River Class frigates were designed as an improvement on the Flower Class corvettes that formed the basis of the RCN escort force at the beginning of the war.  They were about 40% longer than a corvette with a heavier armament and better detection equipment.  Too big for the locks of the Lachine Canal, there were fifty built in Canada for the RCN on the west coast or the St. Lawrence River downstream from Montreal.

HMCS STORMONT was built at Canadian Vickers in Montreal and commissioned in 1943.  She formed part of Escort Group 9 operating out of Derry in Northern Ireland and participated with HMCS SWANSEA and HMS PELICAN in the sinking of U-448 on 9 April 1944.  She was one of 57 Canadian ships taking part in Operation Neptune on 6 June 1944 and in December of that year, she crossed the Arctic Circle (certificate on display) while escorting convoys to Murmansk in northern Russia.

After the war, STORMONT was sold to the Greek shipping billionaire, Aristotle Onassis, and converted into a luxury yacht, the MV CHRISTINA O’, named after his daughter, and as of 2025, she is still available for charter, seventy-seven years after her commissioning.

One of her crew, coder George Hedden, was from Hamilton.  He was involved in the Hamilton Naval Veterans Association, assisted in the formation of HMCS STAR Historical Collection and organized several reunions of former STORMONT crew.