HMCS Sarnia

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

HMCS Sarnia (J309 / 190)

The HMCS Sarnia 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. As enemy mines were laid only once in 1943 in Canadian waters, the Bangors were used primarily 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 Toronto, Ontario on 13 August 1942, HMCS Sarnia arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 22 September, having escorted a Québec-Sydney convoy en route. She was assigned to Newfoundland Force, and in September 1944 underwent a major refit at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia after which she went to Bermuda for work-ups. On her return to Canada, she was assigned to Halifax Force and, later, to Halifax Local Defence Force until June 1945.

On 15 April 1945, she rescued survivors of HMCS Esquimalt, torpedoed outside Halifax. She then performed miscellaneous duties until paid off on 28 October 1945 at Sydney, Nova Scotia, and laid up at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. In 1946, she was placed in strategic reserve at Sorel, Quebec, and in 1951 reacquired by the Royal Canadian Navy and extensively refitted. She did not re-commission, however, and on 29 March 1958 was transferred to the Turkish Navy to serve until 1972 as Buyukdere.

• Builder: Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing Co. Ltd., Lauzon, Quebec
• Date laid down: 18 September 1941
• Date launched: 21 January 1942
• Date commissioned: 13 August 1942
• Date paid off: 28 October 1945
• Displacement: 682.8 tonnes
• Dimensions: 54.9 m x 8.7 m x 2.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 83
• Armament: one 3-inch (76-mm) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 x I) and depth charges

Battle honours

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