HMCS HAMILTON (I24)
HMCS HAMILTON
The History of HMCS HAMILTON
As USS Kalk she served the USN in European waters during 1919, returning to the U.S. to perform training duties for a few months before being laid up at Philadelphia in 1922. Re-commissioned in June, 1940, she served briefly with the Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic before being transferred to the RN at Halifax on September 23, 1940. Commissioned as HMS Kalk, she was renamed Hamilton (for Hamilton, Bermuda) at St. John's where, on her arrival on October 1, she was damaged in collision with her sister HMS Georgetown. She was taken to Saint John, N.B., for repairs and, while being undocked there on October 26, ran aground and received damage sufficient to lay her up for half a year. She was therefore offered to the RCN, re-commissioned at Saint John as an RCN ship on July 6, 1941, and assigned to WLEF. After escorting one convoy, she was in collision with the Netherlands submarine O-15 at Halifax. After repairs she again took up local escort duties, and in June, 1943, became a member of WLEF's EG W-4. She still had not made a transatlantic passage when in August, 1943, she was allocated to HMCS Cornwallis as a training ship. She was paid off on June 8, 1945, at Sydney and broken up at Baltimore the same year.
HMCS HAMILTON Statistical Data
- Pendant: I24
- 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: Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. Ltd., Fore River Yard, Quincy, Mass.
- Keel Laid: 17-Aug-18
- Date Launched: 21-Dec-18
- Date Commissioned: 06-Nov-41
- Paid off: 08-Jun-45
Remarks
Ex USS KALK