HMCS SHAWINIGAN (2nd) (704)
HMCS SHAWINIGAN (2nd)
The History of HMCS SHAWINIGAN (2nd)
HMCS Shawinigan (MM 704) was the fifth Kingston-class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel and the second Royal Canadian Navy ship named for Shawinigan, Quebec. She inherited the battle honours Atlantic 1942-44 and Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942, 1944 from the Flower-class corvette lost with all hands in Cabot Strait in 1944.
Laid down at Halifax Shipyards on 26 April 1996 and launched on 15 November 1996, she was commissioned at Trois-Rivieres on 14 June 1997. Homeported at CFB Halifax and crewed largely by naval reservists, she was built for coastal patrol, mine countermeasures, training, fisheries and sovereignty work, and search and rescue. In June 1998 she took part in the Naval Reserve's 75th-anniversary sail-past in Halifax Harbour and appeared on a commemorative stamp.
Early years mixed training and constabulary work: fisheries patrols off Newfoundland, support to diving exercises with HMCS Windsor, Acadia's 400th-anniversary events, and an international mine-warfare exercise. In 2005 she became the first Kingston-class ship to operate in the Canadian North. In 2006 she escorted yachts and served as a platform for officials during the Route Halifax-Saint-Pierre race.
She later set a Navy record. On Operation Nanook in August 2014 she reached 80 degrees 28 minutes North, the farthest north any RCN ship had then steamed, until the record was broken by HMCS Max Bernays in 2025. She returned north in 2016 with HMCS Moncton and worked with CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier on archaeological work around Franklin's Erebus. She deployed on Operation CARIBBE (2015 and 2021), helping intercept more than a tonne of cocaine on two occasions; on Operation Projection to West Africa (2019 and a 2020 deployment cut short by COVID-19); and on Operation Reassurance in 2023 with HMCS Summerside, conducting mine-clearance in the North Atlantic and Baltic.
The Bofors 40mm guns were removed from Canada's Kingston-class coastal defence vessel (MCDV) fleet in 2014, leaving the vessels relying on two 12.7mm (0.50 caliber) Browning M2 heavy machine guns for self-defense.
After 28 years of service, Shawinigan was paid off at Halifax on 3 October 2025 with several of her sisters.
HMCS SHAWINIGAN (2nd) Statistical Data
- Pendant: 704
- Type: Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel
- Class: Kingston
- Displacement: 970 tonnes
- Length: 55.31 m / 181.5 ft
- Width: 11.3 m / 37 ft
- Draught: 3.4 m / 11 ft
- Speed: 15 kts
- Compliment: 31-36 Officers and Crew
- Arms: 1 - 40mm Bofors (removed in 2014), 2 - 12.7 mm (.50 cal) machine gun
- Builder: Halifax Shipyards Ltd., Halifax, NS
- Keel Laid: 26-Apr-96
- Date Launched: 15-Nov-96
- Date Commissioned: 14-Jun-97
- Paid off: 03-Oct-25
More Images
HMCS Shawinigan at Rimouski, Quebec, June 5, 2009. (Wikimedia commons user: Alcide55)
HMCS SHAWINIGAN off Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 21, 2020. (Photo: Corporal Veldman, Canadian Armed Forces Photo)