HMCS St. Stephen

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

HMCS St. Stephen (K454 / 323)

Commissioned on 28 July 1944 at Esquimalt, British Columbia, the River Class frigate HMCS St. Stephen arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 28 September and in October proceeded to Bermuda to work up. Returning in mid-November, she joined Escort Group C-5 and spent the balance of the war as a mid-ocean escort.

HMCS St. Stephen left Barry, Wales, on 27 May 1945 to take passage home with convoy ON.305, and early in June began refit at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. This was cancelled in August and on 30 January 1946 the ship was paid off at Halifax and laid up in Bedford Basin.

On 27 September 1947, she was re-commissioned, having undergone alterations to fit her as a weather ship. She was stationed between Labrador and Greenland until August 1950, when she sailed to Esquimalt to be paid off on 31 August and loaned to the Department of Transport. Retained primarily as a “spare” in the event of a mishap to other weather ships St Catharines or Stone Town, HMCS St. Stephen was purchased by the Department of Transport in 1958. Ten years later she was sold to a Vancouver buyer, purportedly for conversion to a fish factory ship.

• Builder: Yarrows Ltd., Esquimalt, British Columbia
• Date laid down: October 5, 1943
• Date launched: February 6, 1944
• Date commissioned: July 28, 1944
• Date paid off: January 30, 1946
• Re-commissioning as weather ship: September 27, 1947
• Date paid off (final): August 31, 1950
• Dimensions: 91.9 m x 11.1 m x 2.7 m
• Speed: 19 knots
• Crew: 141
• Armament: (as frigate) two 4-inch (102-mm) guns (1 x II), one 12-pound (5.45 kg) gun, eight 20-mm guns (4 x II), one Hedgehog mortar and depth charges

Motto: “Faeste befongen” (Seized fast)

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1944-1945