HMCS CAP DE LA MADELEINE

Caution: This article contains dated, biased and/or racist language. 

The keel of CN-350, as the future HMCS CAP DE LA MADELEINE was then designated, was laid down in the yards of the Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Company, Quebec, P.Q., on 5 November, 1943, the second last frigate keel laid down under the 1942-43 Canadian shipbuilding programme.[1] There were apparently very few delays, for on 13 May she was successfully launched, and on 30 September, 1944, less than eleven months after the laying of the keel, she was in commission under Lieutenant-Commander R. A. Judges, RCNVR.

The CAP DE LA MADELEINE was a “River” Class frigate built, as were all the frigates constructed in Canadian yards, to the following specifications:

• Displacement:  1445 tons
• Length overall: 301’ 6”
• Breadth, extreme:  36’ 7”
• Mean draught:  12’ 11”
• Designed speed: 20 knot:
• Endurance, cruising: 7200 miles
• Endurance, full speed: 4500 miles
• Engines: 2 triple-expansion, steam driven, of 2750 horse-power each
• Boilers: 2 Yarrows type, oil fired.

Her armament consisted of a twin four-inch gun mounted forward and a twelve-pounder aft, both on dual purpose mountings. For light, automatic weapons she carried four twin Oerlikons and two Bren machine-guns. Her main offensive anti-submarine armament was a hedgehog, a weapon with which a pattern of twenty-four contact-firing bombs could be projected a considerable distance ahead of the ship. She of course also carried depth-charges to complement the hedgehog.

The name she bears, Cap de la Madeleine, is that of a city of some twelve thousand people situated at the mouth of the St. Maurice River, across the St. Maurice from Trois Rivieres, P.Q. The city takes its name from one Jacques de la Ferté, Abbé de Sainte Marie Madeleine, who in the 17th century donated the land on which it stands to the Jesuit Fathers. He made the gift on the understanding that they would use the revenues derived from it to build and maintain an Indian mission. The city which grew around this mission is still a centre of religious endeavour; it possesses a shrine which tens of thousands of pilgrims visit each year. This shrine is built of stone brought from the south bank of the St. Lawrence across a bridge of ice which, it is believed, was miraculously formed through the intercession of the Virgin Mary whose statue it houses.[2]

The badge designed for the CAP DE LA MADELEINE was inspired by the history and local legend of the city. On a blue background are a crossed tomahawk and woodsman’s axe in sliver, referring to the Indians of the past and the chief industry of the inhabitants of the present. Surrounding these devices is an annulet or ring on which is a shepherd’s crook, an allusion to the clerical origins of the city. Within the circle is a silver diamond, meant to suggest the miraculous bridge of ice, and in the centre of the diamond a blue anchor. Besides its obvious reference to the navy, the anchor also suggests the haven provided by the ancient Jesuit mission.

At the time, CAP DE LA MADELEINE was commissioned there was still a critical storage of escort and hunting ships in the Canadian zone. Canada’s naval commitments were heavy, and although new ships were coming off the slips in fairly large numbers,[3] the demand for them was always increasing to keep up with the growing size of the Allied merchant fleets. The possibility of a new U-boat offensive had also to be considered. There was no telling when another Hartwig [4] might appear in the Gulf and necessitate a drastic strengthening of the local escort forces. Renewed U-boat activity anywhere, in fact, would affect the Canadian naval situation. Should an enemy offensive develop off Gibraltar, for instance, Canadian escorts would probably be called upon to replace any Royal Navy ships diverted from home waters to the threatened area. As the Admiralty was at the time making dire predictions about the large numbers of new and more formidable U-boats that were due to come into service, it was essential that each new construction ship should be made operational as soon as possible.

But a ship put into commission is not a ship put into service. A long period of repairs, “work-ups”, and more repairs is generally required before a new ship is fit for active service, and sometimes this period, for one reason or another, is unduly extended. So it was with CAP DE LA MADELEINE. On the day following her commissioning, shortly before she was to begin her final acceptance trials, she was secured alongside pier 26 at Quebec. As she settled on the falling tide an obstruction in the pier damaged some twenty feet of her bilge keel, and she had to return to dry dock for repairs. Not until 18 October was the ship ready to sail to Halifax.

At that port there were further repairs, these to remedy the usual defects revealed by an initial sea voyage. Harbour “work-ups” and calibration of equipment completed the Halifax programme, and on 12 November the ship was ready for the last phase, the sea “work-ups” and training at HMCS SOMERS ISLES in Bermuda. This stage occupied CAP DE LA MADELEINE for another month, but by 19 December she was at her allocated base, St. John’s, Newfoundland, ready for active service.

Flag Officer, Newfoundland, to whose command CAP DE LA MADELEINE had been allocated, intended to assign her to a mid-ocean Escort Group, C-7. This group, however, was not due to return with its next convoy from the United Kingdom until 11 January, 1945. CAP DE LA MADELEINE, consequently, was available for any emergency which might arise. On 21 December, the minesweeper HMCS GEORGIAN radioed for help. One of the escorts of ON-271, she had been prevented by rough weather from oiling at sea and had detached for St. John’s accompanied by HMS Poppy. Gales had held her up, and her fuel was now dangerously low. CAP DE LA MADELEINE, hurriedly fitted for towing, was despatched to her aid on 22 December. She located the minesweeper that same day and, taking her in tow, brought her into St. John’s on the 23rd.

No further assignments were at hand so, rather than have CAP DE LA MADELEINE remain idle in port, it was decided to send her out with the next United Kingdom convoy. C-7 was due to leave Londonderry with a west-bound convoy on the 29th, and CAP DE LA MADELEINE would be able to join her allocated group in the Atlantic.

Thus on 28 December, 1944, CAP DE LA MADELEINE left St. John’s on her first convoy assignment as a unit of the British Escort Group B-1 consisting of H.M. Ships Tintagel Castle (Senior Officer), Inman, Dianella, Lotus, and Poppy. The weather was severe, with high winds and frequent snow squalls, when B-1 took over from W-6 at the Western Ocean Meeting Point on the 29th. CAP DE LA MADELEINE spent only a little over three days with the convoy HX-328 and everything was perfectly normal for that season of the year and that period of the war in the mid-Atlantic – – unpleasant weather and a total absence of U-boats. On 3 January, 1945, she detached to join her assigned group. The remarks of the Senior Officer of B-1 will bear repeating:

“CAP DE LA MADELEINE was co-operative and very useful left winger during the time she was attached to B.1. Group. Recently recommissioned, [sic] she entered with zest into and took full advantage of the exercises which were carried out on passage. Although she is inexperienced now, I consider she will soon shake down and become a good ship.” [6]

The day following her departure from HX-328, CAP DE LA MADELEINE joined C-7 [7] on the close escort screen of ONS-39.[8] It was another completely uneventful convoy passage, and C-7 was duly relieved at WESTOMP by W-6 on 9 January. On the 10th, CAP DE LA MADELEINE arrived back at St. John’s with her group.

Though she had spent only some twelve days on routine escort work in weather that was no worse than average, CAP DE LA MADELEINE had suffered considerable damage. When she secured at St. John’s, her hull was leaking extensively and seven of her fuel and reserve tanks were dangerously contaminated by sea-water. At first it was thought that she would be ready for duty in ten days, but further examination soon disclosed the extent of the damage, and when C-7 sailed to escort HX-332, CAP DE LA MADELEINE remained in harbour for dry docking.

For two months, CAP DE LA MADELEINE remained in St. John’s undergoing repairs. It was not until 9 March that, acting as escort for JHF-52,[9] she sailed back to Halifax for calibration of her radio direction finding equipment. Following calibration on 14 March, she was temporarily attached to EG-27, one of the frigate support groups operating out of Halifax, and accompanied that group on an anti-submarine sweep of the Halifax approaches. After a short and uneventful patrol, the group junctioned with ONH-288 at the Halifax Ocean Meeting Point and supported it into harbour on the 17th.

This was CAP DE LA MADELEINE’s last assignment with a group. For the remainder of her short war-time career, she was utilized as a maid-of-all-work for the Halifax escort force. Her first independent mission was to pick up the large cargo-passenger vessel Rangitata from UC-60A [10] and escort her to Halifax, a task which occupied her from 21 to 24 March. Two days later she was out again, this time as escort for the Free French Trawler Temeraire. The latter was sailing independently to the Azores, and CAP DE LA MADELEINE accompanied her as far as fifty degrees West. Upon completion of this mission, CAP DE LA MADELEINE reverted to the command of Flag Officer, Newfoundland, and instead of returning to Halifax she put in at St. John’s.

It had been intended to return CAP DE LA MADELEINE to her original group, C-7, but when she arrived in St. John’s she was in no condition to make another transatlantic crossing. Her hull was leaking badly again, and once again her fuel tanks were dangerously contaminated. After having her inspected, Flag Officer, Newfoundland, could only recommend that she be paid off at once and returned to the builders for proper hull repairs. Except that she was not paid off, this recommendation was accepted. CAP DE LA MADELEINE sailed for Quebec on 7 April, and on the 11th she was back in dry dock.

Thus ended CAP DE LA MADELEINE’s short war-time career. From her commissioning to the end of the war in Europe she spent, including “work-ups”, only seventy-one days at sea and 101 days in refit and undergoing major repairs. Less than fifteen per cent of her time was occupied on operational duties. The work she did do, however, was done well; and no ship was attacked by a U-boat while under her escort. Though her career was short, and perhaps undistinguished when compared with that of some of her sister ships, she nevertheless helped to perform an essential task, a fact that is attested by her battle honour – – Atlantic 1945.

While CAP DE LA MADELEINE was undergoing repairs at Quebec, the European war ended thereby reducing drastically the major commitments of the Royal Canadian Navy. It had previously been decided, however, to organize a Canadian naval force to serve against the Japanese, and as CAP DE LA MADELEINE was a comparatively new ship and one, moreover, which had almost completed a major overhaul, she was selected for the Pacific force. Following completion of the Quebec refit, she was allocated to G. T. Davie and Sons Ltd, for tropicalization, and towed across the river to Lauzon late in May, 1945.

There she remained when on 20 August, 1945, shortly after the surrender of Japan, an order arrived suspending all work except that required to put the ship into seaworthy condition.

The surrender of Japan entailed another revision of plans by the Royal Canadian Navy. For one thing, it drastically curtailed Canada’s frigate requirements, and CAP DE LA MADELEINE became one of the many ships for whom there was no immediate prospect of employment. On 20 October, consequently, she sailed to Sydney, N.S., for destoring. From Sydney, she left on 6 November for Halifax, where most of her technical equipment and armaments were removed. After “winterizing” at Liverpool, she was towed to Shelburne, and there, on 25 November, 1945, paid off into dockyard hands. On 16 January, 1946, she was turned over to the War Assets Corporation who sold her, in 1947, to Marine Industries, Limited, of Sorel, for scrap. [11]

But CAP DE LA MADELEINE was not destined to end on the scrap heap so early in her career. She had lain in the St. Lawrence at Sorel for barely a year when, due to the progressive deterioration of relations between the West and the Soviet Union, it began to appear that Canada might once again have to strengthen her navy. At this time, in the autumn of 1948, Marine Industries, Limited, was still holding eighteen frigates and nineteen Bangor minesweepers which had been systematically stripped of their furnishings and equipment but which were still afloat and capable of being reconditioned. On 15 November, 1948, the Government “froze” these ships until the question of naval requirements had been thoroughly investigated. Eventually, on 13 July, 1949, the Privy Council authorized Marine Industries to retain them in “strategic reserve” at Sorel in return for an annual payment of $277,500 to cover the cost of keeping them in a “state of partial preservation”. The firm agreed not to sell or otherwise dispose of the ships except by authority of the Department of National Defence.

This did not mean that CAP DE LA MADELEINE and the other ships with her became again the property of the Navy. All it amounted to was that the Government had in effect taken an option on the ships, and would reacquire them only if it became necessary. It was not until late in 1950 that the first steps to effect reacquisition were taken. In September of that year, a meeting of the NATO Chiefs of Staff tentatively set Canada’s share of the North Atlantic force. Consequently, in order to be in a position to accept that commitment, the Naval Board, on 27 September, 1950, recommended the purchase of all frigates in strategic reserve at Sorel. These ships were to be brought forward and reconditioned at once in order to be available by 1 July, 1954. Negotiations were begun, and on 7 June, 1951, a contract was agreed upon whereby Marine Industries, Limited, received $65,000 for each frigate and $50,000 for each minesweeper. Until removed from Sorel, the Government agreed to pay $625.00 per vessel per month as a maintenance charge.

Thus it came about that on 25 June, 1951, CAP DE LA MADELEINE was towed to Lauzon to the yards of the Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing Company. There she was to undergo an intensive, lengthy, and very costly programme [12] of reconditioning and conversion which would make her a “Prestonian” Class frigate.

To make a “Prestonian” out of a “River” Class frigate is a major undertaking. The quarter-deck of the latter, with its depth-charge rails and throwers, disappears, and the forecastle deck is extended the full length of the ship. The bridge is dismantled and rebuilt, one deck above its original position, of aluminum alloy, of which metal all the upper works are constructed. Down below the changes are equally drastic. Hammocks are replaced by individual bunks with foam rubber mattresses, and a fully modern galley and cafeteria are installed.

The armament of the “Prestonian”, too, is a vast improvement over that of the “River” Class frigate. In place of the hedgehog there is a squid, the latest and finest of the ahead-throwing weapons. [13] These anti-submarine mortars are mounted in pairs, each one capable of throwing a pattern of three high explosive, long range projectiles with great accuracy. An electronic fire control system, integrated with the detection devices, is used to fire the missiles which, unlike the hedgehog bombs, are automatically set to explode at a predetermined depth. The armaments used by the “Prestonian” against surface vessels and aircraft are not radically different from those of the older frigates. The twin four-inch gun, for instance, is retained. The twelve-pounder and the Oerlikons are, however, replaced by a more efficient anti-aircraft weapon, the forty-millimetre Bofors.

For over three years, CAP DE LA MADELEINE remained at Lauzon undergoing this conversion, but eventually, only five months after the original target date, the work was completed. A slight delay was caused in October, 1954, when the ship had to return to dry dock to repair hull damage suffered while being moved from the fitting basin. On 7 December, 1954, however, all trials had been satisfactorily completed, and the ship was accepted once again into the Royal Canadian Navy. The following day, she was taken under tow by CNAV SACKVILLE (the last corvette in the Naval Service) who brought her charge safely into Sydney harbour on 12 December, 1954. She had now become a member of the Reserve Fleet.

Nearly four years later, in the autumn of 1958, it was decided that by spring, there would be an operational requirement in the Atlantic Command for the three modernized frigates lying at Sydney, HMC Ships INCH ARRAN, VICTORIAVILLE and CAP DE LA MADELEINE. These were to be brought forward for commissioning early in the spring to permit HMC Ships OUTREMONT, LA HULLOISE and SWANSEA their badly needed refits. [14] In the event, however, ice conditions in ports like Pictou and Sydney proved so severe that all these plans for refitting, dry docking and trials were considerably delayed.

In spite of difficulties, the staffs of the naval dockyard and the Sydney Engineering and Dry Dock Company had the frigate ready by mid-May.

Halifax newspapers carried reports that CAP DE LA MADELEINE was being brought out of “moth-balls” for transfer to the Netherlands Navy, but this proved to be idle speculation.

At a brief but impressive ceremony, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship CAP DE LA MADELEINE, Lieutenant-Commander Charles Anglin Gray, CD, RCN, was commissioned at Point Edward Naval Base, Sydney, 20 May, 1959. The guest of honour, representing the Flag Officer Atlantic Coast, was Commodore M. A. Medland, CD, RCN, Senior Canadian Officer Afloat Atlantic.

Six days later, on the 26th, CAP DE LA MADELEINE returned to her former base Halifax, her appearance and capability being markedly changed since she had last seen the famed “Eastern Canadian Port” of war-time. Even her old pennants, K-663, were gone and in their place the modern version, FFE-317. The unbroken line of her “iron deck” and light grey paint job was in marked contrast to her old war-time camouflage but hers is the same hull and the same engines albeit rejuvenated, and undoubtedly the old and the new will blend to make a first rate new member of the Seventh Escort Squadron.

COMMANDING OFFICERS HMCS CAP DE LA MADELEINE

• 30 September 1944 to 19 October 1945
  Lieutenant-Commander R. A. Judges, RCNVR.
• 19 October 1945 to 25 November 1945
  Lieutenant-Commander W. O. O. Barbour , RCNR.
• 20 May 1959 to Present (at time of original publication)
  Lieutenant-Commander Charles Anglin Gray, CD, RCN.