HMCS ''Orkney'' was a that served with the
Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...
as a
convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
escort during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. She was named for
Orkney, Saskatchewan
Orkney is an unincorporated community within the Rural Municipality of Val Marie No. 17, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1924 when the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed its branch line to Val Marie, it was incorporated as a village in Jun ...
. After the war she was purchased and used by the
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i immigrant movement, then taken over by the nascent
Israeli Navy
The Israeli Navy ( he, חיל הים הישראלי, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'' (English: The Israeli Sea Corps); ar, البحرية الإسرائيلية) is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in ...
and renamed ''Mivtah''. She was sold by Israel to
Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
who renamed her ''Mahasena''.
''Orkney'' was ordered in June 1942 as part of the 1942–1943 River-class program.
She was
laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
on 19 May 1943 by
Yarrows Ltd.
Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also op ...
at
Esquimalt
The Township of Esquimalt is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Juan de ...
and launched 18 September 1943.
[ She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 18 April 1944 at ]Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...
.[
]
Background
The River-class frigate was designed by William Reed of Smith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees. Originally called a "twin-screw corvette", its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
at the time, including the Flower-class corvette
The Flower-class corvetteGardiner and Chesneau 1980, p. 62. (also referred to as the ''Gladiolus'' class after the lead ship) was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submarine ...
. The first orders were placed by the Royal Navy in 1940 and the vessels were named for rivers in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, giving name to the class. In Canada they were named for towns and cities though they kept the same designation. The name "frigate" was suggested by Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles
Admiral Percy Walker Nelles, (7 January 1892 – 13 July 1951) was a flag officer in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Chief of the Naval Staff from 1 January 1934 to 15 January 1944. He oversaw the massive wartime expansion of the RCN and ...
of the Royal Canadian Navy and was adopted later that year.
Improvements over the corvette design included improved accommodation which was markedly better. The twin engines gave only three more knots of speed but extended the range of the ship to nearly double that of a corvette at at 12 knots.[ Among other lessons applied to the design was an armament package better designed to combat ]U-boats
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare rol ...
including a twin 4-inch mount forward and 12-pounder aft.[ 15 Canadian frigates were initially fitted with a single 4-inch gun forward but with the exception of , they were all eventually upgraded to the double mount.][ For underwater targets, the River-class frigate was equipped with a ]Hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introducti ...
anti-submarine mortar and depth charge rails aft and four side-mounted throwers.[
River-class frigates were the first Royal Canadian Navy warships to carry the 147B Sword horizontal fan echo sonar transmitter in addition to the irregular ASDIC. This allowed the ship to maintain contact with targets even while firing unless a target was struck. Improved radar and direction-finding equipment improved the RCN's ability to find and track enemy submarines over the previous classes.][
Canada originally ordered the construction of 33 frigates in October 1941.][ The design was too big for the shipyards on the ]Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
so all the frigates built in Canada were built in dockyards along the west coast or along the St. Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
.[ In all Canada ordered the construction of 60 frigates including ten for the Royal Navy that transferred two to the ]United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.[
]
War service
After working up in Bermuda
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, ''Orkney'' returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...
and was assigned to escort group EG 16. She was later transferred to escort group EG 25 as Senior Officer's Ship based out of Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
.[ She served with the unit until 13 February 1945 when she was involved in a collision with the merchant ship SS ''Blairnevis'' in the ]Irish Sea
The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
.[ ''Orkney'' suffered severe damage, requiring her grounding to keep her afloat, while ''Blairnevis'' sank as a result of the collision. She was taken to Dunstaffnage, Scotland where repairs were affected until mid-April. She was worked up at Tobermory before returning to ]Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in late May 1945 to undergo a tropicalization refit at Louisburg, Nova Scotia
Louisbourg is an unincorporated community and former town in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia.
History
The French military founded the Fortress of Louisbourg in 1713 and its fortified seaport on the southwest part of the harbour, ...
in preparation for service in the southern Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. The refit was completed 20 October and ''Orkney'' performed local duties until being paid off 22 January 1946. She was placed in reserve in Bedford Basin.[
]
Postwar service
Israeli Navy
In 1947, ''Orkney'' was sold for commercial use as an Israeli immigration ship. She was renamed ''Violetta'' and was used as such until she was taken over by the Israeli Navy
The Israeli Navy ( he, חיל הים הישראלי, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'' (English: The Israeli Sea Corps); ar, البحرية الإسرائيلية) is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in ...
in 1949.[ She was renamed ''Mivtah'' ( he, מִבְטָח, ''lit.'' safe haven) with the pennant number K-28. She served with the Israeli Navy until 1958 when she was sold to ]Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
Sri Lanka Navy
Ceylon purchased ''Mivtakh'' in 1958 but required that the Israeli Navy send personnel with her to teach the Sri Lanka Navy how to use her.[ She was commissioned in 1959 under her new name ''Mahasena''. She served until 1964, performing goodwill tours around Southeast Asia, when she was sold and broken up at ]Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
.[
]
References
Notes
References
*Macpherson, Ken; Burgess, John. ''The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910–1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships.'' Collins: Toronto, 1981.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orkney, HMCS
River-class frigates of the Royal Canadian Navy
1943 ships