HMCS Nootka (R96)

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HMCS Nootka (centre) in 1951
Career (Canada)
Namesake: Nuu-chah-nulth
Builder: Halifax Shipyards, Halifax
Laid down: 20 May 1942
Launched: 26 April 1944
Commissioned: 9 August 1946
Decommissioned: 6 February 1964
Reclassified: Stricken 15 August 1949 and converted to destroyer escort. Recommissioned in January 1950 with pennant DDE 213.
Motto: Tikegh mamook solleks (Ready to fight)
Honours and
awards:
Korea, 1951-1952[1]
Fate: Scrapped at Faslane, Scotland in 1965.
Notes: Colours are white and royal blue.
Badge: Azure, in base barry wavy of four argent and azure, a killer whale (Orca) proper rising from the sea[2]
General characteristics
Class & type: Tribal-class destroyer
Displacement: 2,200 tons
Length: 355 ft 6 in (108.36 m)
Beam: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Draught: 11 ft (3.4 m)
Speed: 32 knots
Complement: 259
Armament:

1946-1949 as R96

  • 6 x 4.7" (3xII) guns
  • 2 x 4" (IxII) guns
  • 4 x 2 pounder (1xIV) guns
  • 6 x 20mm guns
  • 4 x 21" TT (1xIV)

1950-1964 as DDE 213

  • 4 x 4" (2xII) guns
  • 2 x 3" (1xII) guns
  • 4 x 40 mm guns
  • 4 x 21" TT (1xIV)
  • 2 x Squid

HMCS Nootka (R96) was a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1964.

She received the unit name Nootka while still under construction in Halifax after the RCN renamed the Fundy-class minesweeper HMCS Nootka (J35) to HMCS Nanoose (J35) in 1943.

Nootka was commissioned into the RCN on 7 August 1946 at Halifax. She served as a training ship for the Atlantic Fleet until her conversion to a destroyer escort after being paid off on 15 August 1949.

During the conversion to DDE, her 4.7 inch guns were replaced with 4 inch guns and the Y mounting was removed and 2 triple-barrelled Mark IV Squids were installed. She also received 2 Boffin gun mounts and a single 40mm Bofors on a twin 20mm Oerlikon-powered mounting. She received the new pennant DDE 213 in January 1950 and departed Halifax for Korea in December 1950, transiting the Panama Canal for the first of two tours of duty in the Korean War.

RFA Wave Sovereign replenishing HMS Ocean and HMCS Nootka off Korea, 1952.

She returned to Halifax via the Mediterranean Sea at the end of 1952, having become the second RCN warship to circumnavigate the globe; HMCS Quebec (C66) having been the first.

Nootka underwent further conversion and modernization in 1953-1954 and resumed training duties with the Atlantic Fleet. She participated in the massive RCN deployment for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962; Nootka was assigned a patrol area off the northern tip of Cuba during the crisis.

In summer 1963, Nootka joined her sister ship HMCS Haida (G63) for a tour of the Great Lakes. Her last deployment was for a NATO exercise in Bermuda in fall 1963 where she sustained hull damage while docking in strong winds. She was temporarily patched and returned to Halifax and was decommissioned at Halifax on 6 February 1964. She was scrapped at Faslane, Scotland in 1965.

Notes

  1. "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 18 Sep 2013. 
  2. Arbuckle 1987, p. 76

References

  • Arbuckle, J. Graeme (1987). Badges of the Canadian Navy. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publshing. ISBN 0-920852-49-1. 
  • Brice, Martin H. (1971). The Tribals. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0245-2. 
  • English, John (2001). Afridi to Nizam: British Fleet Destroyers 1937–43. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-95-0. 
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