HMCS Quesnel

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

HMCS Quesnel (K133)

Named for the British Columbia community, the Flower Class corvette HMCS Quesnel was commissioned on 23 May 1941 at Esquimalt, British Columbia, and for the next year patrolled off the west coast as a member of Esquimalt Force.

In June 1942, she towed the torpedoed cargo ship SS Fort Camosun into Victoria, British Columbia.  Transferred to the Atlantic coast to replace an Operation Torch nominee, she arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 13 October and was assigned to Western Local Escort Force until June 1944.  With the division of the force into escort groups in June 1943, she became a member of Escort Group W-1.  During this period she underwent a refit, including forecastle extension, from early September to 23 December 1943 in Pictou, Nova Scotia.  This refit was followed by workups in St. Margaret’s Bay and Bermuda.

In June 1944, HMCS Quesnel joined Québec Force and spent five months escorting Labrador-Québec convoys.  In November, she was transferred to Halifax Force, going to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for refit and, on completion late in January 1945, to Bermuda for workups.  She resumed escort duty late in March, temporarily attached to Escort Group W-5 and W-8 of Western Local Escort Force until the end of the war.  She was paid off on 3 July 1945 in Sorel, Québec, and broken up in 1946 in Hamilton, Ontario.

• Builder: Victoria Machinery Depot Co. Ltd., Victoria, British Columbia
• Date laid down: 9 May 1940
• Date launched: 12 November 1940
• Date commissioned: 23 May 1941
• Date paid off: 3 July 1945
• Displacement: 965.2 tonnes
• Dimensions: 62.5 m x 10.1 m x 3.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 85
• Armament: one 4-inch gun, one 2-pound (0.9 kg) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 x I), one Hedgehog mortar and depth charges.

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1942-1945
• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1944