HMCS COLUMBIA (1st) (I49)
HMCS COLUMBIA (1st)
The History of HMCS COLUMBIA (1st)
As USS Haraden she served in the Adriatic Sea during part of 1919 before returning to the U.S. for training out of Norfolk, Va. Placed in reserve at Philadelphia in 1922, she emerged in December, 1939, to take part in the Neutrality Patrol, and was transferred to the RCN as Columbia on September 24, 1940, at Halifax. At first employed on local escort duty, she left Halifax January 15, 1941, for the U.K., where she was assigned to EG 4, Greenock. In June, 1941, she joined the newly formed NEF, and in March, 1942, following repairs at Halifax, transferred to WLEF. In January, 1943, she went to the aid of her RN sister, HMS Caldwell, adrift without propellers southeast of Cape Breton, and successfully towed her 370 miles to Halifax. Following a major refit at Saint John from February 1 to May 20, 1943, she rejoined WLEF, becoming a member of EG W-4 at the end of June and of W-10 in December. On February 25, 1944, owing to a combination of fog and faulty radar, she rammed a cliff in Motion Bay, Nfld. without so much as touching bottom. Repairs only sufficient to make her watertight were carried out at Bay bulls, though not until May. That September she was taken to Liverpool, N.S., to serve as an ammunition storage hulk for ships refitting there. Paid off on June 12, 1945, into reserve at Sydney, she was sold for strap later that year.
HMCS COLUMBIA (1st) Statistical Data
- Pendant: I49
- Type: Destroyer
- Class: TOWN
- Displacement: 1069 tonnes
- Length: 314.3 ft
- Width: 30.5 ft
- Draught: 8.5 ft
- Speed: 28 kts
- Compliment: 10 Officers and 143 Crew
- Arms: 4-4", 12-21" Torpedo Tubes (4 x III)
- Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. Ltd., Newport News, Va.
- Keel Laid: 30-Mar-18
- Date Launched: 04-Jul-18
- Date Commissioned: 24-Sep-40
- Paid off: 17-Mar-44
Remarks
Ex USS HARADEN