Service history
Constructed for Peter Rouss the son of an industrialist, the yacht was built by Yarrows Shipbuilding at their Scotstoun yard in Glasgow, Scotland. The third of Rouss' vessels named Winchester, the yacht was launched in 1912 and completed in June of that year. In 1915, Canadian industrialist and millionaire Jack Ross was sent to the United States to acquire ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. Ross purchased Winchester for $100,000. At the time, an embargo was in place preventing the sale of any ship to belligerents in the war. The American government discovered the sale and attempted to block the transaction, but Ross managed to get out of the country with the ship. Ross was later reimbursed by the federal government.
After arrival in Halifax, Nova Scotia it was arranged for the conversion of Winchester for military use. The ship was sent to Canadian Vickers in Montreal and armed with two 12-pounder guns, one fore, placed on the forecastle and one aft, placed on the quarterdeck. A 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tube was sited amidships. The aft deckhouse was removed to make room for the torpedo tube and the three torpedoes that were to be carried on deck. The mast was moved forward to directly behind the bridge and a second mast was installed to give the vessel a horizontal antenna to improve radio communications. There were also some alterations to the crew quarters to make room for the larger number required in a warship.
Grilse was commissioned as a torpedo boat on 15 July 1915 with Ross in command and operated off Canada's east coast for much of the war. Her intended use as the most powerful Canadian warship on the east coast following the laying up of the cruiser HMCS Niobe, was as the primary offensive unit to any sighting of enemy ships. Spending the better part of her service with the Halifax patrol, she was loaned to the Gulf patrol in September 1915 and operated as a ship escort in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The vessel was eventually withdrawn from inspection duties along the coast due to the high cost of use and was relegated to patrol duties only.
Unsuitable for winter operations in Canadian waters, Grilse was sent to the Caribbean Sea during the winter months. In 1915, she was sent to Jamaica, running out of fuel on the way and requiring a tow from the cruiser HMS Cumberland. In December 1916 the ship was sent to the Royal Naval Dockyard in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda to join the North America and West Indies Station, but encountered a heavy storm on the way and nearly sank. Headquarters actually believed the ship destroyed after they lost communications with Grilse (her antenna had been lost in the storm) and sent out vessels to search for wreckage. However, Grilse had managed to make it back to Shelburne. She was then towed to Halifax for a refit. The ship re-entered service on 10 May 1917 and was used as a patrol ship until August later that year when she returned to the dockyard to undergo repairs. She returned to escort and patrol duty until the end of the war. Grilse was paid off on 10 December 1918.
Attempts to sell Grilse as surplus in 1920 were unsuccessful, and she was used for training purposes in 1921–22 before being sold to Solomon Guggenheim in 1922. The vessel was towed to the United States, refitted as a yacht and renamed Trillora. The ship was still in Guggenheim's ownership when she foundered in Long Island Sound in the New England Hurricane of 1938 on 21 September 1938. The United States Coast Guard ordered the wreck removed and Guggenheim transferred ownership to a salvage company. The yacht's registry was closed in October 1941.
HMCS Haida is a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1943 to 1963, participating in World War II and the Korean War. She was named after the Haida people.
The first USS McCook (DD-252) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. Entering service in 1919, the ship had a brief active life before being placed in the reserve fleet. Reactivated for World War II, the ship was transferred to the Royal Navy and then to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS St. Croix. Assigned as a convoy escort in the Battle of the Atlantic, St. Croix was torpedoed and sunk on 20 September 1943.
USS Winchester (SP-156) was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. Prior to and following World War I, Winchester was a private yacht, later renamed Renard. In World War II, Renard was requisitioned for use in the Royal Canadian Navy as a patrol vessel, keeping her name. She was returned to her owners in 1944.
HMCS Alberni was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War. The Flower-class corvettes were warships designed for anti-submarine warfare. The ship was constructed by Yarrows Ltd. in Esquimalt, British Columbia, laid down on 19 April 1940, launched on 22 August and commissioned on 4 February 1941. The corvette sailed east to join the RCN's fleet in the Atlantic via the Panama Canal, where upon arrival, the vessel began escorting trans-atlantic convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic. Alberni took part in the key convoy battle of Convoy SC 42. In 1942, the corvette was transferred to Allied convoy assignments associated with Operation Torch in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1944, Alberni was among the Canadian naval vessels assigned to Operation Neptune, the naval component of the invasion of Normandy and escorted support ships to and from the United Kingdom on D-day.
HMCS Champlain was a Thornycroft S-class destroyer, formerly HMS Torbay built for the Royal Navy in 1917–19. She was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1928 and served primarily as a training ship until 1936.
HMCS CC-1 was a CC-class submarine used by the Royal Canadian Navy. Acquired by British Columbia at the outbreak of the First World War, the ship had been initially built for Chile as Iquique. However, after a dispute with the shipyard, Chile refused the submarine and the shipyard owners sold the vessel to Canada instead. Renamed CC-1 in Canadian service, the vessel was commissioned in 1914 and remained active through the war. Following the war, the submarine was laid up and was discarded in 1920.
HMCS Florence was a commissioned patrol vessel of the Royal Canadian Navy that served in the First World War. Originally launched as the yacht Czarina, she was acquired by John Craig Eaton in 1910 and renamed Florence. Following the outbreak of war, Eaton donated the yacht to the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship had a short career and proved unsuitable for navy work and was paid off in September 1916. The vessel was subsequently sold to buyers in Martinique, and was reportedly lost in the Caribbean Sea in January 1917.
HMCS Hochelaga was a commissioned patrol vessel of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) that served in World War I and postwar until 1920. Hochelaga is a historic name associated with Canada, the voyages of Jacques Cartier, and the city of Montreal. Initially constructed as the yacht Waturus in 1900 in Europe, the vessel was sold to an American in 1902. The ship was acquired in 1914 for use as a patrol vessel on the East Coast of Canada. Following World War I, the vessel became a ferry between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. After World War II the ship was renamed HaChayal Ha'Ivri and used for illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine. The vessel was scrapped in 1950.
HMCS Stadacona was a commissioned patrol boat of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) that served in the First World War and postwar until 1920. Prior to entering service with the RCN, the vessel was the private yacht Columbia. Following the war, Stadacona performed hydrographic surveys. The vessel was sold for commercial use in 1920 and was burned for salvage in 1948. Stadacona is a historic name associated with Canada, the voyages Jacques Cartier, the colony of Samuel de Champlain, and Quebec City.
HMCS Tuna was a commissioned torpedo boat of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) that served during the First World War. Built as the high-speed civilian yacht Tarantula, the vessel was one of several converted yachts the RCN used during the war. Following the war, the ship was discarded and stripped.
HMCS Magog was a River-class frigate that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War. She was used primarily as a convoy escort. On 14 October 1944, she was torpedoed by U-1223. She survived the attack, was towed to port and declared a constructive total loss. Magog was named for the town of Magog, Quebec.
HMS Niobe was a ship of the Diadem class of protected cruisers in the Royal Navy. She served in the Boer War and was then given to Canada as the second ship of the newly created Naval Service of Canada as HMCS Niobe. The Naval Service of Canada became the Royal Canadian Navy in August 1911. The ship was nearly lost when she went aground off Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia overnight 30–31 July 1911. Repairs were completed at the end of 1912 and the ship returned to service in late 1914. During the First World War, Niobe patrolled the approaches to the St. Lawrence River and then joined the Royal Navy's 4th Cruiser Squadron to patrol off New York City. The cruiser returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 July 1915 and never put to sea again. Niobe was paid off in September and served as a depot ship in Halifax. Damaged in the 1917 Halifax Explosion, she was sold for scrap and broken up in the 1920s.
HMCS Ambler was an armed yacht that was acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War as a patrol and training vessel. Constructed in 1922, Ambler was under private ownership until 1940 when the vessel was requisitioned for service in the Royal Canadian Navy. Initially used as a patrol vessel, Ambler was used as a training vessel until 1945. Following the war, Ambler was sold to private interests.
HMCS Esquimalt was a Bangor-class minesweeper that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She saw service in the Battle of the Atlantic and in the Battle of the St. Lawrence. She was sunk in 1945, the last Canadian warship to suffer that fate. She was named for Esquimalt, British Columbia.
HMCS Elk was an armed yacht serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Prior to Canadian service, the ship was named Arcadia. She was used initially as a patrol vessel, but later saw use as a training and guard ship for submarines on the East Coast of Canada. Following the war, Elk was sold for commercial use and returned to her original name. She was renamed Grand Manan III in 1946 and used as a short-haul passenger ferry before being broken up in 1968.
CGS Margaret was the first vessel to be built specifically for the Canadian Customs Preventive Service. Delivered in 1914, she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and served as HMCS Margaret during the First World War. Following the war, Margaret was returned to the Customs Preventive Service spending most of the 1920s intercepting smugglers during American Prohibition. In 1932 the ship was transferred to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The ship was sold shortly thereafter, and was subsequently acquired by the Brazilian Navy and renamed Rio Branco, utilized as a hydrographic survey vessel. Rio Branco was discarded in 1958.
HMCS Sans Peur was an armed yacht that served with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during World War II on both coasts. The vessel was constructed as a yacht in 1933 for Ernest G. Stanley at the John I. Thornycroft & Company yard in Woolston, Southampton, United Kingdom and initially named Trenora. It was sold in the 1930s to George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland who renamed it Sans Peur. The yacht was taken over by the RCN in 1939 and used for anti-submarine patrols and training duties on the British Columbia Coast. In 1944, Sans Peur was brought east to Nova Scotia as a training ship.
HMCS Husky was an armed yacht used for patrol and training purposes during World War II by the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship was constructed as the yacht Wild Duck in 1930 in Bay City, Michigan. Having several owners through the 1930s, the vessel was renamed Xania II. Acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940 for patrol, escort and training duties in Atlantic Canada, the ship was taken out of service at the end of the war and sold into commercial service. The vessel was purchased by the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana for use as an inspection ship. In 1967 the ship was sold again, renamed Aquarius No. 2 and used as a diving tender based in Honduras. In 1979 the vessel was acquired by American interests who brought the ship back to New Orleans and converted it to a floating restaurant.
HMCS Vison was an armed yacht of the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. The vessel was acquired in 1940 for use as a patrol boat and later, as a training ship. In 1946, following the end of the war, Vison was sold into private ownership. The vessel was constructed as Avalon in 1931 by Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware, United States on behalf of Ogden L. Mills, the Secretary of the United States Treasury. During its service during World War II, Vison participated in the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of the St. Lawrence escorting convoys and defending them against German U-boats.
HMCS Otter was an armed yacht in service with the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. Launched in 1921, the vessel was constructed as Nourmahal for Vincent Astor of New York as a pleasure yacht. He sold the vessel in the late 1920s and it was renamed Conseco. The Royal Canadian Navy, finding a lack of suitable vessels in Canadian ownership to be taken into naval service, sent Canadian yacht owners south to the United States to find those vessels. Conseco was acquired and brought north to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the vessel was converted to an armed yacht in 1940. Renamed Otter the ship participated in the Battle of the Atlantic, escorting convoys and patrolling the Canadian coast. On 26 March 1941, Otter suffered a catastrophic fire aboard that sank the armed yacht. Two officers and seventeen ratings died in the incident.
United States
Canada