HMCS Athabaskan (G07)
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HMCS Athabaskan Canada, Department of National Defence |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 5 April 1940 |
| Laid down: | 31 October 1940 |
| Launched: | 18 November 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 3 February 1943 |
| Fate: | Lost in action 29 April 1944 English Channel (torpedoed) |
| Struck: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,850 tons (standard), 2,520 tons (full) |
| Length: | 377 ft (115 m) |
| Beam: | 37 ft 6 in (11.4 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft |
| Propulsion: | 3 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, steam turbines, 2 shafts, 44,000 shp |
| Speed: | 36 kt |
| Range: | 524 tons oil, 5,700 nm at 15 kt |
| Complement: | 190 (219 as leader) |
| Armament: | |
| Aircraft: | N/A |
| Motto: | We fight as one |
| Battle Honours: | Arctic 1943-44, English Channel 1944 |
| Badge: | Blazon On a field argent, a North American Indian clad in buckskin breeches, leggings and beaded moccasins, but bare to the waist except for a necklace of bear's claws and blue shells, and ear ornaments of the last. The Indian wears the full-feathered headdress and is mounted bareback upon an Indian pony being halted from the trot. The Indian holds a red bow and arrow in the "ready" position, the latter pointing down. |
HMCS Athabaskan (G07) was the first of three destroyers of the Canadian Navy to bear this name. It was a destroyer of the Tribal class, built in the United Kingdom by Vickers Armstrong of Newcastle upon Tyne with Parsons engine works.
Athabaskan was lost in the English Channel the night of 29 April 1944. She was torpedoed by the German destroyer escort T24. Her commanding officer LCdr John Stubbs was killed in action after declining rescue by HMCS Haida to swim back for more crew members.
There does exist some speculation that Athabaskan was in fact lost to a friendly fire incident after being accidentally torpedoed by a British Motor Torpedo Boat, or that she suffered some sort of catastrophic internal explosion in the #1 Boiler Room. However, due to the poor condition of the wreck after some 60 or so years of lying in strong currents, as well as the poor record-keeping and incomplete logs of other ships in the area at the time of her sinking, neither of these theories have yet been confirmed.
