HMCS Columbia

There have been two vessels named Columbia in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Columbia  (1st of Name) (I49) / Town-class Destroyer

As USS Haraden she served in the Adriatic Sea during part of 1919 before returning to the US for training out of Norfolk, VA. Placed in reserve at Philadelphia in 1922, she emerged in December 1939 to take part in the Neutrality Patrol.

Transferred to the RCN on 24 September 1940 at Halifax, HMCS Columbia at first was employed on local escort duty.  She left Halifax 15 January 1941 for the UK, where she was assigned to EG 4, Greenock. In June 1941 she joined the newly formed NEF, and in March 1942 following repairs at Halifax, transferred to WLEF. In January 1943 she went to the aid of her RN sister, HMS Caldwell. Caldwell was adrift without propellers southeast of Cape Breton, but Columbia successfully towed her 370 miles to Halifax. Following a major refit at St. John from 1 February to 20 May 1943 she rejoined WLEF, becoming a member of EG W-4 at the end of June and of W-10 in December.

On 25 February 1944, owing to a combination of fog and faulty radar, she rammed a cliff in Motion Bay, NL without so much as touching bottom. Repairs only sufficient to make her watertight were carried out at Bay Bulls, NL, though not until May. That September she was taken to Liverpool, NS, to serve as an ammunition storage hulk for ships refitting there. Paid off into reserve at Sydney, she was sold for scrap later that year.

• Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. Ltd., Newport News, VA
• Date laid down: 30 March 1918
• Date launched: 4 July 1918
• Date commissioned in rcn: 24 September 1940
• Date paid off: 17 March 1944
• Displacement: 1 086.2 tonnes
• Dimensions: 95.8 m x 9.3 m x 2.6 m
• Speed: 28 knots
• Crew: 153
• Armament: Four 4-inch, twelve 21-inch TT (4 x III)

HMCS Columbia  (2nd of Name) (260) / Restigouche-class Destroyer Escort

Columbia was commissioned on 7 November 1959, and soon afterward was transferred to the east coast.  In 1960 she represented Canada at Nigerian Independence observances, returning home on 25 October.  In March 1967 she was transferred to Esquimalt, BC.  After being paid off Columbia was fitted with "no-thrust wheels" so that her engines might be run at dockside.  Late in June 1996, she was sunk by the Artificial Reef Society of BC near Campbell River.

• Builder: Burrard Dry Dock Co. Ltd., Vancouver, BC
• Date laid down: 11 June 1953
• Date launched: 1 November 1956
• Date commissioned: 7 November 1959
• Date paid off: 18 February 1974
• Displacement: 2 404 tonnes
• Dimensions: 111.6 m x 12.8 m x 4.1 m
• Speed: 28 knots
• Crew: 249
• Armament: Four 3-inch (2 x II), 2 Limbo, homing torpedoes

Motto: Floreat Columbia Ubique (May Columbia Flourish Everywhere)

Battle honours:

• Atlantic 1940-44