HMCS Bowmanville

There has been only 1 vessel named Bowmanville in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Bowmanville (K493)

Laid down as HMS Nunney Castle, the Castle class corvette HMCS Bowmanville was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned at Sunderland, United Kingdom, on September 28, 1944.

Following work-ups at Tobermory, Scotland, Bowmanville joined Escort Group C-4 at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, sailing on November 24, 1944 to join her first convoy, ON.268. She served continuously as an ocean escort for the rest of the war. Early in June 1945, she left Londonderry for the last time, and was based at Halifax, Nova Scotia, until paid off on February 15, 1946.

She was sold into mercantile service in 1947 under the Chinese flag and first renamed Ta Shun, then Yuan Pei. In 1949, she was taken over by the Chinese Communist government, rearmed and renamed Kuang Chou.

• Builder: Wm. Pickersgill & Sons Ltd., Sunderland, United Kingdom
• Laid down: August 12, 1943
• Launched: January 26, 1944
• Date commissioned: September 28, 1944
• Paying off date: February 15, 1946
• Ex-HMS Nunney Castle of the Royal Navy
• Displacement: 1,060 tons
• Dimensions: 76.7 m x 9.8 m x 3.1 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 112
• Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun, six 20-mm (2 x II, 2 x I) guns, one Squid anti-submarine mortar and depth charges.

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1944-45