BOA Memorial Wall

Spread the love
Part of the BOA Memorial Wall on the upper deck

Traditionally, the RCN acknowledged twenty-four warships lost during the Battle of the Atlantic. This is reflected in a series of twenty-four numbered prints, entitled Lost In Action, done by Patricia Burstall, Canadian Society of Marine Artists, and commissioned by the C&PO’s Mess CFB Halifax in 1987.  The originals hang in the McKee Room, Windsor Park, Halifax.  They were donated to HMCS STAR by the Hamilton Naval Veterans Association in May 2018, upon the club’s closing. They are now displayed on the upper deck with a wall painted in Admiralty Disruptive Pattern camouflage from the Second World War as a background

HMCS REGINA in Admiralty Disruptive Pattern camouflage.
HMCS SHAWINIGAN from the Lost in Action series

Beside each picture is a representation of the corresponding stained glass windows that were originally installed in St. George’s Chapel, HMCS CORNWALLIS and are now in St. Brendan’s Chapel, the STADACONA Faith Centre in Halifax.

A picture of the CHARLOTTETOWN window.

HMCS Alberni
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Yarrows Ltd., Esquimalt, BC
Commissioned: 4 Feb 1941
Fate: Torpedoed, English Channel, 21 Aug 1944
Casualties: 4 officers, 55 crew 

HMCS Athabaskan
Tribal Class Destroyer
Builder: Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, UK
Commissioned: 3 Feb 1943
Fate: Torpedoed, English Channel, 29 Mar 1944
Casualties: 128 killed, 86 captured 

HMCS Bras D’Or
Minesweeper
Builder: Sorel PQ 1919
Requistioned: 15 Sept 1939
Fate: Foundered, Gulf of St. Lawrence, 19 Oct 1940
Casualties: 5 officers, 25 crew 

HMCS Charlottetown
Revised Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Kingston Shipbuilding Co., ON
Commissioned: 13 Dec 1941
Fate: Torpedoed, St. Lawrence River, 11 Sept 1942
Casualties: 1 officer, 9 crew 

HMCS Chedabucto
Bangor Class Minesweeper
Builder: Burrard Dry Dock, Vancouver BC
Commissioned: 27 Sept 1941
Fate: Collision, St. Lawrence River, 21 Oct 1943
Casualties: 1 officer 

HMCS Clayaquot
Bangor Class Minesweeper
Builder: Prince Rupert Drydock and Shipyard Co.
Commissioned: 22 Aug 1941
Fate: Torpedoed off Halifax NS, 24 Dec 1944
Casualties: 4 officers, 4 crew 

HMCS Esquimalt
Bangor Class Minesweeper
Builder: Marine Industries Ltd., Sorel PQ.
Commissioned: 26 Oct 1942
Fate: Torpedoed, Halifax approaches, 16 Apr 1945
Casualties: 5 officers, 39 crew 

HMCS Fraser
River Class Destroyer
Builder: Vickers-Armstrong Ltd., Barrow UK
2nd Commission: 17 Feb 1937
Fate: Collision with HMS Calcutta 25 June 1940
Casualties: 46 crew, 13 RN 

HMCS Guysborough
Bangor Class Minesweeper
Builder: North Vancouver Ship Repairs Ltd., BC
Commissioned: 22 Apr 1942
Fate: Torpedoed off Ushant, France 17 Mar 1945
Casualties: 4 officers, 47 crew 

HMCS Levis
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: George T. Davie & Sons, Lauzon PQ
Commissioned: 16 May 1941
Fate: Torpedoed off Greenland, 19 Sept 1941
Casualties: 18 crew 

HMCS Louisbourg
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock, Quebec City PQ
Commissioned: 2 Oct 1941
Fate: Torpedoed off Oran 6 Feb 1943
Casualties: 2 officers, 35 crew, 5 RN 

HMCS Margaree
River Class Destroyer
Builder: Palmer’s Shipbuilding, Hebburn-on-Tyne
2nd Commission: 6 Sep 1940
Fate: Collision with M.V. Port Fairy, 22 Oct 1940
Casualties: 4 officers, 138 crew 

HMCS Ottawa
River Class Destroyer
Builder: Portsmouth Naval Dockyard
2nd Commission: 15 June 1938
Fate: Torpedoed, mid-Atlantic, 13 Sep 1942
Casualties: 5 officers, 108 crew, 6 RN, 22 merchant seamen 

HMCS Otter
Animal Class Yacht
Builder: Robt Jacob, New York
Commissioned: 4 Oct 1940
Fate: Took fire and sank off Halifax, 26 Mar 1941
Casualties: 2 officers, 17 crew 

HMCS Raccoon
Animal Class Yacht
Builder: Bath Iron Works, Maine
Commissioned: 22 Jun 1940
Fate: Torpedoed, Gulf of St. Lawrence, 7 Sep 1942
Casualties: 4 officers, 33 crew 

HMCS Regina
Revised Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Marine Bangor Industries Ltd., Sorel PQ
Commissioned: 22 Jan 1942
Fate: Torpedoed off Cornwall, 8 Aug 1944
Casualties: 1 officer, 29 crew 

HMCS Shawinigan
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: George T. Davie & Sons Ltd., Lauzon PQ
Commissioned: 19 Sep 1941
Fate: Torpedoed off Cape Breton NS, 24 Nov 1944
Casualties: 91 no survivors 

HMCS Skeena
River Class Destroyer
Builder: John I.Thornycroft & Co. Southampton UK
Commissioned: 10 Jun 1931
Fate: Stranded and lost, Iceland, 25 Oct 1944
Casualties: 15 

HMCS Spikenard
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Davie Shipbuilding Co., Lauzon PQ
Commissioned: 6 Dec 1940
Fate: Torpedoed, mid-Atlantic, 10 Feb 1942
Casualties: 5 officers, 52 crew 

HMCS St. Croix
Town Class Destroyer
Builder: Bethlehem Steel, Quincy Mass.
2nd Commission: 24 Oct 1940
Fate: Torpedoed, mid-Atlantic, 20 Sep 1943
Casualties: 147, 1 RN, 1 survivor 

HMCS Trentonian
Increased Endurance Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Kingston Shipbuilding Co., ON
Commissioned: 1 Dec 1943
Fate: Torpedoed off Falmouth, UK, 22 Feb 1945
Casualties: 5 officer, 5 crew 

HMCS Valleyfield
River Class Frigate
Builder: Morton Shipbuilding Ltd., Quebec City
Commissioned: 7 Dec 1943
Fate: Torpedoed off Cape Race, NF, 6 May 1944
Casualties: 12 officers, 111 crew, 2 passengers 

HMCS Weyburn
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Port Arthur Shipbuilding, ON
Commissioned: 26 Nov 1941
Fate: Mined off Gibraltar, 22 Feb 1943
Casualties: 8 crew, 1 RN 

HMCS Windflower
Flower Class Corvette
Builder: Davie Shipbuilding Co., Lauzon PQ
Commissioned: 15 May 1941
Fate: Collision with SS Zypenberg off St. John’s NF, 7 Dec 1941
Casualties: 4 officers, 19 crew 

Additions to the Memorial Wall

In recent years, ten additional vessels have been recognized as belonging to the list and there were a further five which were not sunk but damaged beyond repair and classified as a Constructive Total Loss. At some point, we plan to add these ships to our wall.

  • 12 May 1940 – HMCS YPRES, Battle Class trawler used as a gate vessel, accidentally rammed and sunk by British battleship REVENGE in approaches to Halifax Harbour.  No casualties.
  • 20 Dec 1941 – HMCS ADVERSUS, 0 lost. Ran aground on McNutts Island, near Shelburne, N.S
  • 14 April 1943 – HDC-15, wood hulled vessel, 48.5’ long x 13’, two 225 hp gas engines, foundered in the mouth of Saint John harbour in a gale with the loss of all six aboard
  • 02 Jul 1944- MTB 460, while operating out of Port Winston, the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches, sunk by mine off Le Havre, Normandy, 10 of 16 lost.
  • 08 Jul 1944 – MTB 463, while operating out of Port Winston, the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches, sunk by mine off Ouistrehm, Normandy, 5 wounded
  • 14 Feb 1945 – MTBS 459, 461, 462, 465 & 466 of 29th MTB Flotilla destroyed by explosion and fire in Ostend, Belgium, possibly due to a discarded cigarette igniting fuel accidentally pumped into the harbour.  Seven British boats also lost with 26 Canadians & 35 British sailors killed

Constructive Total Loss

  • 15 Nov 1942 – HMCS SAGUENAY, destroyer, having been torpedoed by the Italian submarine ARGO on 1 December 1940 with her bows blown off and 21 dead, she was rammed by SS Azra off Cape Race while escorting convoy SC 109, a slow Sydney to Liverpool convoy.  The explosion of dislodged depth charges blew off SAGUENAY’s stern and sank the Azra, Retained as a training vessel at Cornwallis.
  • 04 Oct 1944 – HMCS CHEBOGUE, frigate, while escorting convoy ONS-33, torpedoed by Gnat from U‑1227, 800 miles west of Ireland, 7 lost, towed to Port Talbot, Wales.  49-20N 24-20W
  • 8 October 1944 – HMCS MULGRAVE, minesweeper, mined while sweeping in the English Channel.  49-29N 00-11W
  • 14 Oct 1944 – HMCS MAGOG, frigate, while escorting convoy GONS.33, torpedoed in St. Lawrence off Pointe des Monts, Quebec by U-1223, lost 65 ft of stern, 3 killed & 3 injured, towed to Quebec, 12N 67-19W
  • 29 Mar 1945 – HMCS TEME, frigate, while escorting convoy BTC 111, torpedoed by U-246 off Falmouth, 4 lost.  50-07N 05-45W