HMCS GIFFARD

HMCS GIFFARD

HMCS GIFFARD was laid down 30 November 1942 as a British ship and her name was to be His Majesty’s Ship Buddleia.  While under construction in the yards of Alexander Hall Company Limited of Aberdeen, Scotland, the ship was acquired by the Government of Canada. Upon completion she was to be allocated to the Mid-Ocean Escort Force to convoy merchant ships from east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

HMCS GIFFARD was of the Increased Endurance class of Corvettes.  This class had been developed after some two years of operational experience of the original Flower class and Revised Flower class Corvettes.  These revisions in design included the extended forecastle and increased flare in the bows to give better buoyance and increased accommodation for weapons and instruments and for the seamen required to man the new equipment.  In addition, the fuel capacity had been greatly increased to permit the long voyages of the Mid-Ocean Escort Forces.

HMCS GIFFARD had an overall length of 208’ 4”, beam 33’ 1” and a draft of 16’.  She displaced 1355 tons and her single screw was propelled by a 4 cylinder triple expansion engine of 2750 horsepower.  The new Canadian corvette was commissioned at Aberdeen, 10 November 1943, her trials being successfully completed two weeks later.  The month of December saw HMCS GIFFARD with her pennants K-402 proudly flying, working up to operational efficiency off Tobermory, Scotland, under the command of Lieutenant Charles Peterson, R.C.N.R.

For her first operational voyage, HMCS GIFFARD was ordered by Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches to join Mid-Ocean Escort Group C1 to escort the west-bound convoy ON-219.  However, an emergency arose that was to test the sea-keeping qualities of the ship and the seamanship of her crew.  The merchant ship Empire Treasure, seriously damaged by storm and not under control was reported drifting without anti-submarine protection off the west coast of Ireland.  The tug Bustler had been despatched to take her in tow and GIFFARD was detailed to escort the two vessels.  In a beam sea of a force 9 south-westerly gale, HMCS GIFFARD rounded the South of Ireland and delivered her charges into the safety of an English port in a little more than seven days.

HMCS GIFFARD finally re-joined C1 Escort Group and sailed from Liverpool escorting the convoy ON-224, 15 February, 1944.  Off Newfoundland, the force was relieved by W-5 Escort Group which took over the convoy, GIFFARD and her sister ships putting into St. John’s, Newfoundland.

For the remaining months of the war, HMCS GIFFARD continued to be engaged in convoy escort duties.  Often these voyages became uninteresting monotonous routine so far as enemy action was concerned but the North Atlantic seldom provides much respite from the constant contest with storm and heavy seas.  However, during the early morning hours of the 7^th of May, 1944, the men of HMCS GIFFARD witnessed the sudden fury of a U-boat attack.

It was a bright moonlit night off Cape Race, Newfoundland.  Five ships of the Royal Canadian Navy were disposed in line abreast sweeping and zig-zagging before a west-bound convoy.  The Senior Officer was in the frigate VALLEYFIELD in the centre; the corvettes FRONTENAC and HALIFAX to port and, GIFFARD and EDMUNDSTON to starboard.  The sea was calm.  Shortly after 0200, VALLEYFIELD made an underwater detection to port.  Within a minute or two, she was struck by a torpedo; she broke in half almost at once.  In five minutes the bow sank, and five minutes later the stern slipped into the depths.

The remaining escort ships were detailed to search and counter attack, to screen the convoy, and to pick up survivors.  A sea-boat under the command of Lieut. Ralph Flitton slipped from HMCS GIFFARD and after a long pull rescued eight oil-drenched men of the VALLEYFIELD.  Another thirty were hauled quickly up the ship’s side from carley floats.  Many just hung on to the scramble nets, too weak to climb, and GIFFARD’s men went over the side to secure them with lines for their persons were too slippery with fuel oil to be assisted in any other way.

HMCS GIFFARD was again in the vicinity of an action in the autumn of the same year.  The ship, now under the command of Lieutenant G. H. Matheson, R.C.N.R., and in company with H.M.C. Ships CHEBOGUE, ORANGEVILLE, CHAMBLY, ARNPRIOR, and FRONTENAC formed C1 Escort Group, engaged in escorting the west-bound Convoy ONS-33 some 600 miles off Land’s End.

Just before noon on October 4^th, a submarine was detected by CHEBOGUE and at 1225 the German U-boat was actually sighted due south of the convoy at an estimated range of six and one-half miles.  HMCS CHEBOGUE altered course to close range and was joined by ORANGEVILLE and later by FRONTENAC and CHAMBLY.  H.M.C. Ships GIFFARD and ARNPRIOR remained on duty with the convoy.

Continuous search was made until 1700, numerous contacts having been made and these were followed by depth charge and “hedgehog” attacks.  However, the U-boat commander successfully evaded his pursuers and appeared to be quite content merely to shadow the convoy until darkness came.  Meanwhile the escort ships were ordered to rejoin the convoy with the exception of HMCS CHEBOGUE which was to steam on a parallel course ten miles to the southward, that is between the expected position of the U-boat and the position of the convoy.

At 2100, the surfaced target was detected by radar at a range of nearly five miles and CHEBOGUE closed for the attack.  Rockets and star-shell were fired but nothing was seen.  The moon came up in all its brilliance and as it turned out, CHEBOGUE became a perfect silhouette on the horizon.  At 2205, a “gnat” torpedo crashed into CHEBOGUE close to the port propeller and thirty feet of the ship’s stern was blown off.

Immediately HMCS GIFFARD was ordered to close to the rescue.  Meanwhile, CHEBOGUE lay helpless but still afloat and expecting a second torpedo.  GIFFARD and CHAMBLY circled the stricken ship until H.M. Ships Primrose and Mounsey arrived.  In the meantime the resourceful men of CHEBOGUE shored up bulkheads and deckheads in preparation for being taken in tow.  Eventually, after an epic passage during which force 11 gales were encountered and cables parted several times, the ship made the safety of Port Talbot – a remarkable bit of seamanship.

In the spring of 1945, HMCS GIFFARD was engaged in “working-up” exercises off Bermuda and returned to St. John’s 15^th April.  Four days later the ship put to sea with special orders to protect the cable laying ship Lord Kelvin employed at the hazardous task of repairing a submarine cable some 500 miles off Newfoundland.  In the following two weeks GIFFARD made several attacks on “possible” submarine contacts without positive results.  In company with HMCS BEAUHARNOIS, GIFFARD escorted the cable ship safely into harbour on completion of the operation.

When peace finally came to the troubled waters of the North Atlantic, the corvettes that had performed so staunchly through the past critical years were now declared operationally obsolete.  Without a doubt, these little ships had saved the day, but scientific progress in the war years had been so rapid that submarines now were able to “out-gun” and “out-run” this class of ship that bore such a proud record.

Accordingly, HMCS GIFFARD ultimately sailed for Sorel passing the village for which she was named on the evening of the 4^th of July 1945.  The next day, she joined many of her sister ships at Ile aux Raisins for disposal by the War Assets Corporation.  In August 1945 HMCS GIFFARD became the property of Brunswick Motors Limited of Moncton, New Brunswick.