HMCS Nipigon (DDH 266)

For other ships of the same name, see HMCS Nipigon.
HMCS Nipigon underway during NATO Exercise Ocean Safari '85.
Career (Canada)
Name: Nipigon
Namesake: Nipigon River, Ontario
Builder: Marine Industries Ltd., Sorel
Laid down: 5 August 1960
Launched: 10 December 1961
Commissioned: 30 May 1964
Decommissioned: 2 July 1998
Refit: 22 August 1984 (DELEX)
Honours and
awards:		 Atlantic 1941-45, Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942, 1944.
Fate: Sunk for an artificial reef north-east of Rimouski, Quebec in 2003.
General characteristics
Class and type:Annapolis-class destroyer
Displacement:3,420 long tons (3,474.9 t) full load
Length:366 ft (111.6 m)
Beam:42 ft (12.8 m)
Draught:23.5 ft (7.2 m)
Propulsion:2-shaft English-Electric geared steam turbines
2 Babcock and Wilcox boilers
30,000 shp
Speed:28 kn (51.9 km/h)
Complement:228
Sensors and
processing systems:		Original:
  • 1 × SPS-12 air search radar
  • 1 × SPS-10B surface search radar
  • 1 × Sperry Mk.2 navigation radar
  • 1 × URN 20 TACAN 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-504 VDS medium frequency active search sonar
  • 1 × UQC-1B "Gertrude" underwater telephone
  • 1 × Mk 64 GFCS fire control with SPG-48 tracker (GUNAR)


DELEX:

  • 1 × Marconi SPS-503 air search radar
  • 1 × Raytheon/Sylvania SPS-502 surface search radar
  • 1 × Sperry Mk.127E navigation radar
  • 1 × URN 25 TACAN radar
  • 1 × SQS-505(V) or SQS-510 hull mounted active search sonar
  • 1 × SQS-504 VDS medium frequency active search sonar
  • 1 × SQR-19(V) CANTASS towed array sonar
  • 1 × UQC-1B "Gertrude" underwater telephone
  • 1 × Mk 64 GFCS fire control with SPG-515 tracker
Electronic warfare
and decoys:		Original:
  • 1 × ULQ-6 jammer
  • 1 × WLR-1C radar analyzer
  • 1 × UPD-501 radar detector
  • 1 × SRD-501 HF/DF


DELEX:

  • 1 × SLQ-501 intercept (CANEWS)
  • 1 × ULQ-6 jammer
  • 1 × SRD-501 HF/DF
Armament:Original:
  • 1 × FMC 3"/50 Mk.33 twin
  • 1 × Mk. NC 10 Limbo ASW mortar
  • 1 × Mk.4 thrower with homing torpedoes


DELEX:

  • 1 × FMC 3"/50 Mk.33 twin
  • 2 × triple Mk.32 12.75-inch torpedo tubes firing Mk.44 or Mk.46 Mod 5 torpedoes
Aircraft carried:1 CH-124 Sea King ASW helicopter
Aviation facilities:Midships helicopter deck and hangar with Beartrap.

HMCS Nipigon was an Annapolis-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces. She was the second Canadian naval unit to carry this name. She is named for the Nipigon River, Ontario.

Nipigon was laid down on 5 August 1960 at Marine Industries Ltd., Sorel and launched on 10 December 1961. Her construction was overseen by Cdr Donald Clark CD, who also oversaw the laying-down and commencement of HMCS Bras d'Or. She was commissioned into the RCN on 30 May 1964 with pennant number 266 and with the wife of the then Governor-General Georges Vanier, Madame Pauline Vanier, as her sponsor.[1] She was actually the first vessel to commission in the class.[2]

Service history

A fire broke out aboard the ship at 8:25 p.m. on 18 October 1965, causing the death of three crew; no official cause for the explosion and subsequent fire has ever been given.[1] Although a leak in one of the fuel tanks of the on-board helicopter is the most likely cause.

Nipigon served most of her career with the RCN and later Canadian Forces' Atlantic Fleet. During her service with Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT), she was primarily used as a training ship. After the discovery of cracks in the boilers of HMCS Ottawa, all the Annapolis-class destroyers were temporarily taken out of service for an inspection in 1981.[3] In 1982, Nipigon was tasked with searching for and recovering any survivors from Ocean Ranger, a semi-submersible oil platform that had sunk in heavy seas.[4] Nipigon completed a major refit in 1984 that cost $16 million.[5]

On 28 April 1985, the warship shelled and sank the fishing trawler Lady Majorie after it had been abandoned by its crew and became a hazard to navigation. Initially the decision was questioned, but Nipigon was later cleared by a Canadian Coast Guard report.[6] In June 1985, Nipigon, while participating in naval exercises, suffered structural damage after a stress crack sheared 215 rivets in the vessel's superstructure.[5]

She was decommissioned from the Canadian Forces on 2 July 1998 and sold for use as an artificial reef. She was sunk in the St. Lawrence River north-east of Rimouski, Quebec on 22 July 2003.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Macpherson, Ken; Burgess, John (1981). The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships. Toronto: Collins. ISBN 0-00216-856-1.
  2. ↑ "Vanier to commission Nipigon". Google News Service (Montreal Gazette). 6 May 1964. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Boiler cracks drydock ships leaving only four destroyers". Google News Service. Ottawa Citizen. 7 November 1981. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  4. ↑ "Coast Guard recovers two more bodies". Google News Service. The Bulletin. 21 February 1982. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Aging warship cracks despite refit". Google News Service. Ottawa Citizen. 5 June 1985. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Shelled trawler unsafe: report". Google News Service. Ottawa Citizen. 10 October 1985. Retrieved 6 October 2014.

External links