HMCS St. Thomas
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Sandgate Castle |
| Namesake | Sandgate Castle, Kent |
| Operator | Royal Navy |
| Ordered | 19 January 1943 |
| Builder | Smiths Dock Company, Southbank-on-Tees |
| Laid down | 23 June 1943 |
| Launched | 28 December 1943 |
| Fate | Transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy |
| History | |
| Canada | |
| Name | St. Thomas |
| Namesake | St. Thomas, Ontario |
| Operator | Royal Canadian Navy |
| Commissioned | 4 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 22 November 1945 |
| Identification | pennant number: K 488 |
| Honours and awards | Atlantic 1944-45[1] |
| Fate | Sold into mercantile service in 1946 being renamed Camosun |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Castle-class corvette |
| Displacement | 1,060 tons |
| Length | 252 ft (77 m) |
| Beam | 37 ft (11 m) |
| Draught | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
| Propulsion | 2 water tube boilers, 1 four cylinder triple expansion steam engine driving a single screw 2,750 hp (2 MW) |
| Speed | 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) maximum, 10 knots (19 km/h) cruising |
| Range | 9,500 nautical miles at 10 knots (17,600 km at 19 km/h) |
| Complement | 112 |
| Sensors and processing systems | Radar - Type 272 originally, Sonar - Types 144Q and 147B originally |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) 1 × 4-inch Quick Firing Mk.XIX dual-purpose gun 1 × Squid anti-submarine mortar |
HMCS St. Thomas was a Castle-class corvette of the Royal Canadian Navy. She served during the Second World War in the Battle of the Atlantic, taking part in the sinking of the German U-boat U-877 in 1944.
War service
The British Admiralty ordered as Sandgate Castle on 19 January 1943. and allocated her the pennant number K373. She was built at Smiths Dock and launched on 28 December 1943,[2][3] but was never commissioned into the Royal Navy. Instead, she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy.
St. Thomas was named for the city of St. Thomas, Ontario in Canada and was commissioned on 4 May 1944 with the pennant number K488.[2][4] Her first captain was Lieutenant Commander Leslie Perman Denny, RCNR. Of the ship's complement, at least five were from St. Thomas, and about a dozen from Elgin County.[4]
Her primary mission was to escort convoys across the North Atlantic to Britain. The ship was equipped with sonar, radar and anti-submarine weapons such as depth charges used to sink U-boats.[4] After working up at Tobermory she joined the Mid-Ocean Escort Force escort group C-3 as a trans-Atlantic convoy escort.[5] St. Thomas escorted 13 convoys across the North Atlantic in 1944-1945.
Sinking of U-877
St. Thomas is credited with the sinking of U-877, a German submarine on 27 December 1944.[6] The battle took place north-west of the Azores in position 46º25'N, 36º38'W, 1000 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland. St. Thomas twice detected and carried out attacks on the U-boat using her Squid forward-throwing anti-submarine mortar. St. Thomas had begun to withdraw, when the damaged U-boat was discovered to have surfaced four kilometres away. Rather than attacking a third time, the Canadian First Lieutenant (second-in-command), Stanislas Déry, ordered the crew, "Ne tirez pas" (Don't shoot). Instead, St. Thomas and HMCS Sea Cliff rescued all 56 members of the German crew.[4] Shortly afterwards U-877 sank.[2][4][7] The German second-in-command was credited with calling Déry every year to thank him for saving his life.[4]
The sinking of U-877 encouraged Canadians that their ships could successfully engage the modern U-boats.[8]
Her second, and last captain was Lieutenant Commander Berkeley Hynes, RCNVR, who commanded St. Thomas from 27 January 1945 until shortly before her decommissioning late that same year. She returned to Canada in April 1945 and underwent a refit at Halifax, Nova Scotia beginning on the 30 April. After the refit was completed she sailed to Esquimalt, British Columbia in July and remained there until being paid off on 22 November 1945.[5]
Postwar service
Following the war St. Thomas was sold into mercantile service. She was converted to a coastal passenger vessel named Camosun III in 1946, renamed as Chilcotin and again to Yukon Star in 1958.[3] After several years of idleness, Yukon Star was broken up at Tacoma, Washington in 1974.[5] The original ship's bell from St. Thomas was donated to the city of St. Thomas in the late 1940s.[4]
References
- Notes
- ^ "Battle Honours". Britain's Navy. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
- ^ a b c Uboat.Net (2010). "Allied Warships". Internet archive. Uboat.Net. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
- ^ a b "Castle Class Corvettes". Internet Archive. battleships-cruisers.co.uk. 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kyle Rea (May 2010). "HMCS St. Thomas Anchors New Exhibition". Newspaper. St Thomas Times Journal. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
- ^ a b c Macpherson, Ken; Burgess, John (1981). The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships. Toronto: Collins. ISBN 0-00216-856-1.
- ^ "On This Day in the Canadian Navy December" (PDF). pdf government report archive. Canadian Navy forces. 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
- ^ "Another U-boat goes down to the bottom and Canada's St Thomas Proudly Accepts the Credit". Toronto Daily Star newspaper. Toronto Daily Star. 14 March 1945. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
- ^ "Navy Minister Says general's Remark Untrue". Ottawa Citizen newspaper. Ottawa Citizen. 13 February 1945. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
- References
- Macpherson, Ken; Burgess, John. The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships. Collins: Toronto, 1981. ISBN 0-00216-856-1
