NAC News – Edition 323 HMCS St. Stephen (K454 WW2 River) K323 HMCS Springhill (WW2 River, then Prestonian)
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of September 20th , 2019
Edition – 323 HMCS St. Stephen (K454 WW2 River Class, with an unusual history)
K323 HMCS Springhill (WW2 River Class, then Prestonian Class)
Fellow Members:
Rod Hughes
Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (comments welcome to help improve this service)
Contact David Soule executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone (who may be a member or perhaps a good candidate to join) to be added to the NAC News email distribution.
★ Editor’s stars of the week
Keep in touch with the NAC
If you are receiving NAC News, but are not a member, please consider joining NAC https://www.navalassoc.ca/branches/joining-membership-renewal/
Link to Starshell Magazine https://www.navalassoc.ca/naval-affairs/starshell/
Other Interesting Web Sites https://www.navalassoc.ca/naval-affairs/links/
Archived weekly NAC New Links https://www.navalassoc.ca/naval-affairs/nac-news/
TWITTER @navalassn
Should you wish to donate – NAC Endowment Fund
Keep in touch with the RCN
TWITTER @RCN_MRC @Comd_MARPAC @MARPAC @RCN_MARLANT #RCNavy or #MarineRC
YouTube Royal Canadian Navy or Marine royale canadienne
flickr Royal Canadian Navy / Marine royale canadienne
vimeo https://vimeo.com/thenavylamarine
NOTICES
- NOABC 100th Anniversary and 2019 NAC Conference – 2-6 October in Vancouver. The programme is at the NOABC website. ★ (Editor – Time-sensitive UNTD dinner details) UNTDA National Event – October 2, 2019
- Are you available for Memory Project speaking engagements around Remembrance Day 2019?
- ★ Vanguard Launches First-Ever Canadian Submarine Event (Editor – The next big challenge! The Deep Blue 2020 Forum, a one-day event, will take place on 29 October 2020, details to follow)
CANADA
- Vice-Admiral Art McDonald Flag Hoist Signal
- Remembering HMCS Kootenay
- NATO Allies Join US Navy in Cutlass Fury Photo Exercise
- New Jetty Opens in CFB Halifax (Editor – much more to a navy than just ships at sea)
- Canadian Exec Admits Sharing U.S. Navy Data with China (Editor – here is a timely story to contemplate with the NAC Conference approaching)
- HMS Northumberland Brings Submarine Hunting Skills To Naval War Games
- Talisman Sabre 2019 recap (Editor 57 sec video, great Cyclone pics)
- COMMENTARY: Alternative Saab fighter could save navy by dodging extravagant F-35s (Editor – included for $ implications to new frigates)
- Why the U.K.’s brutal Brexit mess could pose an existential threat to Canada’s shipbuilding plan (Editor – for info, a rebuff of already the agreed plan. Here is the NAC naval affairs response submitted to the Globe and Mail for publication) https://www.navalassoc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Letter-to-the-Editor-18-Sept-2019.pdf
- Icebreakers and the Battle for the Arctic
- First Hybrid Cruise Ship Sails Northwest Passage
- Prince Rupert Sea Cadets sail with Royal Canadian Navy
USA & AMERICAS
- U.S. has spent $5.9 trillion on wars since 9/11, report says
- Video: MQ-25A Stingray Makes First Test Flight (Editor – 1:23 video of the future)
- Electric Boat Preparing for Columbia-Class, But Supply Base Remains a Challenge
- Arleigh Burke Destroyers Are Most Viable Option for Near-Term Navy Presence in Arctic
- Navy Shortening Maintenance Times for Surface Ships, But Repair Industry Still Overloaded
- Report to Congress on U.S. Navy Destroyer Programs
- US Navy has tested new anti-mine unmanned surface vehicle USV
- TRANSCOM Running Largest Ready Reserve Fleet Stress Test Since 2003
- Vigor Lays First Keel for $1B Landing Craft Contract
INDO-PACIFIC
- ★ Russia Detains At Least 160 North Korean Poachers, Summons Envoy
- Final Air Warfare Destroyer Sydney prepares for delivery to Navy
- China’s LHD power surge
- Canada Navy port call to lift ties with Thailand
- China to build naval ship for Thailand, the largest yet for a foreign country
- China’s ploy to undercut US-Japan ties
- Indian Navy takes delivery of Scorpene submarine Khanderi from Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited
- Japan steps up rollout of A2/AD and amphibious brigade in southern island chain
- China’s Hidden Navy: The Maritime Militia (Editor – a quirky commentator, but useful 7:37 video)
- Taiwan’s Defense Strategy Doesn’t Make Military Sense
- ★ East Coast calling as potential for sub basing comes to the surface (Editor – like looking in a mirror 🙂 )
- Middle power: words come too easy
- The defence industry workforce as a fundamental input to capability (Editor – sounds too familiar)
- Evergreen Orders Ten Ships (Editor – more details following last week’s article)
- SE Asian Ship Piracy Levels Steady
EUROPE
- NATO allies unleash their drones in the waters off Portugal
- DSEI: U.K. Crafting New Command and Control Regime as Royal Navy Grows
- Britain’s second new carrier sets sail
- DSEI 2019 Naval Coverage Day 3: Type 31e, Babcock, Thales, SEA, GDMS, Nexter (Editor – 11:52 min video)
- Saab & Damen at DSEI 2019: A26 Blekinge-class & Walrus Replacement Submarines (Editor – 5:47 min video)
- A helicopter carrier for the German Navy (Editor – are we the only significant nation without a large aviation ship?)
- Russia to start building Mistral-class replacement in 2020
- Finnish Navy Orders 4 New Vessels at Rauma
- Admiral Nakhimov cruiser ready 50 percent
- Vestdavit To Equip Norwegian Coast Guard’s Next Gen Polar Vessels
- Brand new navy HQ in Wales revealed
- Spanish Navy Frigate Repeating Voyage of 500 Years Ago
- MSC: Third 23,000 TEU Boxship Named in Bremerhaven
- Seaborne Nuclear Power Plant Docks in Russia
MIDDLE EAST
- Saudi Forces Intercept Houthi Bomb Boat off Hodeidah
- Saudi Arabia Joins U.S.-Led Gulf Naval Mission
- ★ What the strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities teaches us
- Attack on Saudi oil facilities highlights danger of ‘kamikaze’ drones
- Saudi Arabia oil attacks: Weapons debris ‘proves Iran behind them’
- ★ Iran seizes vessel in Gulf for allegedly smuggling diesel fuel: ISNA
- Tanker Bottleneck Grows at Saudi Ports After Attack
- Royal Jordanian Navy assumes Command of CTF 152 from Kuwait Coast Guard
GLOBAL INTERESTS
- Climate change: Arctic expedition to drift in sea-ice for a year
- ★ Global Container Fleet Tops 23 Million TEU as New Megaships Hit the Water
- Melting Arctic Means New, and Faster, Subsea Cables
- Arctic Council group lobs GPS-bugged capsules into Atlantic to track litter trajectories in the North
- Examining Autonomous Ships’ Vulnerability to Piracy
SCUTTLEBUTT
- ★ Colossus / Majestic Class – Guide 141 (Editor – for the Tailhook crowd and indeed all members, an excellent explanation of our carriers’ ancestry. If you are so inclined there is a superb and more expansive book explaining American and British Aircraft Carrier Development 1919-1941) and just to cap the story off a 3:40 min video HMCS Bonaventure – Canada’s Last Aircraft Carrier
- Little-Known Fact: America Tested 1,032 Nuclear Weapons on Its Own Soil
- The ‘superweapon’ that almost won Hitler the war! (Editor – mines may not be sexy, but they still haunt modern navies today)
- The Cutter Bear and the Arctic Expedition to Save 265 Whalers
- Why does Russia Own Kaliningrad/ Königsberg? (Short Animated Documentary) (Editor 3:59 video)
SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – SEPTEMBER
(Month by month building a comprehensive list of significant RCN/Maritime events – if you see any glaring omissions or errors please inform me, and any more modern significant dates are welcomed. The list draws primarily from the Directory of History and Heritage’s comprehensive “Significant Dates in Canadian Military History”, the “Canada Channel”, and “Legion Magazine”)
- 1 September 1942 HMCS Morden sinks the German submarine U-756 in the Atlantic.
- 1 September 1944 HMCS Ships Saint John and Swansea sink U-Boat 247 off Land’s End, England.
- 3 September 1814 Lieutenant Miller Worsley and Andrew Bulger lead 77 men by canoe north from Wasaga Beach, Ontario, captures American warship USS Tigress at anchor in False Detour Channel, about 88 km northeast of Mackinac Island; then go after USS Scorpion, which they capture September 5.
- 3 September 1939 Battle of the Atlantic begins as merchant seawoman Hannah Baird of Verdun, Québec sees her ship, Donaldson liner SS Athenia torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat west of Ireland en route to Montréal, one week before Canada declared war and one week after the merchant service and military were placed on a war alert. The sinking kills 188 of those aboard, including Biards and three other Canadians, the first Canadian casualties of the Second World War.
- 3 September 1939 Britain declares war on Germany two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; France follows 6 hours later, and then Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada on week later. On September 5, 1939, the United States will proclaim neutrality.
- 3 September 1940 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces Lend Lease Program, where 50 American destroyers will be traded to Britain, of which 7 go to Canada, in exchange for leases on naval and air bases in the British colonies, including St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Bermuda; Canada also agrees to shelter the destroyers in Canadian ports before they are handed over to British crews.
- 3 September 1942 World War II – HMCS Shawinigan and HMCS Trail together pick up 17 survivors from the Canadian merchant ship Donald Stewart that was torpedoed and sunk northeast of Cape Whittle in the Gulf of St.Lawrence in position 50°32’N, 58°46’W by German U-boat U-517.
- 3 September 2016 – Franklin Expedition – Parks Canada and the Arctic Research Foundation find the underwater wreck of Sir John Franklin’s flagship HMS Terror; it is “in pristine condition”, north of where the wreck of HMS Erebus — the expedition’s flagship — was found in 2014.
- 4 September 1990 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces formation of Operation Scimitar, to provide air cover for the two destroyers and the supply ship sent to the Persian Gulf in late August of 1991 as part of Operation Friction, tasked with enforcing the United Nations trade blockade against Iraq.
- 5 September 1814 Royal Navy Lt Miller Worsley, flying captured American colours in the USS Tigress, takes the USS Scorpion at anchor after fierce hand-to-hand fighting; sails both ships west to Fort Michilimackinac.
- 5 September 1918 The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service is authorized and begins operations in Nova Scotia.
- 7 September 1816 – Steamship Frontenac launched at Bath, west of Kingston; first steam powered vessel on the Great Lakes.
- 7 September 1942 HMCS RACCOON Torpedoed and sunk by U 165, while escorting convoy QS.33 in the St. Lawrence River. There were no survivors. 37 perished.
- 7 September 1943 HMS Nabob (an aircraft carrier) is commissioned into the Royal Navy with a Canadian crew and a Royal Air Force complement.
- 8 September 1939 Mackenzie King says no to conscription; stresses munitions-making, and building up RCN and RCAF.
- 7 September 1955 HMCS Sioux leaves Yokosuka for Esquimalt ending RCN involvement in Korea.
- 9 September 1919 Alexander Graham Bell sees his HD-4 hydrofoil, powered by twin aircraft engines, reach a new world water speed record of 122 kph; piloted by J.A.D. McCurdy at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
- 9 September 1942 War Cabinet closes the St. Lawrence River to all Allied shipping except coasters; due to German U-Boat submarine dangers.
- 9 September 1944 HMCS Dunver and HMCS Hespeler sink the German submarine U-484 in Hebridean waters.
- 10 September 1814 Kingston naval dockyard launches the 112 gun HMS St. Lawrence, the largest warship ever to sail the Great Lakes; carrying more armament than Admiral Nelson’s Victory.
- 10 September 1939 Canada declares war on Germany
- 10 September 1941 HMCS Chambly and HMCS Moose Jaw sink the German submarine U-501 off the coast of Greenland. This is the first U-boat kill made by the Royal Canadian Navy.
- 11 September 1833 – Quebec-built steamship ‘Royal William’ reaches England safely; the wooden paddle wheeler is the First ship to cross the Atlantic under steam all the way, although sails are raised whenever the wind is fresh; the two steam engines are kept running, but the ship goes slowly under sail because of the drag from the paddle wheels.
- 11 September 1942 HMCS CHARLOTTETOWN Torpedoed and sunk in the St. Lawrence, near Cap Chat Quebec, by U517. She had just delivered a convoy to Rimouski and was returning to Gaspe. Ten of her ship’s company were lost.
- 12 September 1759 Admiral Saunders bombards Beauport and feigns a landing to divert attention away from Wolfe’s landing below the Plains of Abraham.
- 13 September 1942 HMCS OTTAWA sunk by U91 who hit her with two torpedoes in the North Atlanta while she was escorting convoy ON.127. 113 of her Ship’s Company were lost, plus 6 RN seaman, and 22 merchant seamen.
- 14 September 1942 500 km east of Newfoundland, German U-Boat U-91 torpedoes and sinks RCN River Class destroyer HMCS Ottawa (A/Lt.Cdr. Clark Anderson Rutherford, RCN) in the North Atlantic, while escorting convoy ON-127; hit by two torpedoes, she blows up and sinks immediately; 113 of her ship’s company are lost, plus 6 RN seaman and 22 merchant seamen; there are 69 survivors; Battle of the Atlantic growing in intensity.
- 16 September 1939 – RCN escorts the First of many ship convoys for Britain; RCN vessels guard the freighters in formation to protect against German U-Boat attacks. Halifax, Nova Scotia
- 16 September 1942 The first of sixteen RCN corvettes sails for the Mediterranean Sea to take part in the North African landings (Operation Torch).
- 17 September 1904 – Captain Joseph Bernier departs from Québec on the Canadian government steamship ‘Arctic’; given the command because of his interest in the Polar regions (he had devised a plan to reach the North Pole via the Bering Strait); will make 12 expeditions into polar seas in the next 20 years; he will spend the winter in Hudson Bay collecting Canadian customs duties from whalers and traders. Québec, Québec
- 19 September 1941 – German U-Boat U-74 torpedoes and sinks RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Lévis 200 km off Cape Farewell, Greenland; 18 lives are lost.
- 19 September 1969 Ottawa to reorganize Canadian Armed Forces; 50% cut in NATO manpower; retirement of RCN aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure.
- 20 September 1943 German U-boat U-305, using a new acoustic torpedo, hits and sinks RCN Town Class destroyer HMCS St. Croix, while she is escorting convoy ON.202, south of Iceland; 65 members of the ship’s company perish; five officers and 76 men are rescued by HMS Itchen, however, only two days later, the Itchen is also torpedoed by an enemy submarine; only one St. Croix sailor, Stoker W. Fisher, survives the two sinkings; one of the men lost was Surgeon Lt W. L. M. King, RCNVR, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s nephew.
- 20 September 1917 Borden government passes the Military Voters Act and Wartime Elections Act, giving the vote to soldiers and sailors under 21, and serving women; wives, widows, mothers, and sisters of servicemen also get the vote; the first women ever to be able to vote in Canadian federal elections
- 24 September 1940 HMC ships Annapolis, Columbia, Niagara, St. Clair, St. Croix and St. Francis, ex-American destroyers from the fifty given to Great Britain in exchange for bases, are commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy.
- 24 September 1941 Canada joins eight other allied governments in pledging support to the Atlantic Charter, an eight-point declaration issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
- 24 September 1955 HMCS Sioux returns to Esquimalt, the last ship of the Royal Canadian Navy to return from the Korean conflict.
- 24 September 1965 – Military RCN commissions HMCS Ojibwa, First of three 2000-ton RCN Oberon class submarines. Chatham, England
- 25 September 1940 Canadian armed merchantman Prince Robert captures German ship Weser off Mexican coast.
- 27 September 1854 Steamship Arctic sinks off Cape Race, Newfoundland with 300 people on board after colliding with the 250-ton French iron propeller ship S.S. Vesta; the 3,000-ton side-wheeler was the largest and most splendid ship of the Collins Line (United States Mail Steamship Company) in competition with Samuel Cunard’s Royal Mail Steam Packet Company; casualties include 92 of her 153 officers and men, and all the women and children on board, including the wife, the only daughter, and the youngest son of shipowner E. K. Collins; first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner.
- 27 September 1994 US Navy closes Argentia submarine detection base; last US military base in Canada.
- 30 September 1994 Halifax-class frigate HMCS Regina is commissioned in Saint John, New Brunswick.