Navy to honour contribution of warship named Brockville
Posted Feb 4, 2010 By Roy Lewis
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EMC Events - As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations, the Canadian navy will honour a warship named after Brockville.
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Local dignitaries, including Brockville Mayor Graeme Gorrie, far left, and Col. Charles MacLaren, commander of the Brockville Rifles, second from left, were invited aboard the HMCS Brockville when it visited here in 1954 while at far right, Sub-Lieutenant Dave Muir, who still resides in Brockville, introduces them to the captain and officers of the ship.
In a ceremony to be held at the Brockville Museum on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m., representatives of the navy will present a plaque in honour of the HMCS (His Majesty's Canadian Ship) Brockville, which saw service during and after the Second World War. Among the dignitaries expected to attend the ceremony will be mayor David Henderson and Ray Gilroy, president of Brockville Branch 96 of The Royal Canadian Legion.
Three representatives of the navy will also be at the event, including acting sub-lieutenant Mary Dahl who is a member of the committee organizing the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Canadian navy. Local naval veterans have also been invited to attend.
"When we think of those who have served in the military, we tend to usually think of the army which is important but there were the other branches of the service including the navy," said Bonnie Burke, curator/director of the Brockville Museum.
"At the same ceremony in which the commemorative plaque will be donated, we will unveil a display case containing photographs, books and other memorabilia of the navy," she said.
A special object at the ceremony will be the HMCS Brockville's bell. Normally kept on the mayor's desk in city hall's council chamber, the ship's bell is the only remaining known piece of equipment from the HMCS Brockville. Retained by the navy for several decades, the bell was turned over to the city a few years ago.
The Brockville was one of approximately 95 minesweepers that were built for the navy during the Second World War. She was a Bangor-class minesweeper, so named because the Royal Navy's Bangor was the first ship in the series. There were five classes of minesweepers built during the war but the Bangor class was the most numerous with a total of 54 ships being constructed.
The very real threat of German submarines, particularly to the east coast of Canada during the war, was the reason for the building of the minesweepers. Naval strategists were fearful that besides attacking ships, the German submarine crews would also place mines in Canadian waters.
Mines used during the war were spherical and weighed 230 kilometres (440 lb.). They contained about 80 kilograms (175 lb.) of explosives. Most mines were anchored to the sea bottom just below the surface. If a ship came in contact with a mine, the explosion would rip a hole in its hull, usually sinking the vessel. More sophisticated mines, introduced during the war, would explode if a ship even came near them.
Most of the navy's minesweepers built during the war were constructed by Marine Industries Limited (MIL) at its shipyard on the Richeleau River about a kilometre from where it empties into the St. Lawrence River and 75 kilometres (47 miles) downriver from Montreal. The ship manufacturing firm opened in 1937 and built ships for the Great Lakes and Canada's Atlantic coast. MIL's ship building facilities, which constructed vessels not only for the navy but the Canadian Coast Guard and CN Marine, were closed in 1986 after the company merged with Davie Shipbuilding.
However, at its peak of wartime shipbuilding, MIL had a workforce of 10,000 workers. Besides minesweepers, the shipyard turned out frigates, destroyers and patrol vessels. Generally, the minesweepers were named after towns or geographical areas across Canada, including Brockville which was a town at that time. Gananoque was recently recognized by the navy for a minesweeper built and named after that community.
On Dec. 9, 1940, the keel was laid down to mark the construction of the ship that was to become HMCS Brockville. The completed hull was launched on Jan. 20, 1941. Brockville mayor at the time, Gordon MacOdrum, was invited to the ceremony as was his wife Frances, who was given the honour of christening the ship. Frances MacOdrum later became the first female member of Brockville council.
Although the hull was launched, there was still extensive work that had to be carried out to complete the interior and superstructure of the ship. The Bangor-class design of minesweepers was modified a great deal during the war in part to speed construction and because there was a lack of engineering resources.
The small ships were four-fifths the size of the corvette class of ships designed for convoy escort duty on the Atlantic Ocean. HMCS Brockville was 49.4 meters (162 ft.) in length with a beam or width of 8.5 metres (28 ft.). It weighed 592 tons and had a draught, or distance from the waterline to the keel, of 2.51 metres (8.25 ft.). Equipped with diesel engines driving twin propellers, the ship had a maximum speed of 16 knots (30 kilometres or 18 miles per hour).
Its armament consisted of a 101.6 millimetre (four-inch) diameter gun mounted forward, a gun firing a two-pound shell, mounted at the aft or rear end of the ship and two, twin 7.7 millimetre (.303 inch) machine guns. The total crew for the minesweeper was six officers and 55 sailors but conditions on the relatively small ship were considered cramped and its small size made it difficult to manoeuvre in rough seas.
Like most minesweepers built in Canada, the HMCS Brockville was not used for gathering enemy mines. Instead, she joined the navy's corvettes and other warships to escort convoys of vessels carrying war supplies to Europe. The Brockville was equipped with depth charges, massive explosives designed to explode underwater and destroy German submarines, which were sinking convoy ships.
After the ship was built, it sailed for Halifax arriving there on Oct. 20, 1942 and was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force operating in the north Atlantic. She was transferred to the Halifax Force shortly afterward but rejoined the Western Local Escort Force. In May of 1944, she was shifted to the Sydney Force and remained with it until May of 1945 after escorting her last convoy. The Brockville was paid off, taken out of military service, in August of 1945.
For the next several years, HMCS Brockville had a rather checkered career. In the fall of 1945, she was transferred to the marine section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, being renamed the MacLeod. But in 1950, she was again acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy and put back into service in April of 1951 and used as a reservist training vessel, including being on the Great Lakes in 1954. She was sent to the west coast and eventually decommissioned on Dec. 12, 1956.
In 1958, she was recommissioned again and sent to Halifax with the intention of converting her to a mobile deperming vessel. Deperming is a procedure where magnetism is removed from warships making them less likely to be found by mental detection equipment on enemy ships. But the conversion never took place and she was decommissioned again that same year. She was purchased by the JAL Steamship Company of Wallaceburg and scrapped in 1961.
HMCS Brockville was part of the Royal Canadian Navy, created through an act of parliament in 1910. Prior to that time, the maritime defence of Canada was the responsibility of the British Royal Navy.
In February, 1968, the various branches of the military were unified under the Canadian Forces with the navy becoming the Canadian Forces Maritime Command.
As of 2008, the navy consisted of approximately 9,000 regular members and 4,000 reservists.
The navy has 33 warships, including four submarines, along with supply and support vessels. The navy's warships are divided between the east and west coasts with one formation at Halifax and the second at Esquimalt, B.C. A naval reserve headquarters is located at Quebec City.
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