HMCS Asbestos (K358)

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Career (Canada) Flag of Canada Royal Canadian Navy
Namesake: Asbestos, Quebec
Builder: Morton Engineering & Dry Dock Co., Quebec City
Laid down: 20 July 1943
Launched: 22 November 1943
Commissioned: 16 June 1944
Decommissioned: 8 July 1945
Fate: Sold 1947. Wrecked off Cuba 13 February 1949. Wreck salvaged and scrapped in March 1949 at New Orleans.
General characteristics
Class and type: Flower-class corvette (modified)
Displacement: 1,015 long tons (1,031 t/1,137 S/T)
Length: 208 feet (63.40 m)o/a
Beam: 33 feet (10.06 m)
Draught: 11 feet (3.35 m)
Propulsion: single shaft, 2x oil fired water tube boilers, 1 triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine, 2,750 ihp
Speed: 16 knots (29.6 km/h)
Range: 3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)
Complement: 90
Sensors and
processing systems:
One Type 271 SW2C radar, one Type 144 sonar
Armament:
  • 1 x 4-inch BL Mk.IX single gun
  • 1x 2-pounder Mk.VIII single "pom-pom"
  • 2x 20 mm Oerlikon single
  • 1x Hedgehog A/S mortar
  • 4x Mk.II depth charge throwers
  • 2 depth charge rails with 70depth charges

HMCS Asbestos (K358) was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy.

Asbestos followed the design of the modified Flower-class corvettes and was ordered from Morton Engineering & Dry Dock Co.. She was laid down on 20 July 1943 and launched on 22 November 1943. She was commissioned into the RCN on 16 June 1944 and arrived at Halifax on 9 July before moving on to Bermuda for working up.

Following working up she headed for St John's on 21 August where she joined convoy HXF.307 on 10 September as a member of Escort Group C-2. She continued on as a member of this group on convoy duties until the end of the war in Europe.

Her only commanding officer was Lt. J. Cuthbert, RCNR who was promoted to A/Lt. Cdr. on 1 January 1945.

She was decommissioned from the RCN on 8 July 1945 and laid up on Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Sold to a Panamanian company in 1947, she was wrecked off Cuba whilst en route to Panama on 13 February 1949. The wreck was salvaged and taken to New Orleans, Louisiana for scrapping in March 1949.

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