HMCS Fortune

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

HMCS Fortune (151) / Bay-class Minesweeper

The Bay-class minesweepers were built to replace the aging wartime minesweepers. Their design was very similar to the Royal Navy’s Ton class of the same vintage. HMCS Fortune served with the Second Canadian Minesweeping Squadron on the West Coast.

In November 1955, Fortune was part of the Canadian component of one of the largest post-war naval exercises, with some 125 ships, 15,000 US Marines, and 300 aircraft. Sold for commercial purposes in 1966, she figured, as Greenpeace Two, in an unsuccessful attempt to hinder a nuclear test in the Aleutians in November 1971. This was the first major protest action by that organization.

• Builder: Victoria Machinery Depot Co. Ltd., Victoria, BC
• Date laid down: 24 April 1952
• Date launched: 14 April 1953
• Date commissioned: 3 November 1954
• Date paid off: 28 February 1964
• Displacement: 396.3 tonnes
• Dimensions: 46.3 m x 8.5 m x 2.4 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 38
• Armament: 1-40 mm