HMCS ST. STEPHEN (K454/323)
HMCS ST. STEPHEN
The History of HMCS ST. STEPHEN
Commissioned on July 28, 1944, at Esquimalt, St. Stephen arrived at Halifax on September 28 and in October proceeded to Bermuda to work up. Returning in mid-November, she joined EG C-5 and spent the balance of the war as a mid-ocean escort. She left Barry, Wales, on May 27, 1945, to take passage home with convoy ON.305, and early in June began tropicalization refit at Dartmouth, N.S. This was cancelled in August and on January 30, 1946, the ship was paid off at Halifax and laid up in Bedford Basic. On September 27, 1947, she was re-commissioned, having undergone alterations to fit her as a weather ship. She was stationed between Labrador and Greenland until August, 1950, when she sailed to Esquimalt to be paid off on August 31 and lent to the Department of Transport. Retained primarily as a "spare" in the event of a mishap to St. Catharines or Stone Town, she was purchased by the Department in 1958. Ten year later she was sold to a Vancouver buyer, purportedly for conversion to a fish factory ship.
HMCS ST. STEPHEN Statistical Data
- Pendant: K454/323
- Type: Frigate
- Class: RIVER Class 43-44 Programme
- Displacement: 1445 tonnes
- Length: 301.5 ft
- Width: 36.6 ft
- Draught: 9 ft
- Speed: 19 kts
- Compliment: 8 Officers and 133 Crew
- Arms: 2-4" (1 x II), 4-20mm, Hedgehog
- Builder: Yarrows Ltd.. Esquimalt, B.C.
- Keel Laid: 05-Oct-43
- Date Launched: 02-Jun-44
- Date Commissioned: 28-Jul-44
- Paid off: 30-Jan-46