| Career (Canada) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMCS Sackville (K181) |
| Builder: | Saint John Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company Ltd. |
| Laid down: | May 28,1940 |
| Launched: | May 15, 1941 |
| Commissioned: | December 30, 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | April 8,1946 |
| Refit: | Fo'c's'le Extended, Galveston, Texas, May 7, 1944. |
| Fate: | Restored |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Flower Class Corvette |
| Displacement: | 950 tons |
| Length: | 62.5m (205ft) |
| Beam: | 10m (33ft) |
| Draft: | 3.5m (11.5ft) |
| Propulsion: | Single shaft, 2 fire tube Scotch boilers, 1 4-cyl. triple expansion steam engine, 2750 hp. |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Complement: | 85 |
| Armament: | 1 4" BL Mk.IX single,1 Mk.VIII 2-pounder on antiaircraft mount, 2 .50 cal mg twin, 2 Lewis .303 cal mg twin, 2 Mk.II depth charge throwers, 2 depth charge rails with 40 depth charges, 1 Mk 3 hedgehog. |
| Notes: | Now a museum ship owned by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust, moored in season at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic |
HMCS Sackville (K181) is a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later served as a civilian research vessel. She is currently a museum ship and the only known surviving vessel of the Flower-class.
Contents |
Wartime service
Sackville was laid down at Saint John Dry Dock & Shipbuilding on 28 May 1940 and launched on 15 May 1941. She was commissioned into the RCN on 30 December 1941. She was tasked with transatlantic convoy escort duties during the Battle of the Atlantic, escorting merchant ships and troop ships between St. John's, Newfoundland and Londonderry Port, Northern Ireland. In September 1943 she took part in the battle of convoys ON-202 and ONS-18 and was damaged, possibly by a torpedo detonated by one of her depth charges. As a result of this damage, she was retired from active service and used as a training ship. She was paid off and decommissioned from the RCN on 8 April 1946.
Civilian service
Most Flower-class corvettes were scrapped shortly after the war however Sackville continued her service to Canada when she was transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries and served into the 1960s as a research vessel. She was retired and paid off from government service in the late 1960s.
Museum ship
The Canadian Naval Memorial Trust (CNMT) aqcuired Sackville after she was declared surplus and she has been restored to her wartime appearance. She currently serves the summer months as a museum ship on loan to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while spending her winters securely in the naval dockyard at CFB Halifax under the care of Maritime Forces Atlantic, the Atlantic fleet of Maritime Command, Canada's modern-day navy. Sackville's presence in Halifax is considered very appropriate, given that the port was likely the most important North American convoy assembly port during the war and the site of frequent battles with U-boats off the harbour entrance. Sackville makes her first appearance each spring when she is towed by a naval tug from HMC Dockyard to a location off Point Pleasant Park on the first Sunday in May to participate in the Commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies held at a memorial in the park overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour. Sackville typically hosts several dozen RCN veterans on this day and has also participated in several burials at sea for dispersing the ashes of various RCN veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location.
Gallery
 HMCS Sackville as restored, moored alongside the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Canada. The paint scheme on her hull is called dazzle camouflage, first employed in World War I. |
 HMCS Sackville, Halifax Harbour, October 9, 2006. |
 HMCS Sackville, Halifax Harbour, October 9, 2006. Showing four-inch deck gun and Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon. |
 HMCS Sackville, Halifax Harbour, October 9, 2006. Picture showing Oerlikon 20mm Anti-aircraft gun and depth charge releasing device at stern of ship. |
See also
External links
- HMCS Sackville's official site.
- HMCS Sackville photo gallery.
- Haze Gray and Underway
- ReadyAyeReady.com
- The 1993 film "Lifeline to Victory" was filmed aboard HMCS Sackville.
- Of the 236 corvettes that were laid down in Canada and Britain, 111 sailed from Canadian slips
- HNSA Ship Page: HMCS Sackville
- HMCS Sackville on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original |
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Modified |
|
||||||||||||||||
