The Last Corvette HMCS SACKVILLE (K181) - Revisted, again ☺️

Photo by Rick Pancham - August 2016

Today, the first Sunday in May marks the anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic which was the longest, largest and most complex naval battle in history. It was also one of the most important campaigns of the Second World War lasting from the first day of the war in 1939 until the war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945. Moored proudly in her wartime camouflaged colours sits the 205' Flower-class corvette Her Majesty's Canadian Ship SACKVILLE (K181) which is the only one of 269 allied corvettes from the Second World War that remains and since 1988 has been a museum ship and a National Historic Site of Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Commissioned in 1941, HMCS SACKVILLE was one of 123 corvettes specially designed for convoy escorts that were built during WWII in Britain and at Canadian Great Lakes shipyards in Port Arthur, Midland, Collingwood, and Kingston; along the St. Lawrence at Montreal, Sorel, Quebec City, and Lauzon; and coastal yards in Victoria, Vancouver and like the SACKVILLE, at the Saint John Drydocks and Shipbuilding in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Photo by Shaun Judge - July 2015

While all of Britain's were named after "Flowers", hence the name of the class, Canada's Flowers-class and Castle-class corvettes were named after Canadian cities and communities like ALGOMA, BARRIE, CAMROSE, COLLINGWOOD, DAUPHIN, GALT, KAMLOOPS, NAPANEE, SUDBURY, OWEN SOUND, HUMBERSTONE and PRESCOTT, just to name a few. The outcome of the war was dependant on the success of the Atlantic convoys, on merchant ships reaching Britain. Canada only had 38 ocean-going vessels when the war broke out in 1939, so many Great Lakes ships or "canallers", about the size of my Dad's BIRCHTON (there rolling in the "unescorted" seas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence), suddenly became ocean-going vessels desperately needed for trans-Atlantic convoy duty.

During the six year campaign more than 70 Canadian merchant vessels and 14 RCN warships were lost along with approximately 3,600 souls. However, thanks to the gallant and courageous efforts of our RCN sailors and merchant mariners, more than 25,000 merchant ships safely made it to their destinations under Canadian and allied escort delivering approximately 165 million tons of vitally-needed supplies to Europe.

We have a lot to be thankful for today. Lest We Forget 🌺. 

 

Photo by Linda Noseworthy Bell - 2016

UPDATE - MAY 3, 2026:

Today is the first Sunday in May and the 81st anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic. While in many years past I'd be standing at attention in my sea cadet dress blues at the Cenotaph at Lakeview Park in Port Colborne, or at the Ottawa's War Memorial in attendance with my son and youngest daughter who were also cadet then, and thinking of all of those Royal Canadian Navy sailors and merchantmen who survived and lost their lives during the RCN’s longest campaign in World War II.  That is why during our visit to Nova Scotia last October, a must see for me was a visit to the now His Majesty's Canadian Ship SACKVILLE (K181) at her Halifax waterfront berth.

What an amazing sight see, all decked out in her dazzled wartime colour scheme to make her difficult to be detected by German U-boat submarines, the Saint John Dry Dock built in 1941 corvette HMCS SACKVILLE (K-181) was involved in 30 convoys from Halifax or St. John’s, Newfoundland to Northern Ireland & back…

…while they say a picture can say a thousand words I was somewhat speechless as I viewed this iconic 1942 photo on the SACKVILLE’s jetty of ships staged and waiting for a convoy to begin in Halifax’s Bedford Basin…. As in the plaque beneath the photo, “Our Navy and Air Force escorted massive convoys of supplies & troop ships from Halifax to Europe battling German U-boats. Several thousand servicemen and merchant mariners perished at sea to deliver the vital supplies and armed forces that liberated Europe”….

Like earlier captures above by friends Shaun Judge, Rick Pancham, and  Linda Noseworthy Bell, finally my photo of the proudly dazzled HMCS SACKVILLE (K181). She also had a leading role in the movie GREYHOUND with Tom Hanks. Check it out.

…this interesting chart said it all….and many of the merchant ships lost were small canallers like the size of my dad’s BIRCHTON as mentioned and in the photo above, were built specifically to ride the St. Lawrence rapids down to Montreal and the Gulf then steam back to the Great Lakes in the small and narrow canals that existed before the Seaway was built…

…on the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-45 Canadian Ships Lost chart above, seven of the ten canallers owned by N.B.Paterson & Sons, now of Thunder Bay which were lost in the six year conflict with several casualties. As mentioned in the book, “The Ships of the Paterson Fleet” by Skip Gillham and Gene Onchulenko,  ‘KENORDOC was the first Paterson vessel to head overseas and the first to be lost. She sailed September 2, 1940 and took a cargo of timber for Bristol, England, as part of convoy SC-3.  KENORDOC was attacked by an enemy submarine known as U-45 after engine trouble cause the ship to fall behind the convoy. The incident occurred some 800 km (500 miles) west of the Orkney Islands in the mid-morning hours of September 15. KENORDOC was shelled for about 10 minutes and seven men, including the captain were killed. An Allied destroyer picked up the survivors from a lifeboat, including several injured seaman while the ship eventually sank”…

The Royal Canadian Navy grew from just 6 destroyers at the outbreak of the war in 1939, to 373 ships (the third largest), and nearly 100,000 sailors at the end of it in 1945. Where would be without these brave sailors, merchant mariners and RCAF airmen who provided crucial air cover to the convoys in long range aircraft. Lest We Forget 🌺