HMCS ST. CLAIR (I65)
HMCS ST. CLAIR
The History of HMCS ST. CLAIR
Completed in 1918 as USS Williams, she served with the Pacific Fleet until 1922, when she was laid up at San Diego. Re-commissioned in 1940, she served briefly with the Neutrality Patrol before being transferred to the RCN at Halifax on September 24, 1940, as HMCS St. Clair. Assigned to EG 4, Greenock, she arrived in the Clyde on December 11 to undertake escort duty for Western Approaches Command. On May 27, 1941, in company with three RN destroyers, she was attacked by five German bombers west of Galway, Ireland, HMCS Mashona was capsized by bombs, and St. Clair sank the hulk after picking up survivors. Assigned to NEF, she collided with the oiler Clam on June 17, 1941, shortly after her arrival St. St. John's, and remained under repairs until December 2. In March, 1942, she joined WLEF and in June, 1943, was assigned to its EG W-2. Except for two-months' absence that summer, attached to HMCS Cornwallis, she remained with the group until December, when she was ordered to St. Margaret's Bay to serve as a depot ship for RN submarines used as A/S training. In May, 1944, she was taken to Halifax for repairs, remaining there until paid off August 23. She was then reduced to a firefighting and damage control training hulk in Bedford Basin, where her remains still lay as late as 1950.
HMCS ST. CLAIR Statistical Data
- Pendant: I65
- 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: Union Iron Works, San Francisco. Calif.
- Keel Laid: 25-Mar-18
- Date Launched: 04-Jul-18
- Date Commissioned: 24-Sep-40
- Paid off: 23-Aug-44
Remarks
Ex USS WILLIAMS