Royal Canadian Navy Destroyers: HMCS Patrician, HMCS Patriot, HMCS Champlain, and HMCS Vancouver

Royal Canadian Navy Destroyers

HMCS Patrician (Thornycroft “M” class); HMCS Patriot (Thornycroft “M” class); HMCS Champlain (Admiralty “S” class); HMCS Vancouver (F6A) (Admiralty “S” class).

HMCS Patrician and HMCS Patriot came to Canada in 1920, along with the cruiser HMCS Aurora as replacements for HMCS Rainbow and HMCS Niobe.  HMCS Patrician served on the West Coast, while HMCS Patriot served on the East coast, both as training ships.  Both were sold for scrap in 1929.

HMCS Patrician

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3724011)

HMCS Patrician (Thornycroft “M” class).  HMCS Patrician and HMCS Patriot were commissioned in 1916,and served in the RN for the duration of the First World War.  In 1920 HMCS Patrician, HMCS Patriot, and the cruiser HMCS Aurora were offered to Canada as replacements for the decrepit HMCS Niobe and HMCS Rainbow.  The three were commissioned at Devonport on 1 Nov 1920, and left for Canada a month later.  When the naval budget was cut by a million dollars in 1922, the two destroyers became the only seagoing ships in the RCN.  HMCS Patrician was ordered that autumn to the west coast, where she was to spend the next five years training officers and men of the naval reserve.  As perhaps the strangest assignment of her career, HMCS Patrician was detailed in Nov 1924, to intercept a band of Nanaimo bank-robbers trying to reach the United States by motor launch.  HMCS Patrician was sold for scrap in 1929 to a Seattle company to be broken up.

(IWM Photo SP1654)

HMCS Patrician, shown here when it was HMS Patrician (G56) in RN service in 1916.

HMCS Patriot

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3724024)

HMCS Patriot (Thornycroft “M” class). HMCS Patrician was commissioned in 1916, and served in the RN for the duration of the First World War.  In 1920 HMCS Patrician was offered to Canada and commissioned at Devonport on 1 Nov 1920, leaving for Canada a month later.  HMCS Patriot was stationed at Halifax where she spent the next five years training officers and men of the naval reserve.  In Sep 1921, she assisted Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, towing his experimental hydrofoil craft HD-4 at high speed on Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck, NS.   HMCS Patriot was sold for scrap in 1929 and broken up at Briton Ferry, Wales.

(RCN Photo MC-10024)

HMCS Patriot (Thornycroft “M” class).

HMCS Champlain

(IWM Photo, KMD-03502)

HMCS Champlain, ca. 1932.  Initially named HMS Torbay, she was commissioned in the RN in 1919.  She was lent to the RCN while replacements for HMCS Patrician and HMCS Patriot were being built in Britain.  The transfer took place at Portsmouth on 1 Mar 1928.  In May 1928, HMCS Champlain arrived at Halifax to provide reserve training.  5 Jan 1935, HMCS Skeena and HMCS Vancouver departed Esquimalt for exercises in the Kingston, Jamaica area with HMCS Champlain and HMCS Saguenay.  She was paid off on 25 Nov 1936 and sold for scrap in 1937.

HMCS Vancouver

(IWM Photo, IKMD-04359)

HMCS Vancouver.  Initially named  HMS Toreador, HMS Vancouver was originally commissioned in the RN in 1919.  She was loaned to the RCN while replacements were being built for HMCS Patrician and HMCS Patriot.  She was transferred to the RCN on 1 Mar 1928.  In May 1928, she arrived in Esquimalt to provide reserve training.  On 24 Jan 1932 HMCS Skeena and HMCS Vancouver provided protection to British assets and civilians in El Salvador at the request of the British Consul in San Salvador following the outbreak of a peasant uprising.  A landing party was briefly sent ashore at Acajutla, but the situation there improved and the sailors saw no combat, although the two ships remained in the area until the end of the month.  On 5 Jan 1935, HMCS Skeena and HMCS Vancouver departed Esquimalt for exercises in the Kingston, Jamaica area with HMCS Champlain and HMCS Saguenay.  She was paid off on 25 Nov 1936 and sold for scrap in 1937.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3400265)

HMCS Vancouver, Prince Rupert, British Columbia, July 1928.

Esquimalt

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3336440)

Warships in Esquimalt Harbour, British Columbia, early 1900s.

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