HMCS Raccoon

__NOTOC__

HMCS ''Raccoon'' was an armed yacht that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. Purchased by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940, the ship was originally known as the yacht ''Halonia''. Used as a patrol vessel and convoy escort, the ship was sunk by the in the St. Lawrence River on 7 September 1942. ''Raccoon'' was escorting Convoy QS-33 at the time. The entire ship's crew was lost.

Description

As built, ''Halonia'' had a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 361. As an armed yacht, ''Raccoon'' displaced . The ship had a length of , a beam of and a draught of . The ship was capable of and had a complement of 40. During her conversion to an armed yacht, a single QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun was mounted forward, an ASDIC was installed and the vessel was armed with depth charges.

Construction and career

The yacht was built in 1931 by Bath Iron Works at their yard in Bath, Maine for Charles A. Thorne of Chicago, Illinois. Constructed with the yard number 146, the ship was launched on 2 May 1931 as ''Halonia''. The ship was registered in the United States.

After failing to acquire any British vessels at beginning of World War II for auxiliary purposes, the Royal Canadian Navy discreetly searched the American market for suitable ships. However, American law prevented the sale of ships for possible use in the war to any of the belligerents. The Royal Canadian Navy, requisitioned unsuitable Canadian yachts and had their respective owners go the United States and buy those ships the Navy wanted as replacements. Once the ships arrived in Canada, the navy then returned the original yachts and requisitioned the new ones. ''Halonia'' was purchased by Montye McRae of Toronto, Ontario from Ray van Clief of New York City for $207,100 and transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in March 1940. Renamed ''Raccoon'', the vessel was commissioned on 17 May 1940 and sent out on patrol, unarmed off Halifax, Nova Scotia, to give the appearance of a naval presence to the merchant vessels. On 18 October, ''Raccoon'' sailed to Pictou, Nova Scotia for conversion to an armed yacht.

Following her conversion, ''Raccoon'' was assigned to the Halifax Local Defence Force based out of Halifax in December 1940. In July 1941 the ship transferred to HMCS ''Fort Ramsay'' near Gaspé, Quebec to patrol and escort convoys in the St. Lawrence River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, returning to Halifax and the Halifax Local Defence Force when the river froze over. ''Raccoon'' was one of the original ships assigned to Gaspé Force. On 25 May 1942, the armed yacht returned to the Gulf Escort Force based out of Gaspé as a convoy escort. The Gulf Escort Force were responsible for convoys from Quebec City, Quebec to Sydney, Nova Scotia and back, designated QS and SQ convoys. The first of these convoys sailed from Sydney as convoy SQ 3 with ''Raccoon'' and the . In July, ''Raccoon'' was ordered to aid convoy QS 15, which had come under attack by a U-boat. The armed yacht was directed to round up the dispersed convoy.

Sinking

On 2 September, ''Raccoon'' was escorting a convoy when the armed yacht came under U-boat attack. At least two torpedoes were fired at ''Raccoon'' with one passing ahead of and one passing beneath the ship, forward of the bridge. However, the depth of the torpedoes had been set too deep, meant for a larger merchant vessel. ''Raccoon'' followed the tracks to the suspected site of the German submarine and dropped depth charges, but found no trace of the attacker.

''Raccoon'' was escorting the convoy QS-33 on the evening of 6 September when the merchant ship ''Aeas'' was attacked and sunk by off Cap-Chat, Quebec. As the corvette , the lead ship of the escort, slowed to pick up survivors of the merchant vessel, ''Raccoon'' went to screen the convoy. At 12:12 AM, two loud explosions were heard astern of the convoy. The Fairmile motor launch ''Q 065'' saw two spouts of white water in the distance but assumed that it was ''Raccoon'' dropping depth charges. ''Arrowhead'' swept back to the rear of the convoy and did not spot ''Raccoon'' in position, but did nothing about it until 7:27 AM, when the corvette requested ''Raccoon''s position and received no response. The convoy continued on, coming under attack again on 7 September with a further three merchant vessels torpedoed.

Several escorts were dispatched to aid the convoy and search for the missing armed yacht. The naval vessels found no remnants and no survivors of ''Raccoon'' and the search was abandoned. The body of one crew member and a corner of the wooden bridge structure was found washed up on shore on Anticosti Island a few weeks after the attack. It was only later that it was established that the explosions were the sound of ''Raccoon''s boiler exploding after being hit by a torpedo from ''U-165''.

Commemoration

Le Naufrageur, a microbrewery based in Carleton-sur-Mer, Quebec, brews an Imperial Black IPA named after ''Raccoon''.

See also

* – for ships of the Royal Navy

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

*
*
*
*
*
*

External links

HMCS Raccoon at u-boat.net

HMCS Raccoon at ReadyAyeReady.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raccoon
1931 ships
Ships built in Bath, Maine
Armed yachts of the Royal Canadian Navy
Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II
Ships lost with all hands
World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Maritime incidents in September 1942