classes of small warships; the Royal Navy borrowed the term for a period but discontinued its use in 1877.{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Nicholas |last2=Lawrence |first2=Richard |title=The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I59v6rkg8egC&pg=PA39 |publisher=Stackpole Books |date=2005 |pages=39–63 |isbn=0-8117-3275-4}} During the hurried preparations for war in the late 1930s, Winston Churchill reactivated the corvette class, needing a name for smaller ships used in an escort capacity, in this case based on a whaling ship design.{{cite book |last=Chesneau |first=Roger |last2=Gardiner |first2=Robert |title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJBMBvyQ83EC&pg=PA62 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |date=June 1980 |page=62 |isbn=0-87021-913-8}} The generic name "flower" was used to designate the class of these ships, which – in the Royal Navy – were named after flowering plants.{{cite book |title=North Atlantic Run |last=Milner |first=Marc |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1985 |pages=117–119, 142–145, 158, 175–176, 226, 235, 285–291 |isbn=0-87021-450-0}}

Corvettes commissioned by the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were named after communities for the most part, to better represent the people who took part in building them. This idea was put forth by Admiral Percy W. Nelles. Sponsors were commonly associated with the community for which the ship was named. Royal Navy corvettes were designed as open sea escorts, while Canadian corvettes were developed for coastal auxiliary roles which was exemplified by their minesweeping gear. Eventually the Canadian corvettes would be modified to allow them to perform better on the open seas.{{cite book |last=Macpherson |first=Ken |last2=Milner |first2=Marc |year=1993 |title=Corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy 1939–1945|publisher=Vanwell Publishing |location=St. Catharines |isbn=1-55125-052-7}}

Edmundston was ordered on 14 February 1940 as part of the 1939–1940 Flower-class building program. She was laid down 23 August 1940 by Yarrows Ltd. at Esquimalt, British Columbia and launched 22 February 1941.{{cite web | url = http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/817.html | work = Uboat.net | title = HMCS Edmundston (K 106) | access-date = 14 August 2013}} Edmundston was commissioned at Esquimalt on 21 October 1941.{{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|pages=75, 157, 231 |isbn=0-00216-856-1}}

During her career, Edmundston underwent two significant refits. The first took place beginning in January 1943 at Halifax, Nova Scotia where her fo'c'sle was extended. The refit was finished in May 1943. The second major refit was done at Liverpool, Nova Scotia from May to July 1944.

After workups, Edmundston was assigned to Esquimalt Force. The Japanese submarine {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-26||2}} sank the American cargo ship {{SS|Coast Trader}} {{convert|35|nmi}} southwest of Cape Flattery, Washington on 7 June 1942, and over the next two days Edmundston and the fishing schooner Virginia I rescued all but one of her survivors.{{cite web |url= http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-26.htm |title=IJN Submarine I-26: Tabular Record of Movement |first1=Bob |last1=Hackett |first2=Sander |last2=Kingsepp |work=combinedfleet.com |date=March 1, 2016|access-date=20 February 2022}} On 20 June 1942, Edmundston rescued 31 crew of {{SS|Fort Camosun}}, which had been torpedoed off Cape Flattery by the Japanese submarine {{Jsub|I-25||2}}. Fort Camosun herself was towed into Victoria Harbour by {{HMCS|Quesnel|K133|6}}.{{cite book |last=Webber |first=Bert |author-link=Ebbert Webber |year=1975|title= Retaliation: Japanese Attacks and Allied Countermeasures on the Pacific Coast in World War II |publisher=Oregon State University Press |isbn= 0-87071-076-1}}

On 13 September 1942, Edmundston was reassigned to the Atlantic. She arrived at Halifax in October. Upon arrival she was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force. After workups following her first major refit, she joined the Royal Navy-controlled escort group EG 5, which protected convoys in the Atlantic and on routes to and from Gibraltar and Sierra Leone. She spent the next ten months as an ocean escort.

On 25 August 1943 EG 5, consisting of the British frigates {{HMS|Nene|K270|2}} and {{HMS|Tweed|K250|2}} and the Canadian corvettes {{HMCS|Calgary|K231|2}}, {{HMCS|Snowberry|K166|2}} and Edmundston were sent to relieve the 40th Escort Group which had been deployed on a U-boat hunt off Cape Ortegal. While this was in progress the ships were attacked at 14:15 by 14 Dornier Do 217s and 7 Junkers Ju 88s with the new German glide bomb weapon, the Henschel Hs293 A-1. The sloops {{HMS|Landguard|Y56|2}} and {{HMS|Bideford|L43|2}}, who were part of the 40th Escort Group, were the first of the Allied and Royal Navy ships to be attacked and damaged by them. Several sailors were injured in Bideford and one sailor was killed. Two days later the force sent to relieve Edmundston{{'}}s group was also attacked and suffered losses.

After her second refit and workups in Bermuda, she joined Mid-Ocean Escort Force escort group C-8 in August 1944. She served with this group until the end of the war.

Edmundston was paid off at Sorel, Quebec on 16 June 1945. She was sold for mercantile use in 1948 and converted to a cargo ship of {{GRT|939}}.{{csr|register=MSI|id=6111788|shipname=Edmundston|access-date=13 July 2016}} Under the new name Amepala she was last on Lloyd's Register in 1961–62. The ship was broken up in 1961.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|HMCS Edmundston (K106)}}

• {{Cite web|url=http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/canada/ww2/flower/ |title= Flower Class Corvette|author=Sandy McClearn | publisher=Hazegray |website= Canadian Navy of Yesterday and Today |access-date= 14 August 2013}}
• {{Cite news|url=http://www.readyayeready.com/ships/shipview.php?id=1125&ship=EDMUNDSTON |title= HMCS Edmundston |author=Ready, Aye, Ready |access-date= 14 August 2013}}

{{Flower class corvette|original}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmundston, HMCS}}

Category:Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy

Category:1941 ships

Category:Ships built in Esquimalt