 HMCSSackville in October 2006, moored behind theMaritime Museum of the Atlantic inHalifax, Nova Scotia, and restored to her 1944 condition. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Canada | |
| Name | Sackville |
| Namesake | Sackville, New Brunswick |
| Builder | Saint John Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company Ltd. |
| Laid down | 28 May 1940 |
| Launched | 15 May 1941 |
| Commissioned | 30 December 1941 |
| Decommissioned | 8 April 1946 |
| Refit | Thompson Bros. Machinery Co. Ltd.,Liverpool, Nova Scotia, commenced 14 January 1943, machinery replacement, minesweeping gear removed, bridge wings extended to fit Oerlikon 20 mm AAGalveston, Texas, 28 February 1944 – 7 May 1944,forecastle extended, new bridge, hedgehog fitted, mast moved abaft of bridge, new boats, new electronics |
| Identification | Pennant number: K181 |
| Honours & awards | Atlantic 1942-44 |
| Status | Museum ship,Halifax,Nova Scotia |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Flower-classcorvette |
| Displacement | 950 tons |
| Length | 62.5 m (205 ft 1 in) |
| Beam | 10 m (32 ft 10 in) |
| Draught | 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) |
| Propulsion | Single shaft, 2 fire tube Scotch boilers, 1 4-cyl. triple expansion steam engine, 2,750 hp (2,050 kW) |
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement | 85 |
| Armament |
|
| Notes | Now a museum ship owned by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust, moored in season at theMaritime Museum of the Atlantic |
| Official name | HMCS Sackville National Historic Site of Canada |
| Designated | 1988 |
HMCSSackville is aFlower-classcorvette that served in theRoyal Canadian Navy and later served as a civilianresearch vessel. She is now amuseum ship located inHalifax,Nova Scotia, and the last surviving Flower-class corvette.
Sackville'skeel waslaid down asPatrol Vessel 2 at theSaint John Shipbuilding and Drydock Company ofSaint John,New Brunswick in early 1940, the second of theFlower-classcorvettes ordered by theRoyal Canadian Navy. She waslaunched on 15 May 1941 by Mrs. J. E. W. Oland, wife of the captain of the port, with the Mayor and entire town council of hernamesake town in attendance.[1]Sackville was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 30 December 1941 by Captain J. E. W. Oland, husband of the ship's sponsor.[2] Her first commanding officer, Lieutenant W. R. Kirkland, RCNR was appointed on 30 December[3] but did not joinSackville until 2 January.[2] Kirkland was discharged in March 1942 as "unsuitable" after a poor working-up trip toNewfoundland in late February. The first lieutenant reported that Kirkland had been unable to discharge his duties and had been abusive to his officers. After rescuing the survivors from the sunken Greek shipLily,Sackville was unable to re-locate her convoy,ON 68.[4] The first lieutenant then took the step of relieving Kirkland and assuming command. The original crew was reposted to other RCN ships and the already trained crew ofHMCS Baddeck under Lieutenant-Commander Alan H. Easton, RCNR was drafted onto the ship on 6 April 1942. Also in AprilSackville received Canadian-built SW1Cradar and worked up at Halifax andSt. Margarets Bay.[5]
The ship was finally assigned to Escort Group C-3 of theMid-Ocean Escort Force along with two others (Galt andWetaskiwin) on 15 May 1942 to replace corvettes going for refit.[6] In August 1942Sackville fought a series of fierce actions escorting Convoy ON 115. Deprived of air cover by heavy fog, the convoy was attacked by two successive U-boat "wolfpacks" off the coast of Newfoundland. On August 3,Sackville caught the German submarineU-43 on the surface and, as the submarine dived, made a series of depth charge attacks which badly damaged the submarine.U-43 survived but had to retreat to France for repairs with serious damage to its engines, compressors, a leaking hatch and a crewman with internal injuries.[7] The next daySackville attackedU-704 as it dived, causing the submarine to break off its attack leavingSackville to rescue two survivors from an abandoned but still floating merchant ship. Only a few hours later,Sackville detectedU-552 on the surface with radar and landed a four-inch shell on the submarine'sconning tower followed by a depth charge.U-552 nearly sank but managed to regain control and creep back to Germany heavily damaged.Sackville's attacks had played a key role in allowing the 41 ship convoy to escape with the loss of only two ships.[8][9]
Sackville continued in her escort role until starting an extensive refit atThompson Bros. Machinery Co. Ltd. inLiverpool, 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 inGalveston, 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 forDerry 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 recently been modernized she was reassigned for training atHMCS King on 29 August 1944.
However, almost immediately afterwards the decision was made to convert her to a loop layer, layinganti-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.
| Convoy | Escort group | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| HX 175 | 13-15 Feb 1942[10] | 27 ships escorted without loss fromNewfoundland toIceland | |
| SC 72 | 28 Feb-5 March 1942[11] | 19 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Iceland | |
| ON 70 | 11–15 March 1942[12] | 30 ships escorted without loss from Iceland to Newfoundland | |
| HX 191 | MOEF group C3 | 28 May-5 June 1942[10] | 24 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland toNorthern Ireland |
| ON 104 | MOEF group C3 | 17–27 June 1942[12] | 36 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| SC 90 | MOEF group C3 | 6–15 July 1942[11] | 32 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ON 115 | MOEF group C3 | 25 July-4 Aug 1942[12] | Northern Ireland to Newfoundland; 3 ships torpedoed (2 sank) |
| HX 202 | MOEF group C3 | 12-17 Aug 1942[10] | 43 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Iceland |
| ON 121 | MOEF group C3 | 17-20 Aug 1942[12] | 34 ships escorted without loss from Iceland to Newfoundland |
| SC 98 | MOEF group C3 | 2-11 Sept 1942[11] | 69 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ON 131 | MOEF group C3 | 19-28 Sept 1942[12] | 54 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 210 | MOEF group C3 | 7-14 Oct 1942[10] | 36 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ON 141 | MOEF group C3 | 26 Oct-3 Nov 1942[12] | 59 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| SC 109 | MOEF group C3 | 15-27 Nov 1942[11] | Newfoundland to Northern Ireland; 2 ships torpedoed (1 sank) |
| ON 152 | MOEF group C3 | 10-19 Dec 1942[12] | 15 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| ON 184 | MOEF group C1 | 16–25 May 1943[12] | 39 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 242 | MOEF group C1 | 6–14 June 1943[10] | 61 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ON 190 | MOEF group C1 | 25 June-3 July 1943[12] | 87 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 247 | Escort Group 9 | 14–19 July 1943[10] | 71 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ON 195 | Escort Group 9 | 1-8 Aug 1943[12] | 51 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 252 | Escort Group 9 | 20-27 Aug 1943[10] | 52 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| Convoys ONS 18/ON 202 | Escort Group 9 | 19-25 Sept 1943[12] | Northern Ireland to Newfoundland; 7 ships torpedoed (6 sank) |
| SC 143 | MOEF group C2 | 2-11 Oct 1943[11] | Newfoundland to Northern Ireland; 1 ship torpedoed & sunk |
| ONS 21 | MOEF group C2 | 23 Oct-2 Nov 1943[12] | 33 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 265 | MOEF group C2 | 11-20 Nov 1943[10] | 51 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ONS 24 | MOEF group C2 | 1-13 Dec 1943[12] | 29 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 271 | MOEF group C2 | 22-29 Dec 1943[10] | 53 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
| ONS 27 | MOEF group C2 | 14-18 Jan 1944[12] | 32 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| ON 220 | MOEF group C2 | 18-19 Jan 1944[12] | 54 ships escorted without loss from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland |
| HX 297 | MOEF group C2 | 30 June-10 July 1944[10] | 116 ships escorted without loss from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland |
Most Flower-class corvettes were scrapped shortly after the war, howeverSackville was laid up in reserve. She was reactivated in 1952 and converted to a research vessel for theDepartment of Marine and Fisheries. The armament was removed, the hull repainted black in place of the originaldazzle 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.
The original intention had been to acquireHMCS Louisburg, which had been sold to theDominican Republic and renamedJuan Alejandro Acosta but this vessel was wrecked (along with another Flower-class corvette -Cristobal Colon, the formerHMCS Lachute)[13] byHurricane David in 1979. This leftSackville as the sole remaining Flower-class corvette.[14]
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.[14]
She currently serves the summer months as amuseum ship moored beside theMaritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while spending her winters securely in the naval dockyard atCFB Halifax under the care ofMaritime Forces Atlantic, the Atlantic fleet of Royal Canadian Navy.Sackville's presence in Halifax is considered appropriate, as the port was an important North American convoy assembly port during the war.
In September 2003,Sackville broke loose duringHurricane Juan and struck theschoonerLarinda, a yacht inspired by the 1767 Boston schoonerHMS Sultana, moored beside her. The schooner's owners sued the Naval Memorial Trust in 2009[15] but the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled inSackville's favour on 4 August 2011, concluding that the Trust had taken all necessary and appropriate precautions to secureSackville.[16]
Sackville makes her first appearance each spring when she is towed by a navaltugboat from HMC Dockyard to a location offPoint Pleasant Park on the first Sunday in May to participate in theCommemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies held at a memorial in the park overlooking the entrance toHalifax Harbour.Sackville typically hosts several dozen Royal Canadian Navy veterans on this day and has also participated in severalburials at sea for dispersing the ashes of Royal Canadian Navy veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location. In 2018, the ship underwent CAN$3.5 million in repairs atCFB Halifax.[17]
In 1988,Sackville was designated aNational Historic Site of Canada, due to her status as the last Flower-class corvette known to exist.[18]
On 4 November 1998, Canada Post issued a 45¢ stamp featuring HMCSSackville as part of the Naval Vessels series. The stamps were designed by Dennis George Page, based on an illustration by Todd Hawkins and on photographs by Canadian Naval Memorial Trust.[19]
HMCSSackville was used as the model for the corvette, HMCSDodge, call sign Dicky, in the 2020 film,Greyhound.[20] The producers of the movie took numerous 3D scans of the ship's exterior to create theCGI version for the movie.
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44°38′50.85″N63°34′09.35″W / 44.6474583°N 63.5692639°W /44.6474583; -63.5692639
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