HMCS Revelstoke

There has been only one vessel named HMCS Revelstoke in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Revelstoke (J373 / 140)

With the entry of Japan and the United States into the Second World War in 1941, Naval authorities on the west coast were faced with the likelihood of Japanese submarine and mining activities for the first time. It was recognized that the existing steel-hulled Bangor, Suderoy and Fundy Class minesweepers were only partially adequate against magnetic mines, degaussing being difficult and not completely effective. Smaller wooden minesweepers, which could be more easily degaussed, were ordered instead – eight for the west coast and two for the east coast.

Named for the town in British Columbia, the wooden-hulled Llewellyn Class minesweeper HMCS Revelstoke was built by Star Shipyards Ltd., New Westminster, British Columbia, and was commissioned there 4 July 1944. She was equipped with “double-L” magnetic minesweeping gear.     

HMCS Revelstoke began her operational duties on 9 August 1944, and until 18 May 1945, swept for mines out of Refuge Cove, Walters Island, Winter Harbour, Blenkisop Bay, Nanaimo, and Esquimalt, British Columbia. She was mainly based at Sooke, British Columbia.  Apart from sweeping duties, she was often tasked as a port examination vessel, and occasionally carried freight. She also spent considerable time on anchor patrol, sweeping to and from the patrol area, and put in an average of five days at sea and two days in harbour a week.     

After going on the slips in Victoria, British Columbia, in September 1945, >HMCS Revelstoke left Esquimalt for Halifax, Nova Scotia. She stopped at San Francisco, California, for a few days, and passed through the Panama Canal on October 19, and arrived in Jamaica, British West Indies, on October 24. The trip from Jamaica to Halifax took nine days, and a week after arriving in Canada, on 12 November 1945, >HMCS Revelstoke was paid off into the Reserve Fleet.

She was re-commissioned in the summer of 1952 for use as a tender at St. John’s, Newfoundland. In 1953, for a short three-month period, she was engaged as a training ship for reservists and sea cadets. This included at least one group of Wrens (Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service). She was finally paid off on 23 October 1953 for transfer to the Department of Indian Affairs.   

• Displacement: 231.7 tonnes
• Dimensions: 36.4 m x 6.7 m x 2.6 m
• Speed: 12 knots
• Crew: 23
• Armament: four 12.7-mm machine-guns (2 x II)