HMCS WASKESIU

HMCS WASKESIU was the first frigate completed on the West Coast. WASKESIU was commissioned at Victoria on 16 June 1943 and left for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 08 July of that year. The ship did work-ups in Bermuda for the following month, returning to Halifax on 11 September, and late in October, left for londonderry to join Escort Group 5 (EG 5 – later renumbered EG 6 in November of 1943).

WASKESIU’s crew on 12 June 1944, not long after the ship’s participation in the Allied landings.

WASKESIU served chiefly in UK waters, but early in 1944 supported Gibraltar and Sierra Leone convoys.

On 24 February 1944, while escort to SC.153, WASKESIU sank the German submarine U 257, and in April made a trip to north Russia to bring back convoy RA.59. She was present on D Day.

On 14 September she left Londonderry with ONE.253 for Canada, and soon after arriving, began extensive refit. On completion of the refit process in March 1945, she proceeded to Bermuda to work up, following which she sailed for Londonderry, leaving there for Canada late in May and proceeding to Esquimalt in June to be refit again, this time for tropical use. Work on WASKESIU’s tropicalization was suspended in August 1945, and she was paid off into reserve on 29 January 1946.

WASKESIU was ultimately sold to the government of India in 1947 for conversion to a pilot vessel, and renamed Hooghly in 1950.