RCN Corvettes (Flower Class): HMCS Midland K220/HMCS Mimico K485/HMCS Moncton K139/HMCS Moose Jaw K164/HMCS Morden K170/HMCS Nanaimo K101/HMCS Napanee K118/HMCS New Westminster K228/HMCS Norsyd K520/HMCS North Bay K339/HMCS Oakville K178/HMCS Orillia K119

HMCS Midland (K220)

(Ron Bell Photo)

HMCS Midland (K220) (Flower-class).  Built at Midland, Ontario, she was commissioned at Montreal on 17 Nov 1941.  She arrived at Halifax on 30 Nov 1941, and spent her entire career with WLEF, from Jun 1943, as member of EG W-2.  She underwent two extensive refits: the first at Liverpool, NS, from 30 Nov 1942 to 14 Apr 1943; the second at Galveston, Texas from mid-Mar 1944 to 25 May 1944.  The latter refit included the extension of her fo'c's'le.  Upon its completion she returned briefly to Halifax before leaving on 1 Jul 1944 for three weeks' working-up in Bermuda.  She was paid off at Sydney on 15 Jul 1945.  Sold in 1946 to the Great lakes Lumber Co., she was broken up the same year at Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4821041)

HMCS Midland (K220) (Flower-class).

HMCS Mimico (K485)

(DND Photo)

HMCS Mimico (K485) (Flower-class).  Laid down as HMS Bulrush, she was transferred to the RCN and renamed HMCS Mimico prior to launching.  She was commissioned on 8 Feb 1944 at Sunderland, UK.  On 18 Apr 1944, after working up at Stornoway, she arrived at Oban, Scotland, where she was assigned to Western Approaches Command for escort duty in connection with the invasion.  She arrived off the Normandy beaches with a convoy on the day after D-Day.  She remained on escort duty in the Channel, assigned briefly in Sep 1944 to Portsmouth Command and, in Oct 1944, to Nore Command, based at Sheerness.  In Feb and Mar 1945, she refitted at Chatham, then returned to Sheerness and resumed her previous role until late in May 1945, when she left the UK for the last time.  She was paid off on 18 Jul 1945, and laid up at Sorel.  After the war, Mimico was sold to civilian service and became Honduran Olympic Victor in 1950, Japanese Otori Maru No. 12 in 1956, Kyo Maru No. 25 from 1962-1978.

HMCS Moncton (K139)

(Ron Bell Photo)

HMCS Moncton (K139) (Flower-class).  Commissioned at Saint John, NB on 24 Apr 1942, she arrived at Halifax on 12 May 1942.  She was the last of the RCN's initial Flower class programme to complete, owing to heavy demands on her builder, the Saint John Dry Dock Co., for repair work to war-damaged ships.  After working up she joined WLEF, Halifax, and when the force was divided into escort groups in Jun 1943, she became a member of EG W-5.  She remained in this service until transferred to the west coast in Jan 1944, proceeding there via Guantanamo, Cristobal, Balboa, and San Pedro, Cal.  Upon arrival she was assigned to Esquimalt Force, of which she remained a member until VJ-Day.  In the course of an extensive refit at Vancouver from 5 May to 7 Jul 1944, her fo'c's'le was extended.  She was paid off at Esquimalt on 12 Dec 1945, and sold for conversion to a whale-catcher at Kiel.  She entered service in 1955 as the Dutch-flag Willem Vinke and was broken up at Santander, Spain, in 1966.

(RCN Photo, via Ken Macpherson / Naval Museum of Alberta. - Canadian Navy Heritage website. Image Negative Number MC-2631)

HMCS Moncton (K139) (Flower-class), ca 1942.

HMCS Moose Jaw (K164)

(RCN Photo)

HMCS Moose Jaw (K164) (Flower-class).  Built at Collingwood, she was commissioned at Montreal on 19 Jun 1941, and arrived at Halifax on 27 Jun 1941 for final fitting-out.  After working up, she arrived at St. John's on 25 Aug 1941 to join Newfoundland Command, and on 5 Sep 1941, sailed with HMCS Chambly for exercises.  The two were ordered to reinforce the beleaguered convoy SC.42, which lost 18 ships, and just before joining on 10 Sep 1941, they surprised and sank U-501 astern of the convoy.  HMCS Moose Jaw, which had rammed the U-boat, required ten days' repairs at Greenock, following which she arrived at Tobermory on 1 Oct 1941 to work up.  For the next four months she operated between St. John's and Iceland, but in Jan 1942, she arrived at Londonderry from SC.64, the inaugural "Newfie-Derry" convoy.  On 19 Feb 1942, she ran aground on the south entrance of St. John's harbour en route to join convoy HX 176, and although re-floated soon afterward proved to be holed and leaking in several places.  Temporary repairs were carried out at St. John's from 20 Feb to 05 Mar 1942 and permanent repairs at Saint John, NB, from 15 Mar to 25 Jun 1942.  Briefly assigned to WLEF, she was detached in Sep 1942 for duties in connection with Operation "Torch", and made her passage to the UK with convoy SC.107, which lost 15 ships to U-boats.  During the next five months HMCS Moose Jaw was employed escorting UK-Mediterranean convoys, returning to Halifax on 19 Apr 1943 with convoy ONS.2.  Refitted there, she joined Quebec Force at the end of May 1943 for escort duties in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, later transferring to Gaspé Force.  She underwent a major refit, including fo'c's'le extension, at Liverpool, NS, from 19 Dec 1943 to 23 Mar 1944.  After working up in St. Margaret's Bay she left Halifax on 1 May 1944 for the UK, to join Western Approaches Command, Greenock, for invasion duties.  She served in the Channel until Sep 1944, when she joined EG 41, Plymouth, and escorted coastal convoys from her base at Milford Haven until the end of the war.  She left for home in May 1945, was paid off at Sorel on 08 Jul 1944 and broken up at Hamilton in 1949.

HMCS Morden (K170)

(DND Photo)

HMCS Morden (K170) (Flower-class).  Built at Port Arthur, Ontario, she was commissioned at Montreal on 6 Sep 1941.  Morden arrived at Halifax on 16 Sep 1941.  She joined Newfoundland Command and left St. John's 23 Nov 1941 to escort SC.56, her first convoy, to Iceland.  She continued on to the UK, however, to carry out two months' refit and repairs at Southampton.  She left the Clyde on 5 Mar 1942, to pick up westbound convoy ON.73, and was thereafter continuously in service as an ocean escort until the fall of 1943 - from Aug 1942, as a member of EG C-2.  The following is from the memoirs of Larry Restall "We detected a surfaced submarine (later found to be U-756) attempting to break into convoy at night.  I was on the after gun crew during action stations, firing at the sub which dived.  We attempted to ram but the sub was able to submerge.  We passed over the submarine and dropped a pattern of depth charges.  According to German records the sub never reported again."  On 22 Oct 1942, the SS Winnipeg was torpedoed and sunk by U-443 while enroute from Liverpool to Saint John, NB.  HMCS Morden rescued all who were aboard her.  After a brief refit at Lunenburg in Jun 1943, and workups at Pictou, she sailed for Plymouth to join EG 9.  She left Devonport on 15 Sep 1943 to join the group on patrol south of the Sicily Islands, but the group was ordered to the assistance of combined convoy ONS.18/ON.202 which lost six merchant ships and three of its escort.  In Oct 1943 Morden rejoined EG C-2 and was given an extensive refit at Londonderry between late Nov 1943 and the end of Jan 1944.  The work done included the lengthening of her fo'c's'le.  She left 'Derry for the last time on 14 Nov 1944.  In May 1945, on completion of a long refit at Sydney and Halifax, she joined EG W-9 of WLEF and left New York on 23 May 1945 as local escort to HX.358, the last HX convoy.  Paid off on 29 Jun 1945, at Sorel, she was broken up at Hamilton in 1946.

HMCS Nanaimo (K101)

(RCN Photo)

HMCS Nanaimo (K101) (Flower-class).  Commissioned at Esquimalt on 26 Apr 1941, HMCS Nanaimo arrived at Halifax on 27 Jun 1941 and for the next three months carried out local duties.  In Oct 1941 she was assigned to Newfoundland Command, leaving Halifax on 11 Oct 1941 to join convoy SC.49 for Iceland, her first trip as an ocean escort.  After three round trips to Iceland, she escorted SC.68 to Londonderry in Feb 1942.  Her return trip with ON.68 was to be her last Atlantic crossing, for in Mar 1942 she was reassigned to WLEF.

On 16 Jun 1942, the SS Port Nicholson was sunk by U-87.  The Port Nicholson formed part of convoy XB 25, one of the coastal convoy routes between Halifax Harbour and Boston.  She was under the command of her master, Harold Charles Jeffrey, and was carrying a cargo of 1,600 tons of automobile parts and 4,000 tons of military stores.  The convoy was tracked by the German submarine U-87, commanded by Joachim Berger.  At 4.17 hours on the morning of 16 June 1942 he fired a torpedo at the convoy, which was then 100 miles (160 km) off Portland, Maine.  He fired a second torpedo a minute later, but the gale conditions at the time prevented him from observing the results accurately, and he recorded that while one torpedo had hit a ship, the other seemed to have missed.  In fact, both torpedoes struck the Port Nicholson, the first in the engine room, the second in the stern.  Two men in the engine room were killed immediately, and as the Port Nicholson began to settle by the stern, the remaining crew abandoned ship and were picked up by HMCS Nanaimo.  The Port Nicholson did not sink immediately, and by dawn was still afloat.  Her master returned to the ship, accompanied by the chief engineer, and Lieutenant John Molson Walkley and three ratings from HMCS Nanaimo, to see if the ship could be salvaged.  While they were aboard, worsening weather caused the ship to suddenly start to sink.  The party abandoned her, but their boat was overturned in the suction as Port Nicholson went down, drowning Jeffrey, Walkley, the chief engineer and a rating.  The two surviving ratings were rescued by HMCS Nanaimo, which landed the survivors from Port Nicholson at Boston.

With the formation of escort groups in Jun 1943, HMCS Nanaimo became a member of EG W-9, transferring to W-7 in Apr 1944.  In Nov 1944, she was allocated to Pacific Coast Command, arriving at Esquimalt on 07 Dec 1944.  There she underwent a refit that lasted until 21 Feb 1945 but left her one of the few corvettes to survive the war with a short fo'c's'le.  She was paid off for disposal at Esquimalt on 28 Sep 1945, and subsequently sold for mercantile use.  Converted to a whale-catcher at Kiel in 1953, she entered service as the Dutch-flag Rene W. Vinke, finally being broken up in South Africa in 1966.

 (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4821017)

HMCS Nanaimo (K101) (Flower-class), 4-inch Mk. IX Gun, ca 1945.

(City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1184-3365)

HMCS Nanaimo (K101) (Flower-class), Vancouver, ca 1945.

HMCS Napanee (K118)

(DND Photo)

HMCS Napanee (K118) (Flower-class).  Commissioned at Montreal on 12 May 1941, HMCS Napanee arrived at Halifax on 17 May 1941.  She was assigned initially to Sydney Force but transferred in Sep 1941 to Newfoundland Command, leaving Sydney for Iceland with convoy SC.47 on 29 Sep 1941.  She served on that route until Jan 1942, when she sailed with SC.65, the first of many "Newfie-Derry" convoys she would escort until Aug 1944.  The worst of them was ON.154, which lost 14 ships in Dec 1942, but HMCS Napanee assisted in sinking one of its attackers, U-356, on 27 Dec 1942.  In Mar 1943, she made a side trip to Gibraltar with EG  C-1, which she had joined in Sep 1942.  She arrived at Montreal 22 May 1943, for a five-month refit, including fo'c's'le extension, afterward working up at Pictou and joining EG C-3.  She left 'Derry for the last time on 3 Aug 1944, refitted again at Pictou, then carried out three weeks' workup in Bermuda.  On her return she joined EG W-2, on the "triangle run" until the end of the war.  She was paid off on 12 Jul 1945, at Sorel, and was broken up at Hamilton in 1946.

HMCS New Westminster (K228)

(DND Photo)

HMCS New Westminster (K228) (Flower-class).  Built at Victoria, she was commissioned there on 31 Jan 1942, and assigned to Esquimalt Force until the threat of Japanese invasion had abated.  Ordered to Halifax to release an east-coast corvette for Operation "Torch" service, she arrived there on 13 Oct 1942, a month after leaving Esquimalt.  Assigned to WLEF, she operated on the "triangle run" until May 1943, when she began a major refit at Sydney.  This refit included fo'c's'le extension and was not completed until 10 Dec 1943.  The ship was then made a part of EG C-5, and in Jul 1944, sailed with HXS.300, the largest convoy of the war.  She left Londonderry on 14 Dec 1944, for the last time, returning home to refit at Saint John until early Mar 1945.  Allocated to Sydney Force until the end of hostilities, she was paid off at Sorel on 21 Jun 1945, and in 1947 sold for commercial purposes.  She became the mercantile Elisa in 1950; Portoviejo in 1952 and Azura in 1954.  Sold in 1966 for breaking up at Tampa, Florida.

HMCS Norsyd (K520)

(DND Photo)

HMCS Norsyd (K520) (Flower-class).  The name is a contraction of North Sydney.  HMCS Norsyd was commissioned at Quebec City on 22 Dec 1943 and, en route to Halifax, was diverted to Indiantown, NB, for fitting-out that was not completed until mid-Mar 1944.  She arrived in Bermuda later that month to work up, and on her return was assigned to EG W-7, escorting local convoys, until Nov 1944, when she was transferred to EG C-2, St. John's, taking her first convoy, HX.323, eastward early in Dec 1944.  On 27 May 1945, she began a refit at Halifax and soon after its completion, on 25 Jun 1945 was paid off and laid up at Sorel.  She was sold into mercantile service in 1948 as Balboa.  In 1946 she was purchased by the Mossad Le Aliya bet (The Institute for Immigration B.) the ship was called “Hagana” (Defence), and it sailed to Palestine in the end of Jul 1946 from Yugoslavia.  It was caught by HMS Venus several days later, boarded and brought to Haifa, were it’s occupants were interned in Palestine.  After the Declaration of Israel’s Independence, it was converted back to its Corvette configuration and commissioned on 18 Jul 1948 as INS Haganah.  She served until she was broken up in 1956.

(Clay Restall Photo)

HMCS Norsyd (K520) (Flower-class).

HMCS North Bay (K339)

(RCN Photo)

HMCS North Bay (K339) (Flower-class).  Built at Collingwood, Ontario, she was commissioned there on 25 Oct 1943.  HMCS North Bay arrived at Halifax on 29 Nov 1943, and in Dec 1943 carried out workups in St. Margaret's Bay.  On completion of these she was assigned to EG 9, Londonderry, making her passage there as escort to convoy SC.154 early in Mar 1944.  When EG 9 became a frigates-only group, HMCS North Bay returned to St. John's in Apr 1944 and became a member of EG C-4.  From 11 Dec 1944 to mid-Feb 1945, she underwent a refit at Sydney and proceeded to Bermuda to work up.  On completing this exercise she sailed directly to St. John's to join EG C-2, but later in Apr 1945 she was transferred to C-3 and, on 30 Apr 1945, left St. John's to join convoy SC.174 for a final trip to Londonderry.  She returned in May 1945 with ON.304 and was paid off on 01 Jul 1945 and laid up at Sorel.  In 1946 she was sold for merchant service and became the Bahamian Kent County II; renamed Galloway Kent in 1950; renamed Bedford II in 1951.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3394476)

HMCS North Bay (K339) (Flower-class), Hedgehog array, Oct 1943.

HMCS Oakville (K178)

(Naval Museum of Alberta Photo)

HMCS Oakville (K178) (Flower-class).  Built at Port Arthur, Ontario, she was commissioned at Montreal on  18 Nov 1941.  She arrived at Halifax ten days later and joined Halifax Force on her arrival.  On its formation in Mar 1942, she transferred to WLEF.  In Jul 1942 she returned to Halifax Force to escort Halifax-Aruba convoys and, on her second arrival at Aruba late in Aug 1942, was diverted to reinforce convoy TAW.15 (Aruba-Key West section).  The convoy was attacked 28 Aug 1942 in the Windward Passage, losing four ships, but HMCS Oakville sank the seasoned U-94, in part by ramming.  After temporary repairs at Guantanamo she arrived at Halifax on 16 Sep 1942 and there completed repairs on 01 Dec 1942.  She then joined the US Eastern Sea Frontier Command to escort New York-Guantanamo convoys until 22 Mar 1943, when she arrived at Halifax to join WLEF.  She served with three of its escort groups: W-7 from Jun 1943; W-8 from Dec 1943; and W-6 from Apr 1944.  After minor repairs at Halifax, she proceeded to Bermuda for workups in May 1944, thereafter returning to her duties with EG W-6.  A refit begun at Lunenburg early in Apr 1945, was discontinued in Jun 1945 and the ship was paid off at Sorel on 20 Jul 1945.  She was sold to the Venezuelan Navy in 1946.  On 10 Jan 1946, Venezuelan vessel Oakville, former HMCS Oakville K178, arrived at New York city with a skeleton crew: Frank Peter Hindley, Gerald James Ryan and Frederick Jackson.  Renamed Patria, she served in the Venezuelan Navy until 1962

(DND Photo)

HMCS Oakville (K178) (Flower-class).

HMCS Orillia (K119)

(David Rose Photo)

HMCS Orillia (K119) (Flower-class).  Commissioned 25 Nov 1940, at Collingwood, she arrived at Halifax on 11 Dec 1940 for completion and was assigned to Halifax Local Defence Force until 23 May 1941.  HMCS Orillia sailed that day for St. John's to become one of the seven charter members of the NEF, and for the balance of the year escorted convoys between St. John's and Iceland.  In Sep 1941, she was escort to convoy SC.42, which lost 18 ships.  She arrived at Halifax 24 Dec 1941 for a refit, upon completion of which on 22 Mar 1942, she joined EG C-1, leaving St. John's 02 Apr 1942 with SC.77 for Londonderry.  On her arrival she was sent to Tobermory for three weeks' workups, then returned to the "Newfie-Derry" run until Jan 1944.  Orillia took part in major battles around convoys SC.94, which lost 11 ships in Aug 1942 and ON.137 in Oct 1942, which lost only 2 ships despite being heavily attacked.  She was a member of EG C-2 from Nov 1942 to May 1944, when she joined EG C-4 following two months' refit at Liverpool, NS.  She left Londonderry for the last time on 16 Jan 1944, to commence a long refit, again at Liverpool, which included the lengthening of her fo'c's'le.  This refit was completed on 3 May 1944, but further repairs were completed at Halifax late in Jun 1944.  She arrived in Bermuda on 29 Jun 1944 for three weeks' workups, on her return joining EG W-2, Western Escort Force, for the duration of the war.  Paid off on 02 Jul 1945, at Sorel, she was broken up at Steel Co. of Canada, Hamilton, Ontario, in Jan 1951.

(DND Photo)

HMCS Orillia (K119) (Flower-class).

(CFB Esquimalt Military Museum Photo)

HMCS Orillia (K119) (Flower-class).

(USN Naval History and Heritage Photos)

HMCS Orillia (K119).