HMCS Guelph

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

HMCS Guelph (K687)

Commissioned at Toronto, Ontario, on May 9, 1944, the Flower class corvette Guelph arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in early June and left on July 2, escorting the Royal Navy submarines P.553 and P.554 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She then proceeded to Bermuda for work-ups, and in August, joined Escort Group W-3 in New York. She served with this group as a local escort until late September, when she was transferred to Escort Group W-8 which, although forming in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was to be based at St. John’s, Newfoundland.  She then made passage eastward as escort to convoy HXF.310.

On her final transatlantic trip, she left Belfast, Northern Irelan,d on April 9, 1945, and was based at Halifax until paid off on June 27 at Sorel, Quebec. On October 2, she was sold to a New York buyer, retaining her name under Panamanian flag. She was last noted in Lloyd’s Register for 1964-1965 as Burfin, a name she had borne since 1956.

• Builder: Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., Collingwood, Ontario
• Laid down: May 29, 1943
• Launched: December 20, 1943
• Commissionning date: May 9, 1944
• Paying off date: June 27, 1945
• Displacement: 970 tons
• Dimensions: 63.5 m x 10.1 m x 2.9 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 85
• Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun, one 2-pound (0.9 kg) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 single mounts), one Hedgehog mortar, and depth charges.

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1944-45