HMCS Fundy (J88)

Career (Canada)
Name: Fundy
Namesake: Bay of Fundy
Operator: Royal Canadian Navy
Ordered: 23 August 1937
Builder: Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., Collingwood
Laid down: 24 January 1938
Launched: 18 June 1938
Commissioned: 1 September 1938
Decommissioned: 27 July 1945
Identification: pennant number: J88
Fate: Sold to Marine Industries Ltd 1947, scrapped 1987
General characteristics
Class and type:Fundy-class minesweeper
Displacement:460 long tons (470 t; 520 short tons)
Length:163 ft (49.7 m)
Beam:27.5 ft (8.4 m)
Draught:14.5 ft (4.4 m)
Speed:12 knots (22.2 km/h)
Complement:38
Armament:1 × 12-pounder

HMCS Fundy was a Fundy-class minesweeper that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1938-1945. She saw service in the Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War. She was named for the Bay of Fundy. After the war she had an extensive civilian career.

Fundy was ordered on 23 August 1937[1] as the lead ship of her class of four minesweepers built in Canada, modified versions of the British Basset-class trawler. The Canadian ships were given extra strengthening for ice conditions. She was laid down 24 January 1938 by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd. at Collingwood, Ontario and launched 18 June later that year.[1] She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 1 September 1938 at Collingwood.[2][1]

Service history

Royal Canadian Navy

After commissioning, two Fundy-class minesweepers were assigned to the west coast and two, including Fundy, to the east coast.[3]

Fundy saw immediate and continuous service in the Second World War as a minesweeper and harbour defence vessel for Halifax Harbour. In July 1942 she escorted a convoy to Boston and one back to Halifax.[2] Along with her sister ship HMCS Comox, Fundy rescued 66 survivors of the torpedoed Liberty ship SS Martin Van Buren on 15 January 1945.[2][1] Fundy was decommissioned in 27 July 1945 and laid up.

Commercial service

Fundy was sold in 1947 to Marine Industries Limited. She had a long postwar civilian career, becoming first the coaster Aigle Marin and then the Anne R.D.[1] She was scrapped at La Malbaie, Quebec in 1987.[1] Her bell is preserved at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "HMCS Fundy (J88)". uboat.net. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces, 1910-2002. St. Catharines: Vanwell Press. p. 32.
  3. ↑ "Minesweepers", Canadian Naval Heritage Website

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMCS Fundy (J88).