HMCS Ypres
| 300px HMCS Ypres in 1924 | |
| Career (Canada) | Canadian Naval Ensign (pre 1957) |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMCS Ypres |
| Namesake: | Second and Third battles of Ypres |
| Builder: | Polson Iron Works Limited, Toronto, Ontario |
| Launched: | 16 July 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 10 November 1917 |
| Decommissioned: | 1920 |
| Recommissioned: | 1 May 1923 |
| Decommissioned: | November 1932 |
| Recommissioned: | 1938 |
| Fate: | Accidentally rammed and sunk by HMS Revenge at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 12 May 1940 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Battle class naval trawler |
| Displacement: | 320 long tons (330 t) |
| Length: | 130 ft (40 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) |
| Draught: | 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) |
| Speed: | 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h) |
| Armament: | 1 × QF 12-pounder (76-mm) gun |
HMCS Ypres was one of 12 Battle class trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Named after the Second and Third battles of Ypres, she was built by Polson Iron Works, in Toronto, Ontario, and was commissioned on 13 November 1917. Like many of the RCN's Battle class trawlers, Ypres was decommissioned in 1920. After being recommissioned on 1 May 1923 as a training ship, in November 1932 she was again decommissioned and was placed in reserve. Refitted as a gate vessel in 1938 and recommissioned, Ypres, designated Gate Vessel 1, formed part of the Halifax boom defences until 12 May 1940, when she was accidentally rammed and sunk by the British battleship HMS Revenge, but without loss of life.[1] After this incident, the crews of other gate vessels would pretend to make elaborate preparations for a collision every time Revenge visited Halifax.[2]
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
- ↑ On the Rocks: Shipwrecks of Nova Scotia - Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia
