HMCS SASKATOON (2nd) (709)
HMCS SASKATOON (2nd)
The History of HMCS SASKATOON (2nd)
HMCS Saskatoon (MM 709) was the tenth Kingston-class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel and the second Royal Canadian Navy ship named for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She inherited the battle honour Atlantic 1942-45 from the Flower-class corvette of the same name.
Laid down at Halifax Shipyards on 5 September 1997 and launched on 30 March 1998, she left Halifax on 31 August 1998, transited the Panama Canal, and reached Esquimalt on 19 October. She was commissioned there on 5 December 1998. Homeported at CFB Esquimalt and crewed largely by naval reservists, she was built for coastal patrol, mine countermeasures, training, fisheries and sovereignty work, and support to other government departments.
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.
She worked with the RCMP, Canadian Coast Guard and Canada Customs, conducted fisheries and sovereignty patrols, and trained reservists from across the country. In 2012 she took part in Exercise Pacific Guardian with sisters Nanaimo and Brandon and U.S. Coast Guard units. In 2016 she sailed to Hawaii for RIMPAC with Calgary, Vancouver and Yellowknife.
She became a regular on Operation CARIBBE in the eastern Pacific. On a 2016 deployment with HMCS Edmonton she recovered hundreds of kilograms of jettisoned cocaine from the water. A 2017 patrol produced further seizures, including more than 1,100 kg in two boardings with U.S. Coast Guard law-enforcement teams. She returned to CARIBBE in 2021 with Brandon and in 2022 with Yellowknife, again taking part in multi-tonne interdictions. After a six-month maintenance period in 2019-20 she remained active until the class began paying off.
Saskatoon was paid off at Esquimalt on 29 September 2025 with HMCS Brandon and Whitehorse, among the first Kingston-class ships retired.
HMCS SASKATOON (2nd) Statistical Data
- Pendant: 709
- 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: 05-Sep-97
- Date Launched: 30-Mar-98
- Date Commissioned: 05-Dec-98
- Paid off: 29-Sep-25
More Images
A USCG Helicopter flies over HMCS SASKATOON, Operation CARIBBE, February 17, 2022. Photo: MARPAC Imaging Services
HMCS Nanaimo and HMCS Saskatoon (right) off Vancouver Island in 2007 (Wikimedia commons user:Jordanroderick)