HMCS Elk (S05)

Career (Canada)
Class and type: Armed yacht
Name: HMCS Elk
Builder: Newport News SB. Co., Newport News, Virginia
Launched: 1926
Commissioned: 10 September 1940
Decommissioned: 4 August 1945
General characteristics
Displacement: 578 tons
Length: 188 ft (57 m)
Beam: 27 ft (8.2 m)
Draught: 11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion: Geared turbines
two shafts
2,000 shp
Speed: 11 knots (20 km/h)
Complement: 40
Armament:
  • 1 x 4" gun (2x1)
Honours and awards: Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1942.
Notes: Pennant number: S05 (later Z27)

HMCS Elk was an armed yacht serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War.

Career

Elk was built in 1926 by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, Newport News, Virginia, and was originally named Arcadia. The outbreak of the Second World War led to her being pressed into service with the Royal Canadian Navy, who commissioned her on 10 September 1940. They renamed her Elk, in common with the conventions where armed yachts took the names of animals native to Canada. She had the pennant number S05, this later being changed to Z27. She was mostly employed on convoy escort duties, sailing with outward bound convoys from ports such as Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia until they had left Canadian waters. She would also meet inbound convoys and bring them into port. She survived the war and was decommissioned on 4 August 1945.

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