HMCS Inch Arran
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= Incharran.jpg |Ship caption=HMCS Inch Arran (K667) }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|naval-1911}} |Ship name= Inch Arran |Ship namesake=Inch Arran Point, Dalhousie, New Brunswick |Ship ordered=1 February 1943 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Davie Shipbuilding, Lauzon |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=25 October 1943 |Ship launched=6 June 1944 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=18 November 1944 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= 28 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: K667 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=yes |Ship recommissioned=23 August 1954 |Ship decommissioned= 23 June 1965 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified={{sclass|Prestonian|frigate|1}} |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=pennant number: FFE 308 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sold, broken up 1970 |Ship notes= |Ship badge=On a field barry wavy of eighteen pieces argent and azure, a roundel or displaying a saltire gules charged in the center with a lymphad with four oars sable, sail argent, flags or{{sfnp|Arbuckle|1987|p=49}} }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class={{sclass2|River|frigate}} |Ship displacement=1445 tons |Ship length= {{convert|301.5|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} o/a |Ship beam={{convert|36.6|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught=* {{convert|9|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}
|Ship power={{convert|5500| hp|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=2 × Admiralty boilers |Ship speed={{convert|20|kn|km/h|1}} |Ship range= {{convert|7200|nmi|km|0}} at {{convert|11|kn|km/h|1}} |Ship endurance= |Ship complement=8 officers and 133 crew |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*2 × QF 4 in (102 mm) /40 Mk.XIX guns
|Ship armour= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
HMCS Inch Arran was a {{sclass2|River|frigate}} that served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War and again from 1954 to 1965, when she was converted into a {{sclass|Prestonian|frigate|1}}. She was named after Inch Arran Point in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, Canada.{{cite web|url=http://www2.unb.ca/nbmhp/counties/Restigouche.html |website=The New Brunswick Military Heritage Project |title=Restigouche County - HMCS Inch Arran |access-date=23 March 2014}} This was due to the inability of two Allied warships to bear the same name. The RCN would then use landmarks or significant areas that were associated with the community instead.
Inch Arran was ordered 1 February 1943 as part of the 1943–44 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/155.html
|title=HMCS Inch Arran (K 667)
|last=Helgason
|first=Guðmundur
|website=German U-boats of WWII
|access-date=23 March 2014
}} She was laid down on 25 October 1943 by Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing Co. Ltd. at Lauzon, Quebec, and launched on 6 June 1944. She was commissioned on 18 November 1944 at Quebec City with the pennant number K667.
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 after 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 |website=friends-amis.org |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. Fifteen 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
In January 1945, Inch Arran worked up at Bermuda and was assigned to escort group 28 upon her return in February. The ship spent the remainder of the Second World War on patrol and escort duties in Halifax. The most notable escort duty was alongside {{HMCS|Buckingham|K685|6}} on 13 May 1945 approximately {{convert|140|mi|km|0}} south-southeast of Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Here both vessels escorted the surrendered {{GS|U-889}} back to harbor. Before any of the three vessels were granted entry through the anti-submarine gates of Shelburne Harbor, U-889 was boarded and thoroughly inspected.{{Cite web |title=Navy Service Record |website=KW Sidewinders |url=http://www.kwsidewinders.com/Navy_A.html}} {{dead link|date=March 2014}} On 6 June 1945, Inch Arran began a tropicalization refit in preparation for service in the Pacific Ocean. This was suspended on 20 August due to the Surrender of Japan, and she was paid off on 28 November 1945.
=Postwar service=
Inch Arran was sold to Marine Industries Ltd. in 1946, but was reacquired by the RCN in 1951 as one of the ships chosen to undergo conversion to a Prestonian-class ocean escort. She underwent the conversion at Saint John, New Brunswick, which involved a flush-decked appearance, with a larger bridge and taller funnel. Her hull forward was strengthened against ice and the quarterdeck was enclosed to contain two Squid anti-submarine mortars.{{cite book|title=Jane's Fighting Ships 1958-59 |editor=Raymond V.B. Blackman |publisher= McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. |place=New York |year=1958 |page=77}} She was recommissioned with the pennant number 308 on 23 August 1954. The frigate was assigned to the Seventh Canadian Escort Squadron.{{cite magazine|title=Seventh Escort Squadron |magazine=The Crowsnest |publisher=Queen's Printer |date=November 1960 |volume=13 |number=1 |pages=25}} In March 1961, Inch Arran was among the ships that took part in a combined naval exercise with the United States Navy off Nova Scotia.{{cite magazine |title=A/S Exercise Off Nova Scotia |magazine=The Crowsnest |publisher=Queen's Printer |date=April 1961 |volume=13 |number=6 |pages=2}} During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Canadian aircraft located the Soviet intelligence trawler Shkval about {{convert|500|mi|km|0}} southwest of Argentia. Inch Arran was ordered to shadow the vessel.{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/cordonsteel.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915121814/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/cordonsteel.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 15, 2012 |title=Cordon of Steel : The U.S. Navy and the Cuban Missile Crisis |work=The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series |publisher=Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy |first=Curtis A.|last=Utz |editor=Edward J. Marolda |location=Washington D.C.|page=46}} She served as a training ship on the east coast before paid off 23 June 1965. Inch Arran was sold for conversion into a museum and youth club; this did not happen, and she was ultimately scrapped in 1970.
See also
References
=Citations=
{{reflist|30em}}
=Sources=
- {{cite book |last=Arbuckle |first=J. Graeme |date=1987 |title=Badges of the Canadian Navy |publisher=Nimbus Publishing |location=Halifax, Nova Scotia |isbn=0-920852-49-1}}
External links
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/34370769@N07/4381464546/ HMCS Inch Arran and Lake Transport]
{{River class frigate}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inch Arran, Hmcs}}