HMCS SWANSEA (K328/306)
HMCS SWANSEA
The History of HMCS SWANSEA
Commissioned at Victoria on October 4, 1943, Swansea arrived at Halifax on November 16 and worked up off Pictou and in St. Margaret's Bay. Assigned to EG 9, Londonderry, she made her passage there with convoy SC.154, incidentally taking part in the sinking of U 845 on March 10. On April 14 she repeated the process in company with HMS Pelican, the victim this time being U 448. She was present on D-Day, and for the next four months patrolled the Channel in support of the ships supplying the invasion forces. While thus employed, she and Saint John sank U 247 off Land's End on September 1. She left Londonderry on November 5 for a major refit at Liverpool, N.S., from December 1944 to July, 1945. It was the first tropicalization of a frigate for Pacific service, and on VJ-Day Swansea was assessing the refit results in the Caribbean. She was paid off November 2, 1945 to reserve in Bedford Basin, but was twice recommissioned for training cadets and new entries between April, 1948 and November, 1953. She was rebuilt, from 1956 to 1957, as a Prestonian class ocean escort, serving on the east coast until finally paid off October 14, 1966. She was broken up in 1967 at Savona, Italy.
HMCS SWANSEA Statistical Data
- Pendant: K328/306
- Type: Frigate
- Class: RIVER Class 42-43 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: 1-4" (1 x II), 1-12 pdr.
- Builder: Yarrows Ltd.. Esquimalt, B.C.
- Keel Laid: 15-Jul-42
- Date Launched: 19-Dec-42
- Date Commissioned: 04-Oct-43
- Paid off: 02-Nov-45
Remarks
Recommissioned as a Prestonian Class on 14-Nov-57 Pendant Number 306. Finally Paid Off 14-Oct-66.
More Images
Post-war HMCS SWANSEA (Prestonian Class)