HMCS HAMILTON

HMCS HAMILTON was one of the fifty old destroyers turned over originally to Great Britain in 1940 by the United States, in exchange for bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda and certain Caribbean possessions.

She began her operational life as USS Kalk.  Authority was given for her construction on 4 March 1917 and her keel was laid on 17 August of the following year in the shipyards of the Fore River Ship Building Corporation, Quincy, Massachusetts.  Launched on 21 December 1918, she was commissioned on 29 March 1919.  On 10 July 1922, she was paid off at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and lay in the United States reserve fleet for many years.  She was recommissioned in the US Navy on 17 June 1940 and was finally paid off in the USN on 23 September 1940, when she was turned over to Great Britain.[1]

As early as the month of June 1940[2], negotiations had been entered into between the United States and Great Britain relating to the proposal of transferring fifty destroyers from the former to the latter country.  Announcement that an agreement had been completed, was made on 3 September 1940, the first anniversary of the British and French declarations of war against Germany.  In it the United States agreed to the transfer in return for the grant on lease of sites for naval and air bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad and British Guiana.

The British considered it desirable to have the destroyers navigated in groups to Halifax from the United States, so they sent out crews from the United Kingdom to the Canadian port to man them.  The first batch of eight destroyers left the United States on 5 September 1940 and arrived at Halifax the next day.  On the same day, the transport, SS Duchess of Richmond, sailed into the port with 79 officers, 60 chief and petty officers and 951 ratings.  On the 9^th, the destroyers were formally turned over to the Royal Navy.

USS Kalk arrived in the second batch sailed to Halifax.  At 1130 on 23 September 1940, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Kalk.

As these destroyers were urgently required in Britain, it was the practice of the Royal Navy to sail each batch across the Atlantic at the earliest possible moment, even if, as was often the case, the batch was incomplete owing to the breaking-down of one of the tired old warriors.  Consequently, after going to sea for gunnery practice and other exercises on the 27^th, Kalk was sailed two days later with seven others to St. John’s[3], the first stop on the passage to Great Britain.  She and her companions arrived in the Newfoundland port on 1 October.

The Admiralty had decided to rename the newly-acquired destroyers after British and US towns with the same names.  For this reason, the Lords Commissioners had decreed that they should also be referred to as the “Town” Class destroyers.

After arrival in St. John’s the group received their new names by signal from the Admiralty.  They were, in accordance with the policy, derived from similarly-named towns or cities in the United Kingdom and the United States, but six of the eight names were also to be found in Bermuda or in islands of the West Indies.  Of this group of six, HAMILTON, the name chosen for Kalk, was one.[4]

Before she could secure alongside in St. John’s on the morning of 1 October, the ship’s destiny was drastically altered by a collision with one of her companions, HMS Maddox, the later Georgetown.  While she was coming alongside an oiler, an order from the bridge was not obeyed owing to a break-down of the telegraph, and two minutes later she hit the other destroyer abreast the forward gun and scraped down the starboard side.  She at once came to starboard anchor.

The other destroyers left St. John’s, leaving HAMILTON and Georgetown behind.  The damaged ships were sailed to Saint John, N.B., via Halifax, and they arrived at their destination on 12 October 1940.  There they were docked.  Georgetown resumed her interrupted voyage on the 25^th, the day following their refloating.

HAMILTON, however, was delayed by a defective steam valve.  She did manage to leave the fitting-out jetty the next day, but on turning, and this was at 1845, just after the tide started to ebb, she grounded on the breakwater.  She struggled frantically to escape the ground.

The next day she was still struggling.  Tugs came alongside to try to drag her off.  One tow rope attached to her snapped at 0658.  At 0715, with the turning of the tide, the attempt was temporarily abandoned.  At the time, she was listing 6½ degrees to starboard.  Ammunition and stores were landed to lighten her and, at 1842, with the aid of the tugs, she was refloated.  She went back to drydock on the 30^th.[5]

HAMILTON had sustained damage sufficient to keep her out of service for several months[6] and, as the Royal Canadian Navy would have to stand by her while she was undergoing repairs, the First Sea Lord suggested to the Chief of the Naval Staff that Canada might be well-advised to take over the ship.[7]  The RCN had already commissioned six of the US destroyers at the request of the Admiralty.  If she accepted HAMILTON, she would have seven of the old ships.

The CNS replied on 25 November 1940 that “We will be glad to take over HAMILTON.”

It was understood that the Admiralty would defray the cost of repairs, while Canada would foot the bill for alterations and additions to fit the ship for use in the Royal Canadian Navy.[8]

The ship was acquired on the same terms as were the other “Town” class destroyers.  The First Lord of the Admiralty, A. V. Alexander, writing to Vincent Massey, the High Commissioner for Canada, on 5 September 1941, mentioned “7 vessels” when he wrote: “We shall be very happy if the Canadian Government will regard the 7 vessels as they were received from the United States as having become the property of the RCN at the time they were taken over without disturbing in any way the arrangements that were made at the time and afterwards for bringing them into service.”[9]  This meant that they were to be fully commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, that they were not on loan from the Royal Navy, and that the transfer was not to be regarded as a commercial transaction.[10]

On 20 November 1940, 1 officer and 24 ratings, all RN, left the ship and, later in the same day, a Canadian advance party described as a “C and M Party RCN”[11] came aboard.  The Royal Navy ratings who remained aboard, were drafted to Halifax on the 24^th.

The ship was not ready to be taken over by the RCN until July 1941.  On the 6^th of that month, HMCS HAMILTON was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, with Acting/Lieutenant-Commander N. V. Clark, RCNR, as her Commanding Officer.[12]

The Royal Canadian Navy would have liked to change the name of the ship to KOOTENAY, in accordance with the practice they had adopted of naming their “Towns” after rivers common to the United States and Canada,[13]but the Admiralty wished to retain the name of HAMILTON[14]
As previously noted, Their Lordships, in choosing it, had had in mind only the similarly-named towns in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and in Ohio in the United States, but also the capital town in Bermuda.  They had been motivated in their choice by the desire to pay a compliment to the islands.  They then went on to remark, “These names (that is to say, those of the Royal Navy “Towns”) received the approval of HM the King and when published stimulated public interest which found expression in joint schemes for war comforts, etc.  It is felt that it would give rise to disappointments among the towns concerned if any of these were now changed.”[15]

Previous to the acquirement of the “Town” class destroyer, the name was little used by the Royal Navy and not at all by the Royal Canadian Navy.  A small schooner, USS Growler, which was captured along with another, USS Julia, by Commodore James Lucas Yeo in 1813 on Lake Ontario, was said to have been renamed HAMILTON.[16]
She was retaken by her original owners, but in May of the following year, after being sunk to keep her cargo of seven guns from enemy hands, she was salvaged, along with the guns, by the British and sailed to join their fleet.[17]

The name HAMILTON was also given to a small vessel of 59 tons, built in 1835 at Cowes, England, and employed in the Revenue Service from 1837 to 1864.[18]

In October 1950, a copy of HAMILTON’s badge, along with a book on the “Town” class destroyers, was presented to the corporation of Hamilton, Ohio.  This badge is shown in a clipping from a newspaper published in that city.  It depicts in a circular frame the device known as a cinquefoil ermine or a five-leaved figure containing black spots representing ermine tails.  It was derived from the paternal arms of the Duke of Hamilton, which are described as “Gules, three cinquefoils ermine.”[19]

HAMILTON left Saint John on 11 July 1941 for Halifax and, following her arrival the next day, was taken in hand for further refit, alterations and additions, trials and working-up.[20]

August 1941 was a month of exercising for the ship, both in and out of harbour.  There were firings at sea and anti-submarine exercises.  During these exercises, visits were paid to Pictou and Shelburne.[21]

With the “Town” destroyer, HMCS ANNAPOLIS, the ship escorted in September 1941, HX-149.  This convoy, which was sailing to the United Kingdom, was accompanied as far as Cape Race, Newfoundland, were it was turned over to a mid-ocean escort.  The two destroyers then returned to Halifax, arriving on the 14^th.  Two days later, HAMILTON was involved in an unfortunate collision with the Netherlands submarine O-15.  The submarine was lying at the same jetty, ahead of the destroyer.  HAMILTON’s ahead throttle was open when steam was let through the main boiler to warm the main engines.  The engines went full ahead, the ship was torn from her moorings and the Dutch vessel was struck and partly forced under the jetty.[22]

HAMILTON proceeded to Pictou the following day.  She spent the rest of the month of September, all of October and part of November 1941, receiving repairs.  She left the port for Halifax on 13 November and joined ANNAPOLIS on the 15^th, to provide local escort for Convoy HX-160 as far as Cape Race.  HX-161 and HX-162 were similarly escorted.  HAMILTON also joined other ships for anti-submarine exercises during the month.

At 1550 on the 27^th, while HAMILTON was with HX-162, a Hurricane aircraft commenced flying around the ship, endeavouring to transmit a message.  At 1619, it signalled, “I am bailing out.”  The Senior Officer of the escort was informed and HAMILTON got away a sea boat.  Six minutes later the aircraft crashed into the sea and it was followed by a parachute.  The sea was moderately rough, with an overcast sky and ceiling of approximately 1000 feet.  There were snow and rain squalls and the visibility was about 2 miles.

HAMILTON was not successful in her search.  The sea boat hunted about the wreck and one-half mile to the leeward, but only the pilot’s jacket was found.  Dark coming on at 1705, the boat was recalled, and a half-hour later the destroyer returned to the convoy, reporting her lack of success to ANNAPOLIS.  The Senior Officer altered course and steamed astern of the convoy 40 miles to send a signal to the Commanding Officer Atlantic Coast at Halifax reporting the accident.[23]

HAMILTON continued until February 1942, providing escort to convoys along the Nova Scotian coast.  There were many things to contend with besides the enemy, the frequently bad weather, for instance, and even engine breakdowns as was the case on 3 January 1942, while she was with HX-168.  At 1920 she stopped while in a position ahead of the convoy, and, being unable to move, drifted down between two of the columns of ships.  By 2200 the engines were going again and she was able to resume her position.  The stoppage had been caused by dirty fuel oil choking the burners.  Another stoppage at 0615 the next morning, was due to contamination of water in the feed tank.[24]

Occasionally there were reports of submarines to be investigated.  On 21 January, while the ship was with HX-171, a Catalina flying boat signalled to her, giving her the position of an enemy underwater vessel.  HAMILTON informed the Commodore of the convoy of the enemy position and suggested an emergency turn to the northward.  She then set off alone at 24 knots to look for the U-boat.

At 1632, the aircraft reported to her an attack it had made on the submarine, giving the position where it had dropped its bombs and noting that a large oil patch had appeared following their explosion.  The destroyer at 1655 came upon flares dropped by the aircraft.  She found, too, the oil slick which, after carrying out an asdic search along its path, she established to be 3 miles long.  The areas at both ends of the slick and around the flares were extensively searched[25]. At 1951, a pattern of depth-charges was fired.  No asdic contacts were made, however, and HAMILTON left off the hunt at 2000 to rejoin the convoy.

During the time she was with this convoy, the destroyer had considerable trouble with her steering gear and with water in the oil fuel.[26]

Another of HAMILTON’s convoys during this month, was SC-67.  Two ships in it were torpedoed and sunk during the later mid-ocean passage, one being an escort, the corvette, HMCS SPIKENARD, and the other the Norwegian steamship Heina.[27]

HAMILTON made two round trips from Halifax to St. John’s with the liner SS Lady Drake in February 1942.  During the voyage from Halifax on the 14^th, the destroyer picked up what was later considered to be a “non-submarine” contact.  She attacked it with one charge followed by two successive patterns.  At the time of the second attack, Lady Nelson broadcast a signal that she had been torpedoed.  HAMILTON reported that the steamship had been “unduly alarmed by detonation” of the depth charges and had sustained no damage.[28]

HAMILTON remained alongside throughout March 1942.  Approved alterations and additions were carried out by Halifax Shipyards Ltd. and HMC DOCKYARD.  From 8 to 25 April, she was in drydock.  In May she carried out various working-up exercises with the corvette, HMCS WETASKIWIN.  She returned to convoy duty on the 17^th of that month.

Beginning with ON-95, which HAMILTON joined on the 25^th, the Western Local escorts continued with their charges from 52° West longitude (vicinity of Cape Race) to Halifax and Cape Cod.  Refuelling calls were at that time made to Boston where the escorts were expected to return in company with ships bound from this port to Halifax.  Due, however, to the irregularity of the arrivals of ON convoys, it was found difficult to synchronize them with the movements of coastal shipping, so convoys between Boston and Halifax (BX and XB) were soon organized to function separately.[29]

An odd little incident to enliven the monotonous routine of convoying occurred on 3 June, 1942, while HAMILTON and other ships were with the Boston to Halifax convoy, BX-22.  At 1915Z, what appeared to be a U-boat was sighted on the horizon.  The destroyer, HMS Witch, went to investigate.  The vessel turned out to be an RCAF crash boat.  The resemblance to an enemy underwater craft had been heightened by the gasoline vapour exhaust, which strongly resembled diesel exhaust.[30]

On 31 July 1942, while escorting Convoy ON-115, the destroyer HMCS SKEENA and the corvette, HMCS WETASKIWIN, sank U-588.  This U-boat was a scout and, before it was destroyed, it succeeded in reporting the position of the convoy to other U-boats, who were promptly ordered out to attack it.

St. John’s, Newfoundland, was 500 miles to the north-west of the position, and in the night SKEENA, accompanied by the destroyer, HMCS SAGUENAY, had to detach to proceed there for fuel.  HAMILTON and the destroyer, HMS Witch, were ordered from Halifax to replace them.  They joined on 2 August.

The corvette, HMCS AGASSIZ, who had arrived earlier, sighted a U-boat at 1320 on the 2^nd.  She fired at it and it dived.  Another sighting was made by the same ship eight minutes later.  Again she fired, once again the quarry dived and escaped.

After HMS Witch arrived, she closed the corvette HMCS LOUISBURG, who had temporarily taken over the duties of Senior Officer.  From her she collected convoy information.  HAMILTON was then in position 2 miles ahead.  At 1513, the Canadian destroyer sighted a U-boat 6 to 8 miles on the starboard beam.  She gave chase and Witch followed her.  The U-boat dived.  Witch dropped a depth-charge and HAMILTON a pattern of charges.  The enemy vessel, however, escaped them, and they returned to the convoy some three hours later.

The attack, however, like many others of its kind, could not be considered a failure, for, as Captain “D” at Halifax later observed, “It is considered that HMCS HAMILTON’s efficient look-out and subsequent attack, resulted in one less U-boat taking part in the attack on Convoy O.N. 115”.[31]

In the early hours of the 3^rd, some 40 miles east of Cape Race, two British ships, the steamship Lochkatrine and the tanker, G.S. Walden, were torpedoed.  The former was struck by two torpedoes simultaneously on the port side.  She immediately fired two white rockets, while HAMILTON and others fired starshell.  After two hours, survivors were picked up by HAMILTON and AGASSIZ.  Several men were lost when one of the ship’s boats capsized.  In all eight lives were lost and a ninth, the Second Engineer Officer, died after he was taken aboard HAMILTON.

The destroyer had 29 living survivors and AGASSIZ took 51 from the sea.  The dead man was given burial at sea at 1000.[32]

The tanker, G.S. Walden, did not follow Lochkatrine to the bottom.  She was taken in tow first by AGASSIZ and later by the tug, Tenacity.  She arrived in St. John’s on 7 August.[33]

Another victim that night was the Belgian steamship, SS Belgian Soldier.  She remained afloat for a time and a tug was sent out to bring her in.  But by the time it arrived, she had sunk.

During the day of the 3^rd, the corvette, HMCS SACKVILLE, had three different sightings of submarines.  One of the U-boats she blew to the surface after it dived, but it succeeded in getting away.[34]

HAMILTON left the convoy for two hours at 1630 on the 3^rd to investigate a reported submarine attack, but finding nothing, returned to the convoy.  Her fuel running low, she detached on the morning of the 5^th for Halifax.  In that port the next day, she disembarked her 29 survivors and, having fuelled, rejoined the convoy, accompanying it on the last leg of the voyage to Boston.[35]

HAMILTON underwent repairs in Halifax in September 1942.[36]
On the 30^th of the month, she joined the escort for SC-103.  A steamship in this convoy, the British Pennington Court, straggled during the mid-ocean passage, and was torpedoed and sunk.[37]

On leaving St. John’s, the ship encountered winds of hurricane force.  The whaler was cut loose from its davits and once again the steering gear jammed and helm orders had to be carried out back aft in the tiller flat.[38]

HAMILTON was docked in Saint John at the end of October 1942 and she was refloated on 12 November.  The next day she returned to Halifax for further repairs and trials and tests.  These continued until January 1943, when she slipped for trials, drills and exercises in St. Margaret’s Bay.  On 25 January, she joined Convoy HX-224 as escort.  Three ships in this convoy were torpedoed while making the mid-ocean passage.[39]

Through the spring and early summer until July 1943, HAMILTON continued with her convoy work.  Her duties were exacting and monotonous, but they were also essential.  She saw no action, although some of the convoys she accompanied suffered severe losses during their mid-ocean passages.  One of these was SC-121, which lost 12 ships and had one damaged during its passage to the United Kingdom in early March.  Another was the slow ON convoy, ONS-3, which lost two ships, torpedoed and sunk, on 21 April.

As always, the ship had to cope with bad weather.  Off Newfoundland, icebergs were often encountered.[40]

In July 1943, HAMILTON was pronounced unseaworthy until urgent annual defects as well as certain other repairs were made.  She was docked from the 29^th of the month until 1 August and many changes were made in her complement.  On 10 August, she was allocated temporarily from the Western Local Escort Force to HMCS CORNWALLIS, Digby, for training purposes.  She left for Annapolis Basin on the same day and arrived at Digby two days later.  On the 19^th, she went out on the Bay of Fundy, having first embarked ratings under training.  Saint John was visited on the 20^th and then she returned to Digby.  She also went out from this latter port for gunnery and anti-submarine exercises.  Similar routines were followed through September 1943.

Besides the usual exercises and a visit to Saint John in October 1943, HAMILTON sailed to New London, Connecticut, where she picked up the submarine, HMS L-23, and returned with it to the Bay of Fundy.  Later, on the 12^th, she left Digby with the submarine, HMS Seawolf, and escorted it to the Navy Yard at Philadelphia.  Before taking Seawolf to the US port, she had joined it for several exercises off Digby.  One of the more important had taken place on the 3^rd, when, with new-entry seamen embarked, she and the armed yacht, HMCS VISON, had gone out with it for a night exercise.  The Commanding Officer of HAMILTON had been particularly commended for the manner in which this exercise had been carried out.[41]

By failing to comply with a berthing signal, the submarine, L-23, caused HAMILTON an accident on 19 November 1943.  The destroyer was approaching the berth allocated to her at the Government jetty when she observed that L-23 had appropriated it.  Prompt action was necessary to avoid collision with the submarine.  The helm was put hard a-starboard and both engines full astern.  The danger of hitting the jetty itself had to be accepted.

The jetty, which was under lease to the Canadian Pacific Railways for use of the Saint John to Digby ferry, SS Princess Helene, was struck by HAMILTON with the starboard side of her stem.  Although the jetty was in poor condition and needed repair, neither it nor HAMILTON were damaged.  However, some damage was done to the “sponson” or the projection hanging out from the jetty which was used as a sort of rubbing post for the ferry.[42]

On 18 December 1943, it was announced that HAMILTON was to be regarded henceforth as purely a training ship and that her complement was to be adjusted accordingly.  In the months that followed, she took many training classes out on the bay, plying chiefly between Saint John, Digby and Point Wade on the north-western side of Annapolis Basin.[43]

In April 1944, considerable repairs were carried out on the ship in Saint John.  Most of them were welding jobs done on the deck.[44]

L’Etang Harbour in the approaches of Passamaquoddy Bay was visited on 1 May 1944.  This excellent harbour was often used by the ship as an anchorage following exercises.

On 12 May at Port Wade, the coxswain of the ship requested permission from a man ashore to borrow his dinghy to lay out fish-net moorings.  The next day, the owner of the dinghy came aboard to report that he had found his craft lying overturned on the beach.  Investigations were immediately set afoot and search parties were formed to search the beaches and assist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in dragging operations.  The diving party was also sent away in the whaler on the 16^th.  But no sign of the missing man could be found.

After taking out officer candidates for a shoot in June 1944, HAMILTON went into drydock at Saint John.  This was in connection with an annual refit.  She left the drydock at the end of the month, and went alongside the jetty at the beginning of July.  She began trials on 1 August 1944, and returned to Port Wade on the 11^th.

A visit was paid to Halifax by the ship on 5 September 1944 and she was back in Annapolis Basin on the 8^th.  On the 24^th, twenty officers under training from the officers’ training establishment, HMCS KINGS, were embarked and taken for exercises in Passamaquoddy Bay and off Saint John.  The cleaning of boilers consumed most of the months of October 1944 and January 1945.

The months rolled by.  HAMILTON continued to ply the waters off the Bay of Fundy, embarking training classes from HMCS CORNWALLIS and carrying them out for exercises.  In the evenings she often came to anchor in the various small harbours about the bay.  On 12 April 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, died.  A two-minute silence was observed at 1030 by the ship in his honour.[45]

On 8 May 1945, the war in Europe was over.  It had already been recommended in the previous month that HAMILTON, along with her fellow “Towns”, HMC Ships ANNAPOLIS and ST. FRANCIS, be prepared for disposal.[46]
On 15 May, the Naval Officer-in-Charge at Digby stated that he considered the ship had reached a state where she was of no further value as a training ship.  He proposed that she be sailed to Halifax for destoring, this to prepare her for disposal.  In reply, he was ordered to sail the ship directly to Sydney.  Transfer of the destroyer from HMCS CORNWALLIS to the Sydney Force for destoring, was made effective as from 21 May.[47]

From this date, events moved quickly for a ship accustomed to a slower and more leisurely pace.  She arrived at Sydney on the 23^rd and, six days later, went on the slip for removal of her asdic equipment.  At 0900 on 8 June 1945, she was paid off,[48] and on the 15^th of the same month, it was stated that she, along with other “Town” Class destroyers, was destored and ready for disposal.

Disposal came quickly, too.  Turned over to War Assets Corporation, she was sold to Frankel Bros., Ltd., of Toronto, who were acting as agents for the Boston Iron and Metal Co.  The purchase price was $7,000.  ST. FRANCIS, who went to the same buyers, brought $500 more.[49] The company, which was located in the United States, intended to scrap the ships in that country.[50]

On 4 July 1945, it was approved to release HAMILTON and ST. FRANCIS to Frankel Bros., Ltd., and two days later they were turned over to the ocean tug Foundation Security, a receipt for both ships being signed by the tug’s master.  Frankel Bros. had already authorized the tug to tow them to Baltimore in accordance with arrangements made with and for the account of Boston Iron and Metal Co. in that city.[51]

On passage to Baltimore, one of the destroyers was rammed and sunk off Cape Cod.  It is not certain which destroyer was lost.  Both HAMILTON and ST. FRANCIS have been named in different documents.[52]

The lost destroyer is reported to have collided with the 5,400-ton Boston-owned collier, Winding Gulf, at the west end of Cape Cod Canal on 14 July 1945.  In the collision, which occurred in dense fog, the destroyer snapped her tow-line and started to drift.  She was leaking badly and there was a gaping hole in her hull.  There had been no loss of life and, following the accident, Winding Gulf resumed her voyage to Boston under her own power.

The broken tow line was picked up by the Coast Guard cutter Hornbeam and, as the destroyer was in danger of sinking in deep water, the cutter beached her off Sakonnet Point, Rhode Island.  There she lay in about 30 feet of water, with only the superstructure visible.[53]

In the years since the collision, salvage groups, including both “hard-hat” and scuba divers, have brought up considerable quantities of metal from the wreck.  Since much of the work has been done by explosives, the remains now are said to look like nothing but “a steel junk yard”.[54]

After the disposal of the “Town” class destroyers, the Admiralty proposed making presentations of the badge of each ship and a copy of the book The “Town” Class Destroyers to the US town which shared the name held by the ship.  As HAMILTON had had a town name, the Naval Board at a meeting held on 31 August 1950 concurred with the proposal to present the mementoes to the town of Hamilton, Ohio.[55]

The presentation was made in October 1950.  Lieutenant-Commander D. L. Davies, RCN Staff Officer at HMCS HUNTER, Windsor, Ontario, accompanied Mr. Peter G. MacDonald, acting British Consul at Cincinnati, to Hamilton, Ohio.  Approximately 200 citizens of the Ohio city attended the ceremony, which was broadcast over radio station WHOH, Hamilton.  Presentation of the badge and book was made to Mayor William Beckett and other city officials.[56]

The history of HMCS HAMILTON is one of dogged achievement.  An old destroyer, she would probably never have been thrust back into service but for the exigencies of war; yet her presence alone, however hoary and although confined to the waters around Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Eastern United States, was of inestimable value during years when escort ships were few.  This does not allow for the fact that, within her limited range, and while admitting her mechanical weaknesses, she could operate as effectively as any other warship.  Her later service as a training ship in the Bay of Fundy was quiet and unexciting but must undoubtedly have left many memories for the numerous officers and men whom she prepared for the larger theatre of the war.

Naval Historical Section,

Naval Headquarters,

Ottawa, Ontario.

6 March, 1964.