HMCS Gatineau (DDE 236)

For other ships of the same name, see HMCS Gatineau.
HMCS Gatineau underway in 1983
Career (Canada)
Namesake: Gatineau River
Builder: Davie Shipbuilding Ltd., Lauzon
Laid down: 30 April 1953
Launched: 3 June 1957
Commissioned: 17 February 1959
Decommissioned: 24 May 1996
Refit: 14 April 1971 (IRE)
12 November 1982 (DELEX)
Homeport: CFB Halifax
Honours and
awards:		 Atlantic 1943-44, Normandy 1944
Fate: Laid up at CFB Halifax until November 2009 when moved to Pictou. Currently 75+% scrapped. Most of the superstructure has been removed down to the deck level.
General characteristics
Class and type:Restigouche-class destroyer
Displacement:As built: 2800 t (deep load)
After IRE: 2900 t (deep load)
Length:As built: 366 ft (111.6 m)
After IRE: 371 ft (113.1 m)
Beam:42 ft (12.8 m)
Draught:14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion:2-shaft English-Electric geared steam turbines, 2 Babcock and Wilcox boilers 30,000 shp
Speed:28 knots (51.9 km/h)
Range:4,750 nautical miles (8,797.0 km) at 14 knots (25.9 km/h)
Complement:As built: 249
After IRE/DELEX: 214
Sensors and
processing systems:		As built:
  • 1 × SPS-12 air search radar
  • 1 × SPS-10B surface search radar
  • 1 × Sperry Mk.2 navigation radar
  • 1 × SQS-501 high frequency bottom profiler sonar
  • 1 × SQS-502 high frequency mortar control sonar
  • 1 × SQS-503 hull mounted active search sonar
  • 1 × SQS-10 hull mounted active search sonar
  • 1 × Mk.69 gunnery control system with SPG-48 director forward
  • 1 × GUNAR Mk.64 GFCS with on-mount SPG-48 director aft

After IRE:

  • 1 × SPS-12 air search radar
  • 1 × SPS-10B surface search radar
  • 1 × Sperry Mk.2 navigation radar
  • 1 × SQS-501 high frequency bottom profiler sonar
  • 1 × SQS-502 high frequency mortar control sonar
  • 1 × SQS-503 hull mounted active search sonar
  • 1 × SQS-10 hull mounted active search sonar
  • 1 × AQA-5 Jezebel passive tracer sonar
  • 1 × Mk.69 gunnery control system with SPG-48 director forward

After DELEX:

  • 1 × Marconi SPS 502 air search radar
  • 1 × Raytheon SPS 10D surface search radar
  • 1 × Sperry Mk.127 E navigation radar
  • 1 × SQS-505 hull sonar
  • 1 × SQS 505 VDS sonar
  • 1 × Mk.69 gunnery control system with SPG-515 director forward
Electronic warfare
and decoys:		As built:
  • 1 × DAU HF/DF (high frequency direction finder)

After IRE:

  • 1 × ULQ-6 jammer
  • 1 × WLR-1C radar analyzer
  • 1 × UPD-501 radar detector
  • 1 × SRD-501 HF/DF

After DELEX:

  • 1 × CANEWS
  • 1 × ULQ-6 jammer
Armament:As built:
  • 1 × 3"/70 Mk.6 Vickers twin mount forward
  • 1 × 3"/50 Mk.33 FMC twin mount aft
  • 2 × Mk NC 10 Limbo ASW mortars
  • 2 × single Mk.2 "K-gun" launchers with homing torpedoes
  • 1 × 103mm Bofors illumination rocket launchers

After IRE/DELEX:

  • 1 × 3"/70 Mk.6 Vickers twin mount forward
  • 1 × Mk.112 ASROC octuple launcher
  • 1 × Mk NC 10 Limbo ASW mortars
  • 2 × Mk.32 triple torpedo launchers firing Mk.46 Mod 5 torpedoes

HMCS Gatineau was a Restigouche-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces from 1959-1996. She was the third ship in her class and the second vessel to carry the designation HMCS Gatineau. She was named for the Gatineau River.

Construction

Gatineau was laid down on 30 April 1953 at Davie Shipbuilding Ltd., Lauzon and launched on 3 June 1957.[1] She was towed to Halifax for completion to avoid the freeze up of the Saint Lawrence River.[2] She was officially commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 17 February 1959 and carried the pennant number 236 as a destroyer escort.[1]

Service career

Gatineau offered a 21 gun salute to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II on 26 June 1959, for the official opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.[3][4] In March 1968, she became the first Canadian warship to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT).[2]

In 1969, Gatineau was transferred to the west coast. She was selected by the Canadian Forces for the Improved Restigouche (IRE) program and completed this refit on 14 April 1971. She was also selected as one of 10 destroyers in the Destroyer Life Extension (DELEX) program and completed this refit on 12 November 1982 on the west coast also.[2]

Gatineau hosted and escorted three visiting Soviet warships while in Canadian waters in 1993. Later that year along with HMCS Preserver and HMCS Fraser, she performed enforcement duties in Haitian waters on behalf of the United Nations. In 1995 she was the flagship of the Canadian contribution to Operation Strong Resolve, a NATO exercise performed off Norway. In April 1995, she supported Canadian government vessels during the Turbot War with Spain.[2]

Decommissioning

Gatineau was paid off from active service in the Canadian Forces on 24 May 1996 and was laid up at CFB Halifax's HMC Dockyard Annex in Dartmouth.

On 18 September 2009, the Department of National Defence called for bids for "the removal, dismantling and disposal" of HMCS Terra Nova and Gatineau. The deadline for submissions for the work was 8 October 2009. On 4 November 2009, DND announced that Aecon Fabco had won the bid and would tow both vessels to their Pictou Shipyard in Pictou, Nova Scotia.[5]

Gatineau departed Halifax Harbour on 17 November 2009, at 10:30am under tow by the tugboat Atlantic Elm and arrived in Pictou on 19 November 2009, at 9:30am.

As of June 15, 2010, Gatineau was sitting at dockside being dismantled. The gun turret was reportedly removed in Halifax prior to bringing her to Pictou. Dismantling of Terra Nova is well underway at this time with bow gone and much of the superstructure removed. Gatineau was scheduled to be dismantled in July 2010. [As viewed, photographed and reported 2010 June 15 by former crew-member Colin M Stevens of 1969 voyage Halifax to Victoria.]

References

Notes
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "HMCS Gatineau (2nd)". readyayeready.com. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2003). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-2002. Vanwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1551250721.
  3. ↑ CBC Television has archived a TV record of the ceremony including footage of the Gatineau.
  4. ↑ "Queen Elizabeth officially opens the St. Lawrence Seaway". CBC Archives. 1959. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  5. ↑
References