HMCS Sackville (K181)

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 now a museum ship and the last surviving Flower-class corvette.

Wartime service

"Sackville" was commissioned into the Canadian Navy on 30 December 1941. Her first commanding officer was discharged as "unsuitable" after the ship was deemed still not ready for service in March 1942.cite web | url = http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/ARTICLES/Sackville.htm | title = HMCS "Sackville": The last flower (1941-2000) | work = History in Illustration | accessdate=2008-06-10 ] The original crew were reposted to other RCN ships and the already trained crew of HMCS "Baddeck" drafted onto the ship. The ship was finally assigned to Escort Group C-3 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force along with two others on 15 May 1942 to replace corvettes going for refit. In August 1942 she fought a remarkable convoy battle singlehandedly defeating two German submarine attacks in two hours, blowing one out of the water with depth charges and landing a four inch shell on the conning tower of another. [ [http://www.hmcssackville-cnmt.ns.ca/history.html HMCS Sackville website] ]

"Sackville" continued in this role until starting an extensive refit in Liverpool, Nova Scotia in January 1943. She returned to service in April and was assigned to Escort Group C-1 where she remained until reassigned to a new group Escort Group 9 in July. The group was disbanded following the loss of three of its ships on 20-22 September and the ship assigned to group C-2, where the ship remained on Atlantic escort work until going for refit in Galveston, Texas in February 1944.

Returning to Halifax in May 1944 the vessel worked up in Bermuda and was then assigned to Escort Group C-2 which left for Derry escorting convoy HX-297 on 29 June 1944.

At Derry the boilers were cleaned, which revealed a serious leak in one of them. Repairs were unsuccessful and the ship was no longer considered suitable for convoy escort work. Since the ship had only been recently been modernized she was reassigned for training at HMCS "King" on 29 August 1944.

However almost immediately afterwards the decision was made to convert her to a Loop Layer, laying anti-submarine indicator loops across harbour entrances, her damaged boiler removed to provide storage for the cable and the 4 inch gun replaced with a pair of cranes. She remained in this role until paid off in April 1946 and laid up in reserve.

Civilian service

Most Flower-class corvettes were scrapped shortly after the war however "Sackville" was laid up in reserve. Reactivated in 1952 and converted to a research vessel for the Department of Marine and Fisheries. The armament was removed, the hull replainted black in place of the original dazzle camouflage and the new pennant number 532 painted on the hull (changed to 113 in the late 1950s). A laboratory was built on the aft superstructure in 1964 and the bridge enclosed in 1968. She remained in service until December 1982, with her last cruise in July 1982.

Museum ship

The original intention had been to acquire HMCS "Louisburg" (K401), which had been sold to the Dominican Republic and renamed "Juan Alejandro Acosta" but this vessel was wrecked (along with another Flower-class corvette - "Cristobal Colon", the former HMCS "Lachute" (K440)) [cite web | url = http://www.seawaves.com/newsletters/TDIH/august/30Aug.txt | work = Seawaves | title = Today in History August 30, 2007 | accessdate=2008-06-10] by Hurricane David in 1979. This left "Sackville" as the sole remaining Flower-class corvette.cite web | url = http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/ARTICLES/Sackville.htm | title = HMCS "Sackville": The last flower (1941-2000) | work = History in Illustration | accessdate=2008-06-10 ]

The ship was transferred to the Canadian Naval Corvette Trust (now the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust) on 28 October 1983 and restored to her 1944 appearance (apart from minor details in her camouflage and the presence of the "barber pole" red and white pattern around her funnel which had been removed before 1944). It had originally been planned to restore the ship to her 1942 appearance but this proved too expensive.cite web | url = http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/ARTICLES/Sackville.htm | title = HMCS "Sackville": The last flower (1941-2000) | work = History in Illustration | accessdate=2008-06-10 ]

She currently serves the summer months as a museum ship moored beside 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 Canadian Forces Maritime Command.

"Sackville"'s presence in Halifax is considered appropriate, as the port was an important North American convoy assembly port during the war.

"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 RCN veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location.

Gallery

ee also

*List of ships of the Canadian Navy

References

*cite web | url = http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/839.html | work = Uboat.net | title = HMCS "Sackville" (K 181) | accessdate=2008-06-10

External links

* [http://www.hmcssackville-cnmt.ns.ca/ HMCS Sackville's official site] .
* [http://www.steelnavy.com/Sackville.htm HMCS Sackville photo gallery] .
* [http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/canada/ww2/flower/ Haze Gray and Underway]
* [http://www.readyayeready.com/cgi-bin/query/display.pl?index=1365 ReadyAyeReady.com]
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0107414/ The 1993 film "Lifeline to Victory" was filmed aboard HMCS Sackville] .
* [http://hnsa.org/ships/sackville.htm Of the 236 corvettes that were laid down in Canada and Britain, 111 sailed from Canadian slips]
* [http://www.hnsa.org/ships/sackville.htm HNSA Ship Page: HMCS Sackville]
* [http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/search3.php?query=Sackville&Submit=Find+Vessel HMCS "Sackville" on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.]