NAVYPEDIA

Photo

Assiniboine 1980

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
St. Laurent	DDE205		Canadian Vickers, Montreal	22.11.1950	30.11.1951	29.10.1955	paid off 6.1974, sold 1979
Saguenay	DDE206		Halifax SY	4.4.1951	30.7.1953	15.12.1956	paid off 6.1990, sold 1990
Skeena	DDE207		Burrard, Vancouver	1.6.1951	19.8.1952	30.3.1957	paid off 11.1993, sold 1996
Ottawa	DDE229		Canadian Vickers, Montreal	8.6.1951	29.4.1953	10.11.1956	paid off 7.1992, sold 1992
Margaree	DDE230		Halifax SY	12.9.1951	29.3.1956	5.10.1957	paid off 5.1992, BU 1994
Fraser	DDE233		Burrard, Vancouver	11.12.1951	19.2.1953	28.6.1957	paid off 10.1994, BU 2011
Assiniboine	DDE234		Marine Industries, Sorel	19.5.1952	12.2.1954	16.8.1956	paid off 12.1988, harbour TS 1989

Technical data

Displacement standard, t	2000
Displacement full, t	2600
Length, m	111.6 wl 113.1 oa
Breadth, m	12.8
Draught, m	4.20
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 sets English Electric geared steam turbines, 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
Power, h. p.	30000
Max speed, kts	28
Fuel, t	oil
Endurance, nm(kts)	4570(12)
Armament	2 x 2 - 76/50 Mk 33, 2 x 1 - 40/60 Boffin, 2 x 3 - 305 Limbo Mk 10 ASW RL
Electronic equipment	SPS-10, SPS-12, SPG-48 radars, SQS-501, SQS-502, SQS-503 sonars
Complement	290

Graphics

Project history

In the late 1940s there was a pressing NATO requirement for anti-submarine vessels, and funds were voted for seven destroyer escorts or frigates for the RCN. The British Whitby design was still on the drawing-boards and as the USN had nothing which met the exacting RCN Staff Requirement it was decided to design a new class of ship in Canada. Using the services of the Montreal naval architects, German & Milne, and under the direction of a senior constructor, Rowland Baker, seconded from the Director of Naval Construction, work started in 1949. Baker produced a design basically similar to the Whitby, but incorporating several ideas of his own. The machinery was identical with the British ships and St Laurent's was in fact imported from the UK, but electronics and electrical gear were of American and Canadian design. To flatter Canadian susceptibilities, Baker was careful to make the appearance as different as possible from the Whitby, but the ship which resulted was virtually a Type 12 specification (albeit with a different hull form) translated by a different design team.

Modernizations

1963, St. Laurent, Assiniboine; 1964, Ottawa; 1965, Saguenay, Skeena, Margaree; 1966, Fraser: one funnel was replaced by twin uptakes; - 1 x 2 - 76/50, 2 x 1 - 40/60, 1 x 3 - 305 Limbo Mk 10 ASWRL; + 1 CHSS-2 Sea King helicopter, hangar, helicopter deck, SQS-504 VDS sonar

1979, Assiniboine; 1980, Saguenay, Margaree; 1981, Skeena; 1982, Ottawa, Fraser: + WLR-1 ECM suite

Naval service

No significant events.

© Ivan Gogin, 2015