HMCS Springhill
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Springhillriverclassfrigate.jpg |Ship caption= HMCS Springhill }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|naval-1911}} |Ship name=Springhill |Ship namesake= Springhill, Nova Scotia |Ship owner= |Ship operator= Royal Canadian Navy |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= June 1942 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Yarrows, Esquimalt |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=5 May 1943 |Ship launched=7 September 1943 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=21 March 1944 |Ship decommissioned=1 December 1945 |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 323 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= Gulf of St. Lawrence 1944{{cite web|url=http://www.veterans.gc.ca/pdf/publications/canada-remembers/RS_Battle_Gulf_e.pdf |title=The Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence |work=Veterans Affairs Canada |page=29 |access-date=18 April 2014}} |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= Sold, scrapped 1947 |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=
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HMCS Springhill was a River-class frigate that served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She served primarily as a convoy escort in the Battle of the Atlantic, mainly in the Battle of the St. Lawrence. She was named for Springhill, Nova Scotia.
Springhill 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/173.html|work=uboat.net |title=HMCS Springhill (K 323) |access-date=18 April 2014}} She was laid down on 5 May 1943 by Yarrows Ltd. at Esquimalt and launched 7 September later that year. She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 21 March 1944 at Victoria, British Columbia.
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=18 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
After transiting to Halifax, Springhill was sent to Bermuda in June 1944 to work up. Upon her return she was assigned to escort group EG 16 as a local escort based out of Halifax. She was made Senior Officer's Ship upon joining the group in August 1944. With this unit she fought in the Battle of the St. Lawrence. She remained with the group until March 1945, when she was ordered to Derry, but quickly returned in April to undergo a tropicalization refit in preparation for service in the southern Pacific Ocean. This meant installing water-cooling and refrigeration abilities and changing the camouflage pattern.{{cite news |url=http://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/living/gallant-hmcs-prince-rupert-served-on-the-newfie-derry-run-1.159128 |title=Gallant HMCS Prince Rupert served on the 'Newfie-Derry' run |work=Cowichan Valley Citizen |first=T.W. |last=Paterson |date=15 April 2011 |access-date=18 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413144253/http://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/living/gallant-hmcs-prince-rupert-served-on-the-newfie-derry-run-1.159128 |archive-date=13 April 2014 }}
The refit began in May 1945 at Pictou, Nova Scotia and completed in October. However, by that point Japan had surrendered and Springhill was paid off at Halifax on 1 December 1945 and laid up in Bedford Basin. In 1947 she was sold and taken to Sydney, Nova Scotia for breaking up.
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}}
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