HMCS Kingston

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

HMCS Kingston (700)

In May 1992, a contract was let to Halifax Shipyards Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, to build 12 Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDV) of the Kingston Class. They were designed to commercial standards and intended to conduct coastal patrols, minesweeping, law enforcement, pollution surveillance and response as well as search and rescue duties. The ships were fitted with modular payloads to carry out the assigned duties.

Lead ship of her class, Kingston was the first ship to be built in Halifax in 32 years; she was named for City of Kingston, Ontario and she is crewed almost entirely by naval reservists. Trials started on November 13, 1995, and on September 10, 1996, she left Halifax in company with HMCS Anticosti and her sister-ships HMCS Glace Bay and was commissioned at Kingston on September 21. On March 8, 1999, she proceeded with Glace Bay and Anticosti to the Baltic Sea to participate in Exercise BLUE GAME, a major minesweeping exercise with other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) units. They were the smallest Canadian warships to cross the Atlantic since the Second World War.

In 2002, she was mostly employed as a training platform for naval reservists but also carried out fisheries patrol off the south coast of Newfoundland along with officials of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The year 2003 was a busy one as Kingston spending 144 days at sea, sailing over 19,000 nautical miles. Her tasks were mainly training Maritime Surface Operations Naval cadets as well as carrying out preventive patrols with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police off the coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In July, the first female commanding officer of a Canadian warship was appointed in command of Kingston. In October 2003, bridge personnel witnessed a red distress and the ship, in company with her sister-ship HMCS Moncton, immediately set off in that direction. Coordinating with United States Coast Guard shore authorities, she aided in the recovery of 2 American Marine Corps F-18 pilots, who were forced to eject when their 2 aircraft collided. Kingston is homeported at Halifax with 5 of her sister-ships and she continues to conduct operations in support of Canada’s domestic and international policies.

  • Displacement: 970 tonnes
  • Dimensions: 55.3 m x 11.3 m x 3.4 m
  • Speed: 15 knots
  • Crew: 37
  • Armament: one 40-mm gun and two 12.7-mm machine guns (2 single mounts).

Motto: Pro Rege et Grege” (For Sovereign and People)

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