HMCS Moncton

There have been two vessels named HMCS Moncton in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Moncton (1st of the name) (K139)

Commissioned at Saint John, New Brunswick, on April 24, 1942, HMCS Moncton arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on May 12. She was the last of the Royal Canadian Navy’s initial Flower Class corvettes program to complete, owing to heavy demands on her builder for repair work to war-damaged ships. After working up, she joined Western Local Escort Force, and in June 1943, became a member of Escort Group W-5 conducting convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. She remained in this service until transferred to the West Coast in January 1944. Upon arrival, she was assigned to Esquimalt Force, British Columbia, of which she remained a member until Victory in Japan Day. In the course of an extensive refit at Vancouver, British Columbia, from May 5 to July 7, 1944, her forecastle was extended. HMCS Moncton was paid off in Esquimalt on December 12, 1945, and sold for conversion to a whale-catcher at Kiel, Germany. She entered service in 1955 as the Dutch-flag Willem Vinke and was broken up in Santander, Spain in 1966.

HMCS Moncton (2nd of the name) (708)

In May 1992, a contract was let to Halifax Shipyards Ltd., of Halifax, to build 12 Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDV) of the Kingston class. They were designed to commercial standards and intended to conduct coastal patrols, minesweeping, law enforcement, pollution surveillance and response, as well as search and rescue duties. The ships were fitted with modular payloads to carry out the assigned duties.

The ninth of the Kingston class, HMCS Moncton was launched on December 5, 1997, and the navy took delivery on February 27, 1998. She commissioned on July 12, 1998, at Pointe-du-Chêne, New Brunswick, near her namesake city, accompanied by her sister-ships Goose Bay and Shawinigan. She is crewed almost entirely by naval reservists. HMCS Moncton was among those present at the scene of the Swissair disaster in September of 1998. She was a participant in Exercise UNIFIED SPIRIT off the eastern seaboard in the fall of 2000. HMCS Moncton, in company with HMCS Goose Bay, departed Halifax on April 1, 2001, to participate in North Atlantic Treaty Organization's mine warfare Exercise BLUE GAME off the coasts of Norway and Denmark between April 23 and May 9. In 2003, she spent 144 days at sea, performing various tasks such as fisheries patrols, sailing close to 17,000 nautical miles. In 2004, she participated in Exercise SCOTIAN TRAVERSE, a joint army-navy national security exercise and later in June, attended the festivities marking the 400th Anniversary of l’Acadie. In November 2005, she sailed to the Gulf of Mexico in order to participate in a United States Navy mine warfare exercise. HMCS Moncton is homeported at Halifax and she continues to conduct operations in support of Canada’s domestic and international policies.

Motto:  “Resurgam” (I shall Rise Again)

Battle honours

• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942
• North Africa 1942-1943
• Atlantic 1942-1945
• Normandy 1944
• English Channel 1944