Royal Navy (built 1940-47) Iroquois, Athabaskan, Huron, Haida, Micmac, Nootka, Cayuga, Athabaskan (II) Canada Day ! The Canadian Navy had its largest extension in its history during the second world war. When it ended, the RCAN was the world’s fourth largest in tonnage and number of ships. This Navy operated cruisers, destroyers and plenty of … Read more
Conventional Attack Submarines 1982-1994 Upholder, Unseen, Ursula, Unicorn The Upholder class submarines, also “Type 2400” due to their displacement, were the last class of diesel-electric submarines built for the Royal Navy, after the arrival of HMS Dreadnought in 1960. They succeeded to the Oberons, and were designed as a cheap alternative to supplement nuclear submarines … Read more
Royal Canadian Navy – FFH-330-341 HMCS Halifax, Vancouver, Ville de Québec, Toronto, New Brunswick, Regina, Calgary, Montréal, Fredericton, Winnipeg, Charlottetown, St. John’s, Ottawa. The decision was taken on 22 December 1977 to order six ships of a projected twenty vessel programme, but lengthy delays have afflicted the programme, and a contract to build the first … Read more
Royal Canadian Navy – DDH-280-83 HMCS Iroquois, Huron, Athabaskan, Algonquin. The “Tribals” were a class of Canadian helicopter destroyers, radically larger ships than previous ASW escorts all derived from a 1949 design and saluted as possibly NATO’s best north Atlantic escorts when commissioned. They were far less ambitious still, than the previous guided missile destroyers … Read more
Royal Canadian Navy – DDE-265 HMCS Annapolis, DDE-266 Nipigon. The Annapolis-class destroyer escort were the last “classic” design going back to the 1950s St Laurent class, with just two ship built and in service with the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Forces from the 1960s to the 1990s. In the 1980s they were still were … Read more
Royal Canadian Navy – Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Qu’Appelle DDE-261 – DDE-264 The Mackenzie-class destroyer was four Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Forces destroyers escort built in 1958-63 and in service until the end of the cold war in 1992-94. Six were planned initially but the last two were eventually to completed as DDH conversion St. … Read more
Royal Canadian Navy – Restigouche, Chaudière, Gatineau, St. Croix, Kootenay, Terra Nova, Columbia DDE-257 – DDE-260 and DDE-235-36 The Restigouche-class destroyer were seven destroyer escorts built in Canada for the Royal Canadian Navy and later “Canadian Forces” in service from 1958 to 1998. All seven were named after rivers in Canada and derived from the … Read more
Royal Canadian Navy – St.Laurent, Saguenay, Skeena, Ottawa, Margaree, Fraser, Assiniboine The Saint Laurent class destroyers were the first large warships designed and built in Canada postwar, as ASW escorts tailored for the northwest atlantic conditions. Albeit partly based on the Type 12 and later Whitby class Frigates, they were singular in many aspects and … Read more
Canada. Ex-Powerful 1943-1971 Special Canada Day ! The story of HMCS Bonaventure (“bonnie”), the only and only Canadian Navy Aircraft Carrier (1957-71), bedrock of the RCAN ASW duties within NATO after HMCS Warrior (1946-57). This was the ex-HMS Powerful, a Majestic class 1942 program light fleet carrier (described also as the second batch of the … Read more
