HMCS Swift Current
There has been only one vessel named HMCS Swift Current in the Royal Canadian Navy.
HMCS Swift Current (J254 / 185)
HMCS Swift Current 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. Most of the Bangors were named after Canadian towns and cities, the rest after bays.
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 Montreal, Quebec, on 11 November 1941, she arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 24 November and was based there for anti-submarine training. In May 1942, HMCS Swift Current was moved to Pictou, Nova Scotia, and continued in the same capacity until February of 1943 when she was transferred to Halifax Force. She was transferred to Gaspé Force in June 1943, but returned to Halifax Force that November.
In February 1944, following a major refit at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, she was transferred to Newfoundland Force and remained there until June 1945. HMCS Swift Current was occupied with miscellaneous duties until being paid off at Sydney, Nova Scotia on 23 October 1945, before being laid up at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. HMCS Swift Current was placed in strategic reserve at Sorel, Quebec, the following year, but reacquired by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1951 owing to the Korean emergency. However, she was not re-commissioned and was handed over to the Turkish Navy on 29 March 1958. Renamed Bozcaada, she remained in Turkish service until 1971.
- Date commissioned: 11 November 1941
- Date paid off: 23 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
- Atlantic 1943-1944
- Gulf of St. Lawrence 1944
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