HMCS ALGONQUIN (1st) (R17/224 )

HMCS ALGONQUIN (1st)

HMCS ALGONQUIN (1st)

The History of HMCS ALGONQUIN (1st)

The first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy to bear the name HMCS Algonquin was a V-class destroyer originally laid down for the Royal Navy as HMS Valentine (and earlier intended as HMS Kempenfelt). Built by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, her keel was laid on 8 October 1942 and she was launched on 2 September 1943. Under wartime agreements, including arrangements from the 1943 Quebec Conference, the vessel was transferred to Canada as a gift and renamed after the Algonquin people.

Algonquin was commissioned into the RCN on 17 February 1944 at Clydebank in a ceremony attended by Vice-Admiral P.W. Nelles, with Lieutenant-Commander Desmond Piers as her first commanding officer. She was formally accepted from the builders on 28 February after sea trials.

Assigned to the British Home Fleet's 26th Destroyer Flotilla at Scapa Flow alongside her sister ship HMCS Sioux, Algonquin quickly entered active service. In late March 1944 she helped escort the carrier force for Operation Tungsten, the air attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. She supported further strikes against German shipping off the Lofoten Islands and elsewhere along the Norwegian coast. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, she provided naval gunfire support for the Normandy landings, bombarding shore targets including batteries near Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer and supporting Canadian forces. She also transported senior officers such as General H.D.G. Crerar. Later that summer, on 22 August 1944, she rescued 203 members of the crew of the escort carrier HMS Nabob after the carrier was torpedoed in the Barents Sea. Algonquin continued Arctic operations, escorting convoys to Murmansk and participating in attacks on German shipping and airfields through the end of 1944.

In early 1945 she returned to Canada for a tropicalization refit at Halifax in preparation for possible Pacific service. She sailed toward the British Pacific Fleet but was recalled after the Japanese surrender and arrived at Esquimalt, British Columbia, in November 1945. She was paid off into reserve on 6 February 1946.

After extensive modernization at Yarrows Ltd. in Esquimalt that rebuilt her upper works and fitted modern anti-submarine equipment, Algonquin was recommissioned on 25 February 1953 as a destroyer-escort, with pennant number 224.

Algonquin spent most of the next fourteen years with Atlantic Command based at Halifax, serving as senior ship of the First Escort Squadron and taking part in numerous NATO exercises.

She returned to the west coast in 1967 and was paid off for the final time on 1 April 1970. She was sold and broken up in Taiwan in 1971.

HMCS ALGONQUIN (1st) Statistical Data

  • Pendant: R17/224
  • Type: Destroyer
  • Class: V Class ex-Royal Navy
  • Displacement: 1710 tonnes
  • Length: 362.8 ft
  • Width: 35.7 ft
  • Draught: 11.5 ft
  • Speed: 36 kts
  • Compliment: 14 Officers and 230 Crew
  • Arms: 4-4.7", 8-21" Torpedo Tube (2 x IV), 4-40mm, 4-20mm
  • Builder: John Brown & Co. Ltd.. Glasgow, Scotland
  • Keel Laid: 08-Oct-42
  • Date Launched: 02-Sep-43
  • Date Commissioned: 07-Feb-44
  • Paid off: 06-Feb-46

Remarks

Ex HMS VALENTINE. Later recommissioned with pendant 224. Finally paid off 1 Apr 70.

Photos

HMCS Algonquin (R17)

HMCS Algonquin (R17)

HMCS Algonquin (Imperial War Museum)

HMCS Algonquin (Imperial War Museum)

Keywords: HMCS ALGONQUIN (1st), Royal Canadian Navy Ship, Destroyer, V Class ex-Royal Navy Class