HMS ''Crusader'' was a C-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

in the early 1930s. She saw service in the

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

and

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between ...

s and spent six months during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

in late 1936 in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. ''Crusader'' was sold to the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; , ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The navy is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of February 2024, the RCN operates 12 s, 12 s, 4 s, 4 s, 8 s, and several auxiliary ...

(RCN) in 1938 and renamed HMCS ''Ottawa''. She was initially deployed on the Canadian

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but was transferred to the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

three months after the war began. She served as a convoy escort during the

battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, ...

until sunk by the on 14 September 1942. Together with a British destroyer, she sank an Italian submarine in the North Atlantic in November 1941.

Design and construction

''Crusader'' displaced at

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

load and at

deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...

. The ship had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of . She was powered by Parsons geared

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

s, driving two shafts, which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3-drum

water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-generat ...

s. ''Crusader'' carried a maximum of of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...

that gave her a range of at . The ship's complement was 145 officers and men.Whitley, p. 26 The ship mounted four 45-

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...

4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. For

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

(AA) defence, ''Crusader'' had a single

QF 3-inch 20 cwt The QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun became the standard anti-aircraft gun used in the home defence of the United Kingdom against German Zeppelins airships and bombers and on the Western Front in World War I. It was also common on British warsh ...

"cwt" is the abbreviation for

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and United States customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the United States customary and British imperial sy ...

, 30 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. AA gun between her

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its constructi ...

s, and two QF 2-pounder Mk II AA guns mounted on the aft end of her

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...

deck. The AA gun was removed in 1936 and the 2-pounders were relocated to between the funnels. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

mounts for 21-inch torpedoes. Three depth-charge chutes were fitted, each with a capacity of two

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

s. After World War II began this was increased to 33 depth charges, delivered by one or two rails and two throwers. The ship was ordered on 15 July 1930 from

Portsmouth Dockyard His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...

under the 1929 Naval Programme. ''Crusader'' 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 ...

on 12 September 1930, launched on 30 September 1931,English, p. 45 as the second ship to carry the name, and completed on 2 May 1932.

Service history

''Crusader'' was initially assigned to the

2nd Destroyer Flotilla The British 2nd Destroyer Flotilla (also styled as Second Destroyer Flotilla) was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from 1909 to 1943 and again from 1945 to 1946. History The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla originated in early 1907 as a part of a Home ...

of Home Fleet and remained with this flotilla for the next four years. She received her first refit at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

from 30 July to 4 September 1934. Following the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in August 1935, ''Crusader'' was sent with the rest of her flotilla to reinforce the

the following month. From October to March 1936 she was deployed in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

to monitor Italian warship movements. Upon her return in April, the ship was refitted at Portsmouth from 27 April to 30 May. During the beginning of the

in August–September 1936, the ship evacuated British nationals from Spanish ports on the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...

. Crusader was assigned as the

plane guard A plane guard is a warship (commonly a destroyer or frigate) or helicopter tasked to recover the aircrew of planes or helicopters which ditch or crash in the water during aircraft carrier flight operations. Ships For ships, the plane guard is ...

for the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

from January 1937 to March 1938, aside from a brief refit between 30 March and 27 April 1937. The ship began a major refit at

Sheerness Sheerness () is a port town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 13,249, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby ...

on 28 April 1938 to bring her up to Canadian specifications included the installation of Type 124

ASDIC Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

Transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy

The ship was purchased by the Royal Canadian Navy and she was commissioned on 15 June as HMCS ''Ottawa''. The ship was assigned to the Canadian Pacific Coast and arrived 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 Jua ...

on 7 November 1938.English, p. 49 She remained there until she was ordered to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 15 November 1939 where she escorted local convoys, including the convoy carrying half of the

1st Canadian Infantry Division The 1st Canadian Division (French: ) is a joint operational command and control formation based at CFB Kingston, and falls under Canadian Joint Operations Command. It is a high-readiness unit, able to move on very short notice, and is staffed a ...

to the UK on 10 December. ''Ottawa''s stern was damaged in a collision with the

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

''Bansurf'' in April 1940, and repairs took two months to complete. On 27 August 1940, ''Ottawa'' was sailed to

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, and assigned to the 10th Escort Group of the

Western Approaches Command Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsibl ...

upon her arrival on 4 September for convoy escort duties. In October, the ship's rear torpedo tube mount was exchanged for a 12-pounder AA gun. On 24–26 September, she rescued survivors of two British merchant ships; 55 from that had been sunk by and 60 from that had been sunk by . ''Ottawa'' assisted the British destroyer in sinking the on 7 November. By mid-November, ''Ottawa'' had been fitted with a Type 286M short-range surface-search

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

, adapted from the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

's ASV radar. This early model, however, could only scan directly forward and had to be aimed by turning the entire ship. On 23 November, she rescued 29 survivors of the grain carrier which had been sunk by . ''Ottawa'' returned to Canada in June 1941 and was assigned to the RCN's

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

Escort Force which covered convoys in the Mid-Atlantic. She was transferred to Escort Group C4 in May 1942. In early September, the ship's captain refused to allow her

director-control tower This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces' ordnance (weapons) and ammunition. The terms may have different meanings depending on their usage in another country's military. BD Between decks: applies to a naval gun mounting in ...

and

rangefinder A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to Length measurement, measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, suc ...

to be removed in exchange for a Type 271 target indication

. On 14 September, while escorting

Convoy ON 127 Convoy ON 127 was a trade convoy of merchant ships during the second World War. It was the 127th of the numbered series of ON convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America and the only North Atlantic trade convoy of 1942 or 1943 whe ...

east of

St. John's, Newfoundland St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North Amer ...

, ''Ottawa'' was torpedoed by ''U-91''. Ten minutes later, unable to manoeuvre, she was hit by a second torpedo. She sank ten minutes later; 114 crewmen lost their lives, including the commanding officer, while nearby vessels rescued 69 survivors. The armament changes undergone by the ship during the war are not entirely clear. Photographic evidence shows that four Oerlikon 20 mm AA guns were added, one pair to her

searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...

platform and the other pair on the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

wings, although ''Ottawa'' retained her 2-pounder guns even after the Oerlikons were added. The 'Y' gun was also removed to allow her depth charge stowage to be increased to at least 60 depth charges.Friedman, p. 237

Trans-Atlantic convoys escorted

Notes

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * *

External links

Ottawa on Naval-history.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crusader (H60) Ships of the Royal Canadian Navy 1931 ships Canadian River-class destroyers Canadian River-class destroyers converted from C and D-class destroyers Ships built in Portsmouth Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Shipwrecks of the Newfoundland and Labrador coast World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Maritime incidents in September 1942