HMCS COWICHAN (II)

The “Bay” Class minesweeper, HMCS COWICHAN, Second of Name, was laid down in the yards of the Davie Ship Building and Repair Co. Ltd., Lauzon, Que., on 20 June 1951, launched on 12 November of the same year and commissioned on 10 December 1953.

The “Bay” class sweepers represented a radical departure from their predecessors of the “Bangor” class, being of little more than half the displacement at 390 tons.  Being intended for use against magnetic mines, they were wooden hulled with light non-magnetic alloy frames.

COWICHAN left Quebec the day after her commissioning and arrived at Halifax on the 13^th.  There she joined the newly-formed First Canadian Minesweeping Squadron.  She began working-up, but her career in the Royal Canadian Navy was to be brief.  She and three others of her class, CHIGNECTO, THUNDER and FUNDY, were handed over to the French Navy under the NATO Mutual Aid Agreement.  French representatives, in fact, went out with the ships to share in their training and trials.

The ceremony for the formal transfer took place on 31 March 1954. The four ships acquired French names, COWICHAN being renamed La Malouine.