| Career (Canada) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMCS Wallaceburg |
| Builder: | Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company Ltd. |
| Yard number: | J336 |
| Laid down: | 6 July 1942 |
| Launched: | 17 December 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 18 November 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 October 1946 |
| Honours and awards: |
Atlantic 1944-45 |
| Career (Belgium) | |
| Name: | Georges Lecointe (M901) |
| Acquired: | 1959 |
| Struck: | 1969 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Algerine-class minesweeper |
| Displacement: | 990 tons |
| Length: | 68.6 (225 ft) |
| Beam: | 10.8 (35.5 ft) |
| Draught: | 2.6 (8.5 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 3-drum Yarrow style water tube all welded boilers, 2 1250 HP triple expansion engines |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Crew: | 107 |
| Armament: | 1 4" HA single, 4 20mm twin guns, 1 Hedgehog ASW mortar, depth charges |
HMCS Wallaceburg (J336) was an Algerine-class minesweeper that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II.
The Algerine Coastal Escort, HMCS Wallaceburg, was laid down in the yards of Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., on 6 July 1942, and was launched on 17 December the same year. Trials for the ship began in November 1943. Endurance and full-power trials proving satisfactory, the ship was accepted by the Royal Canadian Navy on the 11th of the month, and commissioned on the 18th with Acting Lieutenant-Commander F.R.K. Naftel, RCNVR, as her first commanding officer.
The town of Wallaceburg for which the ship was named, is in Kent County, Ontario, on the Sydenham River; it was given its name by Hugh McCallum, the first postmaster, in honour of Sir William Wallace, the champion of Scottish independence.
The ship’s badge depicts a demi-lion in white on a red background with a chaplet of golden oak and maple leaves. The chaplet in this design refers to the civic crest of the town which contains in base a branch of maple and one of oak crossed. The white demi-lion on the red field is from Wallace’s arms.
Ship’s colours are white and red.
On commissioning day, the ship left for Toronto and then for Montreal where she remained for several days to have several items of the contractor’s work completed. On 4 December she sailed to Quebec City and thence to Halifax, arriving in the latter port on the 13th.
On 24 January 1944, Wallaceburg began her career as coastal escort when she sailed from Halifax to join the escort group, W-8, in its screening of the convoy, HX-276.1 Among the seventy-nine ships in this convoy was the British freighter Empire Manor, who was carrying a cargo of chemicals. In a collision with another ship, Empire Manor had had a large hole torn into her starboard side. The boiler and engine rooms were flooded; the ship was left without lights and could neither be steamed nor steered. The corvette HMCS Kenogami closed the disabled ship and, on her master’s request, passed a line to her and took her in tow while the rest of the convoy steamed on ahead out of sight. Wallaceburg stood by the two.
The freighter was many times the weight of the corvette and yawed badly under tow. To make matters worse, these activities were attended by a mounting sea. Suddenly, eleven hours following the collision, tall pillars of blue-white flame shot out from the inflammable cargo and soon engulfed the freighter. The tow was cast off and the corvette came alongside to see what could be done.
She did what she could by pouring salt water on the flames while the freighter’s crew formed a bucket brigade and attached the fire with hand extinguishers as well. But, despite these attempts, in less than an hour the deck of the burning ship became untenable and the captain was forced to give the order “Abandon ship.” His crew lowered four life-boats and, in the blinding sleet storm which had come up, pulled over to the Corvette. Later, eighteen of the survivors, including the captain, were transferred to Wallaceburg.
The burning ship eventually broke in half and, as no further hope remained of salvaging her, Wallaceburg sank her with gunfire and depth-charges. The freighter’s master, a veteran of twenty-five years in the merchant service, watched the destruction of the ship, his first command, from the bridge of the Algerine.
Besides Halifax, Sydney and St. John’s, Newfoundland, New York was one of Wallaceburg’s most frequent ports of call. Her first trip there followed the escorting of Convoy ON-223 while operating as Senior Officer W-8, the corvettes Shedlac and Kenogami in company. The convoys she and her group accompanied in these times were both of the local type, plying between ports along the coast, and the transatlantic ones during those parts of their passages when they were either coming from or proceeding to the areas where they met or parted from the mid-ocean escorts. Along with these convoy duties, she was also called upon frequently to carry out patrols or searches, in company with other ships, in areas from which there had been reports of U-boat sightings.
On 13 June 1944, the ship damaged her bow slightly when she was involved in a head-on collision with the Bengor Minesweeper Trois Rivieres. While on an urgent operation, that of protection of a troop ship at a time when a U-boat was believed to be in the vicinity, the Algerine did not decrease her speed of ten knots after she had detected the other vessel by radar in a fog off Halifax Harbour. She as obliged to undergo repairs from 21 June to 21 July.
Wallaceburg began her annual refit in Sydney, NS, on 1 November 1944. Certain defects required repairs in Halifax and these were undertaken in February 1945. Working-up exercises following the refit took place in Bermudan waters in March, after which the ship sailed to Boston to escort BX-153 1 as Senior Officer in company with the Bangor minesweepers, HMC Ships Goderich and Port Hope.
The war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945. On 6 June, there being no further need for naval escorts in the Atlantic, HMCS Wallaceburg was transferred from Group W-8 to HMCS Cornwallis in Digby for training duties. But before doing so, she escorted Convoy ON-304 to New York, proceeding then to Halifax and finally, Digby. On 20 August, she left Digby to sail to Halifax and then Sydney where she arrived on the 27th.
It was intended that she should be paid off into “care and maintenance” on 3 September 1945, but, plans for her future activities being changed, she sailed to Halifax on 18 October and brought into commission in HMC Dockyard there with Lieutenant G. Kelly, DSC, RCNR, as Commanding Officer. Following a refit begun on 1 February and a four-day working-up period in St. Margaret’s Bay, she sailed to the Great Lakes, there to take part in a training scheme in which she took out classes composed of reserves or newly entered men and gave them training in handling a naval ship and the equipment she carried. In the course of her duties, which took her into September 1946, she visited many ports, prominent among which were Quebec, Trois Rivières, Montreal and Kingston on the St. Lawrence River; Toronto, Hamilton and Cobourg on Lake Ontario; Port Colborne and Port Stanley on Lake Erie; Port Arthur on Lake Superior; Windsor on the Detroit River; and, between the lakes, Wallaceburg, Sault Ste. Marie and Sarnia. On the return voyage to Halifax, in late August, while passing a lake steamer in the Morrisburg Canal, she damaged her propeller against the canal bank and had to have it changed on arrival in Montreal.
Back in Halifax the ship was paid off to the Reserve Fleet on 7 October 1946. It was decided, however, that she would be retained and, after a refit, she was commissioned again on 1 November 1950, Lieutenant-Commander J.C. Marston, DSC, RCN(R), assumed command. On the 20th of the month Wallaceburg became Commander of the newly organized Task Unit 213.2.2, other members being the Algerine Portage and Motor Minesweepers Llewellyn and Revelstoke. Three followed day-long sallies outside harbour to carry out minesweeping exercises. On 8 December, Wallaceburg sailed independently to Bermuda to carry out working-up exercises and was back in Halifax on the 20th.
Until 4 April Wallaceburg acted as a depot ship for the Reserve Fleet East Coast. On this date the Reserve Fleet ceased to exist and the ship became fully operational. Embarking junior officers for training she visited Philadelphia in company with the frigate La Hulliose. On 28 May 1951, she had occasion to perform a work of mercy when she proceeded outside Halifax in very heavy seas, to take in tow a fishing vessel in distress. For training purposes, she called at New London, Connecticut, on 2 June in company with Portage. In Grand Manan the submarine HMS Thule was met and the three ships proceeded to the Gulf Stream.
From July to November 1951, the ship remained in HMC Dockyard in Halifax undergoing repairs to a damaged boiler. Visits followed in December and January 1952 to Bermuda, Nassau and New London, Connecticut. From February to May 1952, there were anti-submarine exercises with the submarine HMS Alcide off Grand Manan, Halifax, Bermuda and Charleston, South Carolina. In May both she and the submarine took part in two days of joint Allied anti-submarine exercises off Bermuda. US naval aircraft were present during these operations and Wallaceburg and Alcide were the Canadian representatives.
In July 1952 the ship embarked the Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland, the Honourable Sir Leonard Outerbridge, KCB, DSO, LLD, BA, and sailed along the south coast of the island province. Of the twenty outports visited, the ship went alongside at fifteen, anchoring at the remainder. The ports were found to be all very much the same, small and confined, with tiny fragile jetties. In these places the Lieutenant-Governor was warmly received.
In August 1952 there was a voyage to Bermuda and in September visits to St. John’s, Newfoundland, Saint John, New Brunswick and Boston. In October Wallaceburg called at Grand Manan with the submarine USS Threadfin. When returning from these waters, the impeller in the main circulator caused trouble and the ship lost all power. She had to be taken in tow by HMC Destroyer Crescent. After a false start she succeeded in making repairs the next day.
Wallaceburg was present at “Cordex”, an exercise which took place off Bermuda at the end of October and the opening days of November 1952. From January to March 1953 the ship underwent a refit in Saint John. In April she embarked classes for anti-submarine exercises and returned to Bermudan waters. Such exercises continued until September when the ship took part in Exercise “Cordex 11.”
In September 1953, Wallaceburg encountered the destructive hurricane known as “Edna” when in company with Portage and the submarines, USS Crevalle (Commander Task Group) and HMS Auriga, she called again at Bermuda. Light winds only were met en route, “Edna” not making herself felt until after arrival in the Dockyard at Ireland Island. On the 17th, the ships were assailed by gales which, by 2230, had reached a speed of eighty-five miles an hour punctuated by powerful gusts of 100 and 130 miles. Aboard Wallaceburg constant attention was paid to the fenders as the ship was buffeted violently against the jetty. By 0100 the winds began to subside. Happily, they left no apparent damage.
Later in the month, Wallaceburg paid a visit to Sable Island, the so-called “graveyard of the Atlantic,” to land two civilians for the Department of Transport. The ship approached the dangerous island from the northward, disembarked her passengers by boat and embarked two others for passage to the mainland.
The ship ran into violent weather again when, on a visit to St. John’s, recorded winds of seventy-five miles made imperative good steering by the coxswain, particularly in the narrow entrance to the harbour.
More anti-submarine exercises were carried out in Bermudan waters in October and November 1953. Calls were also paid to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Nassau and Charleston. On 11 January 1954, the ship proceeded to Pictou, NS, to undergo her annual refit. Comparatively light winds were felt but, as the ship had landed all guns and ammunition prior to departure, these combined to make the passage an uncomfortable one. Shortly after arrival in Pictou, the harbour froze so that the ship could not be moved to dry dock. During most of February an average of twelve to fifteen inches of ice covered the greater part of the harbour. On the 26th, the government ice-breaker Saurel cleared the harbour of all ice preparatory to Wallaceburg being placed on the marine ship.
Wallaceburg had returned to Halifax by 23 April 1954. On 6 May, she was ordered out with Portage to search for a downed Avenger aircraft. She did no sight the aircraft and left the vicinity after her relief had arrived on the 13th.
On 21 May, the ship in company with Portage visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, having first embarked a group of University Naval Training Division cadets. While proceeding to Bermuda on 5 June with another such class, engines were stopped and the cremated remains of a Great War veteran, grandfather of a member of the ship’s company, who had requested to be buried at sea, were scattered over the deep. On the 15th, the Algerine, again in company with Portage, visited Bridgeport, Connecticut.
In July 1954, visits were paid to Sydney, NS, the Magdalen Islands, Murray Bay, PQ and Charlottetown.
Seven Islands, PQ, Quebec City, St. Anne’s, Cape Breton, Gaspé, Botwood, and St. John’s in Newfoundland, were visited in August 1954. In September the ship anchored in Chedabucto Bay and rode out high winds which were associated with hurricane “Carol” who was not far off. With word that hurricane “Dolly” was developing northwest of Bermuda, the ship decided to move into Halifax harbour. Preparations were made for the expected meeting, but the unwelcome visitor veered off to seaward and only zephyr-like winds were felt in the harbour.
In October to November 1954, Junior Officers Leadership Technical Course classes were embarked. Yarmouth, Passamaquoddy Bay, New York City, Grand Manan and Saint John were visited.
On 25 November 1954, at Halifax, the ship was paid off into Category “C” reserve, as was Portage. Both these ships were to be re-commissioned in the spring along with the Bangor Minesweeper Minas. In January Wallaceburg began a refit in Pictou and was commissioned in the same port on 14 April 1955, with Commander F.J. Jones, CD, RCN, as Commanding Officer and Commander 11th Canadian Escort Squadron. A small ceremony was held which was attended by His Worship the Mayor and a few citizens of Pictou. Commander F.R.K. Naftel, RCN, represented Flag Officer Atlantic Coast.
After working-up exercises in Bermuda in the early weeks of May 1955, Wallaceburg and Portage proceeded in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland. After joining Minas there, they sailed for Montreal and the Great Lakes. In the Lachine Canal, Wallaceburg damaged a propeller, when she collided slightly with SS Elgin. Elgin was struck below the water-line while the Algerine damaged her propeller apparently while attempting to manoeuvre from the bank. A new starboard propeller was later shipped in Hamilton.
The ships embarked reserves and voyaged about the lakes carrying out evolutions and various training exercises. Most of the larger Canadian ports were visited during the summer and there were calls as well at such US ports as Chicago, Illinois, Muskegan, Choygan, Hancock and Detroit in Michigan, and Duluth, Minnesota. In the middle of Lake Ontario in the middle of August, the squadron sat out Hurricane “Connie.” They were buffeted about by winds which were estimated to have risen on the 13th to a speed sixty knots.
After refueling in Toronto, Wallaceburg and Minas went on to Montreal and were back in Halifax on the 12th.
On 3 October 1955, Wallaceburg sailed with the frigate, HMCS Buckingham to participate in “Cordex IV.” This was a six day exercise to test Halifax seaward defences. The enemy, the Orange forces, were represented by HM Submarines Alderney and Ambush who attempted to attack shipping and penetrate the defended areas to lay mines. The Blue or friendly forces included a convoy made up of naval auxiliaries. Its screen comprised Wallaceburg and Buckingham aided by Avenger aircraft and helicopters of the new anti-submarine helicopter squadron HS-50 from the Naval Air Station, HMCS Shearwater. Additional protection of the seaward defence area was given by harbour defence patrol craft.
Wallaceburg had a funeral at sea in November 1955, when on the 24th she embarked the body of the late Lieutenant-Commander Jean Paul Guite, RCN(R), (Retired), and mourners. The body was committed to the sea with full honours. After a voyage to Bermuda in December 1955, Wallaceburg proceeded to Pictou for that year’s refit. In Northumberland Strait she steamed astern of the ice-breaker Saurel. Here a great deal of ice was encountered and progress was consequently slow. It was found that by following the ice-breaker at approximately one hundred feet with revolutions for thirteen knots, considerable progress could be made without the ice closing the passage astern of Saurel. The ship seemed to suffer no damage from the closely packed ice.
Off the slips at Pictou in April 1956, Wallaceburg had to await the coming of the Artic Patrol ship, HMCS Labrador, before she could leave the port. When Labrador appeared off the harbour on the 13th, the Algerine, aided by a tug, pointed her bow toward the entrance. Revolutions for thirteen knots were rung on and the ship proceeded without too much difficulty toward the entrance. The noise of the ice against the ship’s side was disconcerting but a continual check was kept of the compartments and sign of damage was noted. A speed of about four knots was attained. At the six-fathom line near the entrance, Labrador took the Algerine in tow. Steady progress was made for the next twelve miles when open water appeared. Later more ice was encountered. The ship continued with Labrador as far as St. Paul’s Island off the northern coast of Cape Breton.
After fitting armament and undergoing trials in Halifax, Wallaceburg sailed for Norfolk, Virginia, carrying air stores for the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent and electrical stores for the destroyer HMCS huron.
On 13 May 1956, the 11th Escort Squadron Wallaceburg, Portage and the Algerine Sault Ste. Marie, began another season of Great Lakes training when they left Halifax for Quebec City. Once again Wallaceburg had trouble in the Lachine Canal when the wind caught her starboard bow and, on stopping to avoid the bridge dividing the canal into two channels, manoeuvred into the left hand channel and touched the bank with her starboard quarter. Later she had to proceed to Port Weller to have a starboard propeller replaced. In August, the fuller protection, she paid another visit to Port Weller to have propeller guards fitted. In this month, too, with others she visited the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto.
On 1 September 1956, Wallaceburg parted from Portage and Sault Ste. Marie and, after visiting various ports in Lake Ontario, including Hamilton and Toronto, sailed independently to Montreal and Quebec City. In the latter port, on the 16th, she secured at Wolfe’s Cove ahead of the patrol craft Mallard, Cormorant and Blue Heron. His Excellency the Governor-General of Canada, the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, CH, embarked with his part on the 17th and the ship proceeded to Tadoussac just inside the mouth of the Saguenay River. The following day, the ship went further up the river to Port Alfred.
During the next five months there was little activity for the ship aside from a short voyage to Boston from 4 to 9 September 1956. On 22 March 1957, a call was made at Bermuda with reserve officers and men embarked for training. On this occasion official calls were postponed until the conclusion of meetings being held between the Right Honourable Harold MacMillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Right Honourable Louis St. Larent, Prime Minister of Canada. On 13 May 1957, there began another and, for Wallaceburg, the last, of the Great Lakes Training Cruises. Minor damage was done to the stem of the ship in Farran’s Point Canal, one of the Williamsburg Canals, five miles above Cornwall, when she struck the wall at the entrance. Sharing her duties were, as before, Portage and Sault Ste. Marie.
At the beginning of September 1957, the three ships sailed from Montreal to arrive in Sydney, N.S., on the 9th. Destoring commenced and the ships paid off into the Reserve Fleet on 24 September 1957.
Early in the spring the decision was made at Ottawa against employing the Wallaceburg on Great Lakes training. Instead she was to be refitted at Sydney and prepared for transfer under the Canadian programme of Mutual Aid to member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Work on the ship began during 1958 and arrangements were made to complete the refit by 1 August 1959. It was on this day that HMCS Wallaceburg was transferred and commissioned in the Belgian Navy as Georges Lecointe.
The Belgian ship’s company had come directly from Brussels and the commissioning ceremony was attended by the Chief of the Belgian Naval Staff, Commodore L.J.J. Robins, and by the Chief of Naval Technical Services, Rear-Admiral (E) B.R. Spencer, CD, RON, representing the Chief of the Canadian Naval Staff. Subsequently, as the time was struck on the ship’s new bell, it brought to mind the fact that the old bell of the Wallaceburg had already found a safe haven with the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps "Wallaceburg", in Wallaceburg, Ontario.
Early in October having completed her gun and mortar firings off Halifax, the Georges Lecointe proceeded to carry out her last orders from the Flag Officer Atlantic Coast. These read in part:
Being in all respects ready for sea and weather permitting sail from Halifax at 052000Z Oct. and proceed in accordance your national orders. Chop to COMAR OSTEND on departure Halifax.
In this way there came to a close the career of HMCS Wallaceburg, a ship that had given good service in both war and peace. As the stern of the Georges Lecointe disappeared over the south-eastern horizon it was recognized that here was a ship beginning a new life in an allied fleet across the sea, but that her battle honour, “Atlantic 1944-45”, would remain in Canada securely awarded to the name, HMCS Wallaceburg.
Naval Historical Section, Naval Headquarters, Ottawa, Ontario. 17 April 1959
List of Commanding Officers HMCS Wallaceburg
18 November 1943 Acting Lieutenant Commander F.R.K.
to Naftel, RCNVR
2 May 1944
3 May 1944 Lieutenant-Commander R.A.S. MacNeil,
to RCNR.
9 January 1945
10 January 1945 Acting Lieutenant-Commander F.E.
to Burrows, RCNVR.
21 May 1945
22 May 1945 Lieutenant-Commander J.H.G. Bovey,
to RCNVR.
16 July 1945
17 Jul 1945 Lieutenant R.N. Smillie, RCNVR.
to
19 August 1945
20 August 1945 Lieutenant C.W. King, RCNVR.
to
23 August 1945
24 August 1945 Lieutenant A.D. Ritchie, RCNVR.
to
7 September 1945
23 October 1945 Lieutenant G. Kelly, DSC, RCNR.
to
1 February 1946
3 June 1946 Lieutenant-Commander R.M. Steele,
to RCN (R).
7 October 1946
1 November 1950 Lieutenant-Commander J.C. Marston,
to DSC, RCN(R).
20 December 1950
21 December 1950 Commander R.A. Webber, DSC, RCN.
to
3 April 1951
4 April 1951 Lieutenant-Commander J.H. Maxner,
to RCN.
27 September 1951
28 September 1951 Lieutenant-Commander I.A. McPhee,
to RCN.
21 February 1954
22 February 1954 Lieutenant-Commander W.A. Manfield
to CD, RCN.
25 November 1954
14 April 1955 Commander F.J. Jones, CD, RCN.
to
16 October 1955
17 October 1955 Lieutenant-Commander D.S. Bethune
to RCN.
24 September 1957.
Naval Historical Section, Naval Headquarters, Ottawa, Ontario. 17 April 1959.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||