HMCS DUNDAS

The ship was named for the town of Dundas in Wentworth County, Province of Ontario. The town received its name from the east-west military road, Dundas Street, in Upper Canada, planned by the first Lieutenant Governor, Col. John Graves Simcoe at the end of the 18th century. Simcoe had named the road in honour of the Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of the Navy of that time, the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, later first Viscount Melville.

HMCS Dundas

After commissioning in the Royal Canadian Navy in the spring of 1942, HMCS DUNDAS served the first six months of her career based on Esquimalt carrying out anti-submarine patrols off the Pacific coast. During the reinforcement of allied forces in the Aleutians, the DUNDAS made one convoy escort round-trip to Kodiak, Alaska, 18-28 August, 1942.

During the month 13 September to 13 October, the DUNDAS, having been allocated to the Atlantic Command, made the passage via Panama to Halifax in company with HMC Ships NEW WESTMINSTER, EDMUNDSTON, QUESNEL and TIMMINS.

The next three years were spent in the Western Escort Force, part of the time in Escort Group W-5 and latterly W-4. For the most part, this service was uneventful. Convoy escort duty took the DUNDAS to such ports as New York, Boston, Sydney and St. John’s. On one occasion, HMCS DUNDAS rescued the whole crew of the Newfoundland schooner D.J. Thornhill adrift in an open boat, their vessel having been lost in a gale 22 January, 1943. More than a year later on 5 June 1944 in a position some 300 miles east of the Gut of Canso, the DUNDAS attacked an underwater contact with depth-charges and “hedgehog” bombs. Although classified submarine and capable of exploding the bombs, the contact provide no further evidence of its identity.

The war in Europe over, HMCS DUNDAS cleared the port of Sydney, N.S., 14 July, 1945 arriving at the Sorel Islands below Montreal three days later. On 17 July, 1945, the ship was paid off and turned over to the War Assets Corporation for disposal. Later that year on 23 October, the DUNDAS was sold to the International Iron and Metal Col. Ltd., of Hamilton, Ontario, for scrapping.

HMCS DUNDAS was a Revised Flower Class Corvette built by the Victoria Machinery Depot Co. Ltd., at Victoria, British Columbia, under the 1940-1941 shipbuilding programme. Particulars of this vessel are as follows:

• Laid down
  19.3.41
• Launched
  25.7.41
• Commissioned
  1.4.42
• Forecastle extension completed
  19.11.43
• Displacement
  1085 tons
• Length
  extreme 205’ 1”
• Breadth
  extreme 33’ 1”
• Draught forward
  12’ 3” – with full load
• Draught aft
  16’ – with full load
• Horse-power (designed)
  2750
• Speed
  16 knots
• Triple Expansion
  4-cylinder steam
• Range
  3450 miles at 12 knots
  2630 miles at 16 knots
• Armament
  one 4” BL MK IX
  one 2-pounder pom-pom
  two single oerlikon 20 millitres
  depth-charge throwers
  two depth-charge rails
  two depth-charge traps
• Hedgehog
  Asdic 127D.
  Radar 271P and SW2CP.

The pennant numbers for HMCS DUNDAS during the whole of her service were K-229.