HMCS Kapuskasing

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

HMCS Kapuskasing (J326 / 171)

The Kapuskasing was an Algerine Class minesweeper. The Algerine Class ships were designed as small vessels that could serve in several roles and not just as minesweepers. Their predecessors, the Bangor Class minesweepers, were bluff-bowed ships, very wet in a head sea, and arguably less comfortable even than corvettes in rough weather. These faults were eliminated in the Algerine Class, all 12 of which were built at Port Arthur, Ontario. Intended as convoy escorts, they were not fitted with minesweeping gear. Larger than corvettes, the Algerines found particular favour as Senior Officers’ ships in Western Local groups. After the war, most found employment for many years on hydrographic survey duties or as training ships for reservists.

Commissioned at Port Arthur, now Thunder Bay, Ontario, on August 17, 1944, Kapuskasing arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in early September, and proceeded to Bermuda on October 1 for work-ups. She returned to Halifax in mid-November and was assigned as Senior Officer’s ship to Escort Group W-1 of Western Escort Force. When the force was disbanded in June 1945, she was placed temporarily in maintenance reserve at Sydney, Nova Scotia, and then taken to Halifax for refit in November. On completion of the refit, she was paid off into reserve on March 27, 1946. In 1949, she was loaned to the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys and converted for hydrographic survey work. Returned to the Navy in 1972 and based in Halifax Kapuskasing became part of the navy’s auxiliary fleet, manned by a civilian crew until she was expended as a target on October 3, 1978.

• Builder: Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Port Arthur, Ontario
• Laid down: December 19, 1942
• Launched: July 22, 1943
• Date commissioned: August 17, 1944
• Date paid off: March 27, 1946
• Displacement: 990 tons
• Dimensions: 68.6 m x 10.8 m x 2.6 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 107
• Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun, eight 20-mm guns (4 double mounts), one Hedgehog mortar, depth charges.

Battle honours

Atlantic 1944-1945