HMCS Sackville (K181)
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 HMCS Sackville in October 2006, moored alongside the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia and restored to her 1944 condition. |
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| Career (Canada) |  |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Sackville, New Brunswick |
| Builder: | Saint John Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company Ltd. |
| Laid down: | 28 May 1940 |
| Launched: | 15 May 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 30 December 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 April 1946 |
| Refit: |
Liverpool, Nova Scotia, commenced 14 January 1943, machinery replacement, minesweeping gear removed, bridge wings extended to fit Oerlikon 20mm AA Galveston, Texas, 28 February 1944-7 May 1944, Forecastle extended, new bridge, hedgehog fitted, mast moved abaft of bridge, new boats, new electronics |
| Fate: | Museum ship, Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Flower-Class Corvette |
| Displacement: | 950 tons |
| Length: | 62.5m (205ft) |
| Beam: | 10m (33ft) |
| Draft: | 3.5m (11.5ft) |
| Propulsion: | Single shaft, 2 fire tube Scotch boilers, 1 4-cyl. triple expansion steam engine, 2750 hp. |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Complement: | 85 |
| Armament: | 1 4" BL Mk.IX single,1 Mk.VIII 2-pounder on antiaircraft mount, 2 .50 cal mg twin, 2 Lewis .303 cal mg twin, 2 Mk.II depth charge throwers, 2 depth charge rails with 40 depth charges, 1 Mk 3 hedgehog. |
| Notes: | Now a museum ship owned by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust, moored in season at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic |
HMCS Sackville (K181) is a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later served as a civilian research vessel. She is now a museum ship and the last surviving Flower-class corvette.
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[edit] Wartime service
Sackville was commissioned into the Canadian Navy on 30 December 1941. Her first commanding officer was discharged as "unsuitable" after the ship was deemed still not ready for service in March 1942.[1] The original crew were reposted to other RCN ships and the already trained crew of HMCS Baddeck drafted onto the ship. The ship was finally assigned to Escort Group C-3 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force along with two others on 15 May 1942 to replace corvettes going for refit.
Sackville continued in this role until starting an extensive refit in Liverpool, Nova Scotia in January 1943. She returned to service in April and was assigned to Escort Group C-1 where she remained until reassigned to a new group Escort Group 9 in July. The group was disbanded following the loss of three of its ships on 20-22 September and the ship assigned to group C-2, where the ship remained on Atlantic escort work until going for refit in Galveston, Texas in Fedruary 1944.
Returning to Halifax in May 1944 the vessel worked up in Bermuda and was then assigned to Escort Group C-2 which left for Londonderry escorting convoy HX-297 on 29 June 1944.
At Londonderry the boilers were cleaned, which revealed a serious leak in one of them. Repairs were unsuccessful and the ship was no longer considered suitable for convy escort work. Since the ship had only been recently been modernized she was reassigned for training at HMCS King on 29 August 1944.
Howerver almost immediately afterwards the deiscion was made to convert her to a Loop Layer, laying anti-submarine indicator loops across harbour entrances, her damaged boiler removed to provide storage for the cable and the 4 inch gun replaced with a pair of cranes. She remained in this role until paid off in April 1946 and laid up in reserve.
[edit] Civilian service
Most Flower-class corvettes were scrapped shortly after the war however Sackville was laid up in reserve. Reactivated in 1952 and converted to a research vessel for the Department of Marine and Fisheries. The armament was removed, the hull replainted black in place of the original dazzle camouflage and the new pennant number 532 painted on the hull (changed to 113 in the late 1950s). A laboratory was built on the aft superstructure in 1964 and the bridge enclosed in 1968. She remained in service until December 1982, with her last cruise in July 1982.
[edit] Museum ship
The original intention had been to acquire HMCS Louisburg (K401), which had been sold to the Dominican Republic and renamed Juan Alejandro Acosta but this vessel was wrecked (along with another Flower-class corvette - Cristobal Colon, the former HMCS Lachute (K440))[2] by Hurricane David in 1979. This left Sackville as the sole remaining Flower-class corvette.[1]
The ship was transferred to the Canadian Naval Corvette Trust (now the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust) on 28 October 1983 and restored to her 1944 appearance (apart from minor details in her camouflage and the presence of the "barber pole" red and white pattern around her funnel which had been removed before 1944). It had originally been planned to restore the ship to her 1942 appearance but this proved too expensive.[1]
She currently serves the summer months as a museum ship on loan to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while spending her winters securely in the naval dockyard at CFB Halifax under the care of Maritime Forces Atlantic, the Atlantic fleet of Canadian Forces Maritime Command.
Sackville's presence in Halifax is considered appropriate, as the port was an important North American convoy assembly port during the war.
Sackville makes her first appearance each spring when she is towed by a naval tug from HMC Dockyard to a location off Point Pleasant Park on the first Sunday in May to participate in the Commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies held at a memorial in the park overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour. Sackville typically hosts several dozen RCN veterans on this day and has also participated in several burials at sea for dispersing the ashes of RCN veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location.
[edit] Gallery
 HMCS Sackville as restored, moored alongside the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Canada. The paint scheme on her hull is dazzle camouflage, first employed in World War I. |
 HMCS Sackville, Halifax Harbour, October 2006. |
 HMCS Sackville, Halifax Harbour, October 2006 showing the four-inch deck gun and Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar. The lighthouse-like structure behind the bridge contains the radar. |
 HMCS Sackville, Halifax Harbour, October 2006. Picture showing Oerlikon 20mm Anti-aircraft gun and depth charge releasing device at stern of ship. |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- HMCS Sackville (K 181). Uboat.net. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
- ^ a b c HMCS Sackville: The last flower (1941-2000). History in Illustration. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
- ^ Today in History August 30, 2007. Seawaves. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
[edit] External links
- HMCS Sackville's official site.
- HMCS Sackville photo gallery.
- Haze Gray and Underway
- ReadyAyeReady.com
- The 1993 film "Lifeline to Victory" was filmed aboard HMCS Sackville.
- Of the 236 corvettes that were laid down in Canada and Britain, 111 sailed from Canadian slips
- HNSA Ship Page: HMCS Sackville
- HMCS Sackville on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.
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