HMCS Noranda

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

HMCS Noranda (J265)

HMCS Noranda was a Bangor class minesweeper. The Bangor class ships were built in order to replace the old Basset class minesweepers, as they were larger, faster, had much greater endurance, and burned oil as opposed to coal. Most of the Bangors were named after Canadian towns and cities, the rest after bays. As enemy mines were laid only once in 1943 in Canadian waters, the Bangors were used principally as escorts to coastal shipping or as local escorts to ocean convoys. Sixteen of them, however, assisted in sweeping the approaches to Normandy before D Day, and stayed to help clear German and Allied minefields in the Channel for some months afterward.

Commissioned at Québec City on May 15, 1942, HMCS Noranda arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on May 30, and after working up at Pictou, Nova Scotia, was assigned to Halifax Force.

In February 1943, she was transferred to Western Local Escort Force and on its division into escort groups that June became a member of Escort Group W-9. HMCS Noranda went to Sydney Force in May 1944, and after a major refit at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, from September to December, proceeded to Bermuda to work up. Returning to Halifax on February 2, 1945, she served briefly with Halifax Force before joining Sydney Force.

She was paid off at Halifax on August 28, 1945, and transferred to the marine section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as Irvine. Sold in 1962 for use as a yacht and renamed Miriana, she sank at Montego Bay, Jamaica, in May 1971. Miriana may have been salvaged, as a ship answering this description and named Viking L&R appears on Cayman Islands registry in Lloyd’s, 1977.

• Displacement: 601.5 tonnes
• Dimensions: 49.4 m x 8.6 m x 2.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 83
• Armament: one 12-pound (5.45 kg) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 single mounts) and depth charges.

Battle honours

• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942
• Atlantic 1943-1945