HMCS Ypres

HMCS Ypres in 1924
Career (Canada)
Name: Ypres
Namesake: Second and Third battles of Ypres
Builder: Polson Iron Works Limited, Toronto, Ontario
Launched: 16 July 1917
Commissioned: 10 November 1917
Decommissioned: 1920
Recommissioned: 1 May 1923
Decommissioned: November 1932
Recommissioned: 1938
Fate: Accidentally rammed and sunk by HMS Revenge at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 12 May 1940
General characteristics
Class and type:Battle class naval trawler
Displacement:320 long tons (330 t)
Length:130 ft (40 m)
Beam:23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught:13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Speed:10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Armament:1 × QF 12-pounder (76-mm) gun

HMCS Ypres was one of 12 Battle class trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Named after the Second and Third battles of Ypres, she was built by Polson Iron Works, in Toronto, Ontario, and was commissioned on 13 November 1917. Like many of the RCN's Battle class trawlers, Ypres was decommissioned in 1920. After being recommissioned on 1 May 1923 as a training ship, in November 1932 she was again decommissioned and was placed in reserve. Refitted as a gate vessel in 1938 and recommissioned, Ypres, designated Gate Vessel 1, formed part of the Halifax boom defences until 12 May 1940, when she was accidentally rammed and sunk by the British battleship HMS Revenge, but without loss of life.[1] After this incident, the crews of other gate vessels would pretend to make elaborate preparations for a collision every time Revenge visited Halifax.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Ken Macpherson and John Burgess, The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1993 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships, (St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell Pub., 1994), 25. ISBN 0-920277-91-8
  2. ↑ On the Rocks: Shipwrecks of Nova Scotia - Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia

External links