HMC Ships Named For Ottawa Area Highlight Naval Centennial
Representatives of the Canadian Navy will present framed pictorial histories of three Ottawa area namesake warships and a shore establishment to His Worship Larry O'Brien at an Ottawa City Council meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10. Navy Captain Marty Teft, Assistant Chief of Staff Personnel and Training at Maritime Forces Pacific, Cmdr. Frédérick Caron, Commanding Officer of Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Ottawa and Lt.-Cmdr. Carmen Lapointe, Executive Officer of Ottawa's Naval Reserve Division, HMCS Carlton will make the presentation to mark the Canadian Naval Centennial at 10 a.m. in Andrew S. Haydon Hall.
Commemorating the current HMCS Ottawa and her predecessors, Naval Radio Station HMCS Gloucestor and HMC ships Eastview, and Rockliffe, the presentations include a picture of the ship (or shore establishment), the ship's badge and a short history.
HMCS Ottawa is a Halifax Class frigate commissioned into the Canadian Navy in 1997. She is the fourth ship to carry the name Ottawa, but the only ship named for the city of Ottawa; the others being named for the Ottawa River. HMCS Ottawa sails with Canada's Pacific Naval Fleet from Esquimalt Harbour near Victoria, B.C.
The River Class frigate, HMCS Eastview was commissioned into the Canadian Navy June 3, 1944. She was assigned as the Senior Officer's ship on her first convoy in September and served continuously for the balance of the European War. She was transferred to the West Coast for conversion for service in the Pacific. Her refit had barely begun when war ended. She was paid off in January 1946, and sold in 1947. Her hull is part of the Oyster Bay, B.C. breakwater.
HMCS Rockcliffe was an Algerine Class minesweeper built in Port Arthur and commissioned into the Navy Sept. 30, 1944. After working up in Bermuda she was engaged in North Atlantic convoy duty until June 1945. She escorted the surrendered German submarine U 889 part of the way to Shelburne, N.S. She was paid off from wartime service in July and was transferred to Esquimalt in December where she served as a training ship until being paid off in Aug. 1950 to be sold for scrap ten years later.
Established as a Naval Radio Station in 1943 to track the German submarine fleet, HMCS Gloucestor was commissioned in 1950 as both a training facility and the home of the Special Communications Branch until it was closed in 1972.
Similar presentations are being made across Canada, to bring attention to the Canadian Naval Centennial and highlight the connection the Navy has with communities large and small in every corner of the country. Since 1910 Canada has put over 850 warships to sea under the naval ensign. Over 300 ships have been named for communities from coast to coast to coast.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Emily Goucher
Special Assistant, Communications
Office of the Minister of State (Status of Women)
819-956-4000
Nanci-Jean Waugh
Director General, Communications and Strategic Planning
Status of Women Canada
613-995-7839
