HMCS James Bay

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

HMCS James Bay (152) / Bay-class Minesweeper

The Bay class was built to replace the aging wartime minesweepers. Their design was very similar to the Royal Navy’s Ton class.

James Bay served with the Second Minesweeping Squadron based on the West Coast. In November 1955, James Bay 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. In 1957, she recused a fisherman on a makeshift raft whose boat had been driven ashore on an island. She also participated in the 1959 salvaging of the screw sloop HMS Condor, which had sunk in Sydney Inlet in 1901. HMCS James Bay was paid off in 1964 and was subsequently sold for use in offshore oil exploration.

• Builder: Yarrows Ltd., Esquimalt, BC
• Date laid down: 16 August 1951
• Date launched: 12 March 1953
• Date commissioned: 3 May 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

Motto: ‘The True North Strong and Free’