HMCS COWICHAN (I)

HMCS COWICHAN J146 arriving in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, after participating in minesweeping operations in preparation for the invasion of Normandy.

The “Bangor” Class minesweeper, HMCS COWICHAN, First of Name, was laid down on 24 April 1940 in the yards of the North Vancouver Ship Repairs Ltd., North Vancouver, B.C., launched on 9 August of that year and commissioned on 4 July 1941. The ship was named after Cowichan Bay, B.C.

On 6 August 1941, the ship left Esquimalt for Halifax in company with another newly-constructed Bangor, HMCS WASAGA. After their arrival on the east coast, the two ships proceeded out of the harbour to carry out minesweeping trials. Two days later, they were ordered to add anti-submarine sweeps to the minesweeping operations, and, as time went on, her duties included more and more anti-submarine work. Finally, COWICHAN returned her sweeps to store and, in December 1941, joined the Newfoundland Local Defence Force as an escort ship.

In 1942, she joined in two unsuccessful salvage operations. In February, the tanker Empire Celt was torpedoed 420 miles from St. John’s. Remaining afloat, she made for port under her own steam, but, on the 26th when only thirty-five miles from haven, broke in half. The fore part of the ship sank, but attempts were made to salvage the after half. Bad weather impeded efforts to take it in tow. COWICHAN tried, but lost all her towing gear to no effect. She then returned to harbour to bring out the ocean tug, Foundation Franklin, but could not relocate the derelict. Two more attempts to do so, the last with the assistance of an aircraft, proved equally fruitless. She must have sunk.

On 24 July, the SS Broom Park was torpedoed. The US Tug Cherokee took her in tow, but she had shipped such a large quantity of water that the tug could not make any speed. On the 29th, COWICHAN was ordered to the scene with salvage pumps and gasoline. She found Broom Park the next day, rolling heavily. Nevertheless, she succeeded in putting aboard two dockyard engine room artificers, two pumps and a drum of gasoline. But the wind rose, a list to starboard increased and, while still in tow, the ship sank only twenty-seven miles from St. John’s.

In September 1942, after a refit, COWICHAN joined the Western Local Escort Force, operating out of Halifax becoming a member of Task Unit 24-18-7, later known as Escort Group W-6. This group was made up of destroyers, corvettes and minesweepers. With it, she visited, besides Halifax, such ports as St. John’s, New York and Boston.

But COWICHAN was never to forget that she had been built as a minesweeper. She was remained of this in a dramatic way when she, in January 1944, was chosen to be one of those to sweep a path for history’s greatest armada, the hundreds of ships which would sail in Operation “OVERLORD” or the Invasion of Normandy (“NEPTUNE” in its naval phase.) To complete the flotillas of sweepers, the Admiralty requested the loan of sixteen Canadian Bangors. They sailed for the United Kingdom in four divisions, COWICHAN being in the second. Leaving Halifax on 19 February 1944, she arrived at Plymouth on 13 March, after a stormy passage complicated by fuel shortages and interrupted by a six-day stop at Horta in the Azores.

The minesweepers were subjected immediately to a period of intensive training, for no chances could be taken of their faltering in their responsible task. Long before the invasion fleet proper sailed, they would have to stand towards the enemy coast, unsupported by larger ships. They were three hundred strong. COWICHAN’s group, the 31st Minesweeping Flotilla, left Weymouth Bay in the early morning of 5 June for the assembly area south of the Isle of Wight. At 1735, pointing their bows towards Normandy, the sweepers of the 31st entered the channel assigned to them. By 0200 the next morning, they had swept the channel up to nine miles from the beach. They then altered course to sweep the fire support channel parallel to the shore. Unobserved by an enemy, rendered complacent by bad weather, they worked up toward the beach. When, at 0515, they turned away from the coast, they met various craft proceeding down the assault channel. The sounds of war broke out: the ships firing, the German shore batteries replying and thousands of bombers roaring toward the coastal defences. In the evening, after the invaders had secured their beachheads, the 31st tried to resume sweeping, but congestion in the area made it impossible. They dropped anchor while shells fell around them. At dawn on the 7th they had better luck. They weighed anchor and began to sweep again in the inshore waters of the invasion area.

Between 8 and 11 June, the 31st swept up 78 miles, enough to establish itself as the champion of all the flotillas. Within the flotilla, COWICHAN was declared to be the champion, she having chalked up a score of fifteen. But the more the explosives were swept up, the more the danger from them increased, new ones being constantly sowed by low-flying aircraft. The sweepers themselves were frequently in danger from them; several had narrow escapes and one of their number, HMCS MULGRAVE, was badly damaged by one in October. Her quarterdeck was awash, but she was towed successfully to Le Havre.

Before the year was out, COWICHAN and her companions accounted for many more mines. In early 1945, a resurgent U-boat menace forced the sweepers to return temporarily to escort duties. In mid-February, COWICHAN and FORT WILLIAM returned to Canada for a refit. Before they left the refitting yards, hostilities were over in Europe, but there were still a great many mines, both German and Allied, which needed to be destroyed before peacetime shipping could pass safely on the trade routes. For this reason, COWICHAN went back to Britain in June. Through July and August, the cutting of mines became for her and the others an almost daily affair.

The 31st Flotilla sailed home finally in September 1945. COWICHAN was no longer needed and she was ordered to repair to Sydney, N.S., to land her stores. On 9 October, she was paid off in Shelburne, N.S. After she was turned over to War Assets Corporation, a Greek firm bought her and converted her for coastal trade in the Aegean.