HMCS ''Truro'' ( pennant J268) was a that served with the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submar ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The minesweeper entered service in 1942 and took part in the Battle of the Atlantic and the

Battle of the St. Lawrence The Battle of the St. Lawrence involved marine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Strait of Belle Isle, Anticosti Island and Cabot Strait from May–October 1942, September ...

. Following the war, the vessel was transferred to the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

and renamed ''Herchmer''. In 1946, ''Herchmer'' was sold for mercantile conversion and reappeared as ''Gulf Mariner''. The ship was abandoned in 1964 on the Fraser River shore after plans for conversion to a suction dredger failed. The abandoned hulk was

broken up Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of Interchangeable parts, parts, which can be sold for re-use, ...

Design and description

The ''Bangor'' class was initially to be a scaled down minesweeper design of the in

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

service.Brown, p. 124Chesneau (1980), p. 61 However, due to the difficulty procuring diesel engines led to the small number of the diesel version being completed. The ships displaced standard and fully loaded. They were

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

with a beam of and a draught of .Macpherson and Barrie (2002), p. 185 However, the size of the ship led to criticisms of their being too cramped for magnetic or acoustic minesweeping gear. This may have been due to all the additions made during the war with the installation of

ASDIC Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects on ...

, radar and depth charges. The ''Bangor'' class came in two versions. ''Truro'' was of the diesel-powered version, being equipped with a 9-cylinder diesel engine driving two shafts that produced . This gave the ship a maximum speed of . The vessels carried of oil. The vessels had a complement of 6 officers and 77 ratings. The Canadian diesel-powered ''Bangor''s were armed with a single quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder 12 cwt gun mounted forward. The ships were also fitted with a QF 2-pounder Mark VIII gun aft and were eventually fitted with single-mounted QF 20 mm Oerlikon guns on the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

wings.Macpherson (1997), p. 58 For those ships assigned to convoy duty, they were armed with two depth charge launchers and two chutes for the 40 depth charges they carried.

Operational history

The minesweeper was ordered as part of the 1940–1941 construction programme. The ship's

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

was laid down on 20 March 1941 by

Davie Shipbuilding Davie Shipbuilding is a historic shipbuilding company located in Lauzon, Quebec, Canada. The facility is now operating as Chantier Davie Canada Inc. and is the oldest continually operating shipbuilder in North America. History The Davie shipyard ...

at their yard in Lauzon,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Named for a Truro, Nova Scotia, community in Nova Scotia, ''Truro'' was Ship naming and launching, launched on 5 June 1942. The ship was Ship commissioning, commissioned on 27 August 1942 at Quebec City.Macpherson and Barrie (2002), p. 189 After arriving at Halifax, Nova Scotia in September, the minesweeper was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force as a convoy escort. Deployed to escort convoys through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Quebec – Sydney, Nova Scotia, Sydney convoy QS 33 sailed on 6 September 1942 escorted by the corvette , ''Truro'', the armed yacht and two Fairmile B motor launch, Fairmile motor launches. At 2300, the convoy, which had been trailed by U-boats, was attacked by . The Greek freighter ''Aeas'' was hit twice with torpedoes and sank in five minutes. At 0210, explosions sounding like depth charges were heard in the vicinity of ''Raccoon''s location, but the lack of communication led the other escorts to believe that it was nothing significant. In reality, ''U-165'' had torpedoed the armed yacht. There were no survivors. On 7 September the convoy came under attack by a second U-boat, . At 1801, the submarine fired three torpedoes, each sinking a merchant vessel. ''Arrowhead'' and ''Truro'' counterattacked, but only succeeding in keeping the submarine down. In June 1943, the minesweeper joined the escort group W4. The minesweeper remained with W4 until May 1944 when ''Truro'' transferred to Sydney Force, the patrol and escort force operating from Sydney, Nova Scotia. In December, the minesweeper began a refit at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia that took until February 1945 to complete. Following the refit, the ship was briefly allocated to Halifax Force, the patrol and escort force operating from Halifax before rejoining Sydney Force. The ship remained with Sydney Force until June 1945. ''Truro'' was Ship decommissioning, paid off on 31 July 1945 at Sydney and transferred to the

to become ''Herchmer'' on 3 August 1945.Haycock, p. 174 The vessel was sold on 6 August 1946 for mercantile conversion and the vessel reappeared as the ''Gulf Mariner''. The merchant vessel continued in service until 1964, when plans to convert the ship to a suction dredger failed. ''Gulf Mariner'' was abandoned along the shore of the Fraser River and

in Canada in 1964.Colledge, p. 646

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Truro (J268) Bangor-class minesweepers of the Royal Canadian Navy Ships built in Lévis 1942 ships World War II minesweepers of Canada