HMCS Thiepval
| 300px HMCS Thiepval | |
| Career (Canada) | Canadian Naval Ensign (pre 1957) |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMCS Thiepval |
| Namesake: | Battle of Thiepval Ridge |
| Builder: | Kingston Shipbuilding Company, Kingston, Ontario |
| Launched: | 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 24 July 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 19 March 1920 |
| Recommissioned: | 1 April 1923 |
| Fate: | Struck a rock and sank in the Barkley Sound, 27 February 1930 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Battle class Naval trawler |
| Displacement: | 357 long tons (363 t) |
| Length: | 130 ft (40 m) |
| Beam: | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
| Draught: | 13 ft (4.0 m) |
| Speed: | 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h) |
| Armament: | 1 × QF 12-pounder (76-mm) gun |
HMCS Thiepval was one of twelve Battle class Naval trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Built by the Kingston Shipbuilding Company and launched in 1917, she was commissioned in July 1918. Decommissioned at Esquimalt, British Columbia in March 1920, Thiepval was transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries as a patrol vessel.[1]
Reacquired by the RCN, Thiepval was commissioned in April 1923, and in February 1924 was given the task of helping to support the round-the-world flight attempt of Major Stuart MacLaren. Proceeding across the North Pacific via the Aleutian Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula, Thiepval arrived in Hakodate, Japan, carrying supplies and equipment for the Vickers Vulture flying boat and its crew. In the process, Thiepval became the first Canadian warship to visit the Soviet Union and Japan.[2] The Canadian government had also given Thiepval the secret assignment of investigating American and Japanese territories in the North Pacific to see if they were being fortified in contravention of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty; it turned out that they were not.[3]
After waiting in Hakodate for the flight to approach Japan, Thiepval headed back to the Soviet Union, where she waited for the aircraft and its crew in Petropavlovsk. After arriving on 24 July, the flight was delayed by bad weather until 4 August, when it departed on its next leg. Heavy fog forced an emergency landing at sea, where the aircraft was badly damaged by waves before coming ashore at Nikolskoye, on Bering Island. Thiepval, steaming through the night, rescued the flyers and salvaged the wreckage of their aircraft before sailing for Vancouver.[4][5] During their stay in Hakodate, Thiepval's crew acquired a brown bear, which they brought back to Esquimalt as a mascot. Called Bruno, or sometimes "Haca-Daddy", the bear became addicted to the alcohol given to him by sailors, who also took him along when they went drinking in local taverns. Bruno ultimately died after eating poisonous dockyard supplies.[6]
Thiepval returned to her usual patrol duties, and on 27 February 1930 struck an uncharted rock in the Broken Islands of Barkley Sound on British Columbia's west coast, and sank in the channel that now bears her name. In 1962, three years the wreck had been located, divers recovered Thiepval's deck gun, which is now displayed in the fishing village of Ucluelet. Lying in just 45 feet of water, the wreck is accessible to sport divers and has become a popular dive site.[7]
References
- ↑ Ken Macpherson and John Burgess, The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1993 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships, (St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell Pub., 1994), 25. ISBN 0-920277-91-8
- ↑ Duncan McDowall, "HMCS Thiepval: The Accidental Tourist...Destination", Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 3, Summer 2000, pp.69-78.
- ↑ Galen Roger Perras, "Covert Canucks: Intelligence Gathering and the 1924 Voyage of HMCS Thiepval in the North Pacific Ocean", Journal of Strategic Studies, Volume 28, Issue 3 June 2005, pages 505-528.
- ↑ Duncan McDowall, "HMCS Thiepval: The Accidental Tourist...Destination", Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 3, Summer 2000, pp.69-78.
- ↑ Ken Macpherson and John Burgess, The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1993 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships, (St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell Pub., 1994), 25. ISBN 0-920277-91-8
- ↑ The Bear of Naden
- ↑ Duncan McDowall, "HMCS Thiepval: The Accidental Tourist...Destination", Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 3, Summer 2000, pp.69-78.
