HMCS Ste. Therese

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

HMCS Ste. Therese (K366 / 309)

Alternatively named for Ste-Thérèse-de-Blainville in Québec because the name was too long, the River Class frigate HMCS Ste. Therese was commissioned on 28 May 1944 at Lévis, Québec. She arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, early in July and, after preliminary workups in St. Margaret’s Bay, proceeded to Bermuda to complete the process. Returning in mid-August, HMCS Ste. Therese left Halifax in late October to join convoy HX.317 for passage to Londonderry, Northern Ireland. There she joined Escort Group 25 and served with it in United Kingdom waters until February 1945, when she was reassigned to Escort Group 28, Halifax. She served locally with Escort Group 28 until the end of the war and, on 22 November, was paid off at Sydney, Nova Scotia, and placed in reserve at Shelburne, Nova Scotia.

HMCS Ste. Therese was re-commissioned on 22 January 1955, after conversion to a Prestonian Class ocean escort. She was mostly employed in training before finally being paid off at Esquimalt, British Columbia, on 30 January 1967. She was broken up in Japan that year.

• Builder: Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing Co. Ltd., Lauzon, Québec
• Date laid down: May 18, 1943
• Date launched: October 16, 1943
• Date commissioned: May 28, 1944
• Date paid off: November 2, 1945
• Re-commissioning as Prestonian Class: January 21, 1955
• Date paid off (final): January 30, 1967
• Dimensions: 91.9 m x 11.1 m x 2.7 m
• Speed: 19 knots
• Crew: 141
• Armament: (River) two 4-inch (102-mm) (1 x II), one 12-pound (5.45 kg) gun, eight 20-mm guns (4 x II), one Hedgehog mortar and depth charges; (Prestonian) two 4-inch (102-mm) guns (1 x II), six 40-mm guns (1 x II, 4 x I), two Squid Mortars

Motto: “En devoir, l'honneur” (In duty, honour)

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1945
• North Sea 1945