HMCS Saskatchewan (DDE 262)

For other ships of the same name, see HMCS Saskatchewan.
HMCS Saskatchewan in 1963
Career (Canada)
Namesake: Saskatchewan River
Builder: Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd., Victoria
Laid down: 28 October 1959
Launched: 1 February 1961
Commissioned: 16 February 1963
Decommissioned: 28 March 1994
Refit: 1984 (DELEX)
Honours and
awards:

Atlantic 1943-44*, Normandy 1944*, Biscay 1944*

  • denotes honours for HMCS Saskatchewan H70
Fate: Sold in 1997 to the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia Scuttled off Nanaimo on 14 June 1997.
General characteristics
Class and type:Mackenzie-class destroyer
Displacement:2880 tonnes full load
Length:366 ft (111.6 m)
Beam:42 ft (12.8 m)
Draught:14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion:2 shafts
2 × English-Electric geared steam turbines
2 × Babcock and Wilcox boilers
30,000 shp
Speed:28 kn (51.9 km/h)
Complement:228 regular, 170-210 training
Sensors and
processing systems:		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-11 hull mounted active search sonar
Electronic warfare
and decoys:		1 × DAU (replaced by SRD 501) high frequency direction finder

1 × WLR 1C radar analyzer

1 × UPD 501 radar detector
Armament: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 launcher

HMCS Saskatchewan (DDE 262) was a Mackenzie-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces.

She is the second Canadian naval unit to bear the name HMCS Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan was laid down on 28 October 1959 at Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd., Victoria and launched on 1 February 1961. In September 1961 she was moved to Yarrows Shipyard for completion. She was commissioned into the RCN on 16 February 1963.

Saskatchewan served her entire career with the RCN's Pacific Fleet and later the CF's Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC), largely as a training ship. She underwent the Destroyer Life Extension Project (DELEX) in 1984 and was paid off by Maritime Command on 28 March 1994.

Saskatchewan's hulk was purchased by the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia in 1997 and she was scuttled off Nanaimo on 14 June 1997.

Further reading