HMCS Stadacona
There have been only two units named HMCS Stadacona in the Royal Canadian Navy.
HMCS Stadacona (1st of name)
Originally named Columbia, this large yacht was purchased from her New York owner and commissioned on 13 August 1915 for patrol duty out of Halifax. She was also, for a time, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Kingsmill at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Early in 1919, HMCS Stadacona was sent to the west coast and, after brief service as a dispatch vessel, was paid off 31 March 1920. After a few years’ employment as a fisheries patrol and hydrographic survey vessel, she was sold in 1924. She then achieved a degree of notoriety as a rumrunner’s depot ship under the name Kuyakuzmt. In 1929 she was rebuilt at Vancouver and once again became a yacht, successively named Lady Stimson and Moonlight Maid. In 1941 she became a towboat in the United States. She was burned for salvage at Seattle in January 1948.
- Builder: Crescent Shipyard, Elizabeth, New Jersey
- Date launched: 1899
- Displacement: 693 tonnes
- Dimensions: 59.9 m x 10.2 m x 3.4 m
- Speed: 12 knots
- Crew: 62
- Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun
HMCS Stadacona (2nd of name)
All Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) shore-based facilities followed the naming tradition of the Royal Navy, whereby the prefix HMCS was affixed. The entire bases at the deep water ports of Victoria, British Columbia, and Halifax are now referred to as a Canadian Forces Base or CFB but some components of the base are still referred to by their historic RCN name.
HMCS Stadacona was originally built as the British Army's Wellington Barracks, later known as the Nelson Barracks, as part of the Halifax Defence Complex. After the departure of British military forces from Canada in 1906, the facilities were transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries. The RCN appropriated the site when established in 1910 and it was named HMCS Stadacona and commissioned on 1 July 1923. The Stadacona Barracks, frequently referred to as "Stad", is an adjunct to HMC Dockyard located west of the waterfront in the north end of the Halifax peninsula.
With the unification of the Canadian Forces, the establishment was paid off on 1 April 1966 to become Canadian Forces Base Halifax. The base is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Atlantic fleet. HMCS Stadacona contains the base headquarters, hospital and gymnasium, the Canadian Forces Naval Engineering School, the Canadian Forces Naval Operations School, the Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare Centre and messes and accommodations.
Motto: “By Wisdom and Valour”
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