St. Laurent class destroyer

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The St. Laurent class destroyer was the first major class of warship designed and built in Canada. It was similar to the Whitby class frigate, but used more American equipment than British. There were seven ships of the class commissioned between 1955 and 1957. Originally intended as a destroyer escort, but it was later refitted to be a destroyer helicopter escort.

1 Original design
2 Modifications
3 DELEX program
4 General characteristics
5 Ships
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Original design

Designed to operate in harsh Canadian conditions. They were built to counter nuclear, biological and chemical attack conditions, which lead to a design with a rounded hull, a continuous main deck, and the addition of a prewetting system to wash away contaminants. The living spaces on the ship were part of a "citadel" which could be sealed off from contamination for the crew safety. The ships were sometimes referred to as "Cadillacs" for their relatively luxurious crew compartments.

Other innovative features not found on other ships of its time included an operations room separate from the bridge, from which the captain could command the ship while in combat, 12 separate internal telephone systems, air conditioning, and the latest advances in radar and sonar technology.

[edit] Modifications

With the advent of the nuclear submarine, it became apparent that the ships needed to be further upgraded, and in the 1960s, all seven ships of the type underwent extensive modernization, to make them into helicopter carrying destroyers (DDH). Some armament was removed to make room for the landing pad, and stabilizing systems were added to allow for helicopter recovery in any sea conditions, and a single CH-124 Sea King was carried. At the same time the SQS 504 VDS, Canadian designed, advanced sonar system was added, dramatically extending the ship's sonar range.

[edit] DELEX program

In the late 1970s, under the Destroyer Life Extension Program (DELEX), the six newest St. Laurent class ships underwent electronics, machinery, and hull upgrades and repairs, with the intent of extending the life of the class for another 15 years of service. The HMCS Fraser was also used as a testbed for technologies which would later be fitted to the Halifax class frigate. The first ship of the class, the HMCS St. Laurent was paid off in the early 1970s, and it was decided to sell her for scrap instead of undergo the DELEX program. She was caught in a hurricane while being towed to the scrap yard Texas, took on water, and sank off Cape Hatteras.

[edit] General characteristics

Length: 111.56 m
Beam: 12.80 m
Draft: 3.96 m
Displacement: 2,800 tons full load
Power plant:
- 2 shaft
- 2 Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers
- 2 English Electric geared turbines, 30,000 shp 28 knots
Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h)
Aircraft: 1 CH-124 Sea King helicopter
Complement: 249 (213 + 20 aircrew after DDH modification)
Armament:
- 2 3"/50 Mk. 33 FMC twin mounts
- 2 40 mm "Boffin" single
- 2 Mk. NC 10 Limbo ASW mortars
- 2 single Mk.2 "K-gun" launchers with homing torpedoes

After DDH modification:

- 1 3"/50 Mk. 33 FMC twin mount
- 1 Mk. NC 10 Limbo ASW mortar
- 2 triple Mk. 32 12.75 inch launchers firing Mark-46 Mod 5 torpedoes.
Radar:
- SPS-12 air search
- SPS-10B surface search
- Sperry Mk.2 navigation
- Upgraded with URN 20 TACAN
- Upgraded with Sperry Mk.127E navigation
Sonar:
- SQS-10 or -11 hull mounted active search and attack sonar
- SQS-501 bottom profiling sonar
- SQS-502 Limbo mortar control sonar
- UQC-1B "Gertrude" underwater telephone.
- Upgraded with a SQS-504 VDS

[edit] Ships

HMCS St. Laurent (DDH 205): commissioned October 29, 1955; refitted on October 4, 1963; paid off June 14, 1974, sank off Cape Hatteras in 1980.
HMCS Saguenay (DDH 206): commissioned December 15, 1956; refitted on May 14, 1965 and May 23, 1980; paid off on June 26, 1990, scuttled as an artificial reef off of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
HMCS Skeena (DDH 207): commissioned March 30, 1957; refitted on August 14th, 1965 and November 20th, 1981; paid off on November 1, 1993, sold for scrap in 1996.
HMCS Ottawa (DDH 229): commissioned November 10, 1956; refitted on October 21, 1964 and November 26, 1982; paid off on July 31, 1992, scrapped in 1994.
HMCS Margaree (DDH 230): commissioned October 5th, 1957; refitted October 15, 1965 and November 28, 1980; paid off on May 2, 1992, scrapped in 1994.
HMCS Fraser (DDH 233): commissioned June 28, 1957; refitted October 22, 1966 and May 28, 1982; paid off October 5, 1994, laid up in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
HMCS Assiniboine (DDH 234): commissioned August 16, 1956; refitted June 28, 1963 and November 16, 1979; paid off December 14, 1988, scrapped in 1995.