Corvette Scrapped at Kingston

The decommissioned Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Flower-class corvette HMCS Quesnel was scrapped at Kingston Shipbuilding. There were 12 corvettes built at the shipyard during World War II. This Whig-Standard clipping shows the towing of the corvette named for the British Columbia city was published May 10, 1949 (top photo). It shows the tug Rival bringing the Quesnal [sic] to Kingston from Thorold, where it had been used as a stationary boiler at a pulp mill in the intervening post-war years. These two photos (below) show engine and boiler removal and were taken by George Lilley on June 14, 1949. (Queen's University Archives): 

The boiler is suspended by the sheerleg lakeside crane (above) and the engine appears to be in foreground, right. Side view of the boiler; the corvette at the dock. (below). The raised side of the hull may was the pom-pom anti-aircraft gun platform. Upon viewing these two photos in the arvhives, the shape of the hull had me wondering if this were a corvette, and it was threee years later that the news photo confirmed the date and provided the identity of the unfortunate vessel!

 

Here's George Lilley's photo as it appeared in the Whig on June 16, captioned:

After World War II, the Canadian War Assets Disposal Corporation was selling 68 decommissioned Royal Canadian Navy convey-escort corvettes at Sorel, QC for a range of prices, averaging $30,000 each. The prices could be higher or lower depending on condition (most heavily-used in North Atlantic service) and bulk purchases. Eighty-eight corvettes were 'de-stored' at Sydney, NS on the way from Halifax to Sorel by October. There were already 14 corvettes at Sorel when the HMC ships Brandon and Sorel were towed there in June, 1945 with more than 65 there by October of that year: In total, 93 Flower-class and 12 Castle-class corvettes were the property of Canada post-war. Sixty were sold to Canadian firms for resale or conversion (24) or scrapping (36, though some like Barrie ended up resold); 24 to United Ship Corp. of New York (for resale, including three to the Chilean navy), and seven to the Venezuelan government.

Many were purchased for scrap and towed to Dominion Foundries (Dofasco) at the other end of Lake Ontario in Hamilton to meet their demise. Just so much scrap metal after taking part in the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest-running battle of the war. The scrapping of five Kingston-built corvettes was announced by C.D. Howe on November 14, 1945: Belleville, Peterborough, Prescott, Smiths Falls and Napanee. The ships' bells were often donated back to their sponsoring communities and/or namesakes. HMCS Frontenac's bell was returned to the city to mark its centenary in 1946. (Photos below - Whig clippings).

Seven corvettes purchased by Dofasco were designated for recycling into sanitary food cans in Hamilton, at the rate of 20,000 cans per hour. These American Can Company cans were then filled and sent to Europe to feed the population, including displaced persons. All seven were expected to produce 62,000,000 cans, enough for a can of meat, vegetables, fruit and milk each day for a year for 43,000 persons. HMCS Brandon was the first, followed by corvettes Forest Hill, Galt, Chilliwack, Quesnel, Dawson and Vancouver. Interestingly, the Dawson would roll and settle on its side in 30 feet of water and Capt. Leo Beaupre of Pyke Salvage said the tug Salvage Prince and barge Enarco were sent from Kingston to Hamilton to refloat her in April, 1946. 

On October 6, Sincennes-McNaughton tug Rival left Kingston for Montreal for a corvette scrap tow.

October 15, 1945 saw the rusty Kingston-built HMCS Napanee, along with HMCS Lunenberg towed to Portsmouth Harbour by the Sincennes-McNaughton tug Graeme Stewart and its 900-foot tow cable (below). The two laid over for the night, waiting on weather. The former plucky escort vessels could be seen to retain their guns, liferafts, and even ration cans rattling around on deck. Each ship had an escort crew of four Sincennes-McNaughton men aboard. Captain J. Blais was in charge of the two, and up to eight corvettes could be handled at once if desired! The Napanee had been paid off July 12, 1945 and was finally broken in Hamilton in 1946.

In early November, 1945 there were at least three corvette scrap tows passing through Kingston. The first, on Friday, November 2 with two corvettes, docked at the Sincennes-McNaughton dock at Portsmouth Harbour for a stopover from Friday to Sunday. A second passed through on the Friday, followed by another up the lake on Monday, Nov. 4.

On November 17, HMCS Kitchener and HMCS Drumheller were being towed by the tugboat Rockdoe when their lines became disengaged. Strong winds and waves pushed the two vessels a mile east, because they had just left Portsmouth Harbour! Both corvettes floated to the Public Utilities Commission dock. The Kitchener was only five feet above the main city water intake !(above) The tugboat Salvage Queen was dispatched, and both tugs wrangled both corvettes successfully - the Rockdoe with Kitchener and the Salvage Queen with Drumheller. (Interestingly, in 1944 another RCN vessel under the command of Commander S. Hill, had dragged its anchor right across the intake pipe, bursting it.) 

Resuming the Rockdoe's tow, the line snapped again near Kingston Penitentiary, with the Kitchener reaching the shore after drifting. The following day, both corvettes were secured at Portsmouth Harbour, awaiting a bigger tug than Rockdoe, which then departed for Montreal, to complete the tow to Hamilton. Also interestingly, the Rockdoe was completed in October, 1945 for war service but instead chartered from the War Assets Corporation to Sincennes-McNaughton for Prescott-Hamilton scrap tows.

On November 22, three weather-beaten corvettes were towed to Portsmouth Harbour. Towed by the tug Guardian, one was left here while the other two were towed on to Hamilton, awaiting another tug.

The scrap tows were somewhat hazardous, with one tug sinking in Quebec and one corvette running aground for the winter in PEI during transit. These corvettes, quickly built at shipyards on Canada's lakes and coasts, and vital for the war effort, were cast away and dismantled mere months after the end of hostilities. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

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In 90 working days, the Shipyards rebuilt the Collingwood-built decommissioned and dismantled corvette Barrie K138 for freight service in Argentina, at a cost of $125,000. Barrie was brought by the tug Helena from Toronto's Don Basin on May 31, 1947, having been sent to Stelco for scrapping initially. 

A progress update sent to the parent Collingwood shipyard in October. The forward accommodation was removed, new accommodations built on the deck midships, new deckhouse and wheelhouse, twin masts, booms and cargo winches, and other work to suit it to its new use. First in the drydock in June (above), then near the sheerlegs in September (below). 

The former corvette was even considered for lengthening 48 feet, and the installation of a General Motors Cleveland 1200 hp marine diesel engine. There are various accounts about whether this happened or not. Renamed the SS Gasestado, she was crewed and sailed for the State Gas Co. of Argentina, from Kingston on November 18, 1947 after 'sea' trials on the Bay of Quinte in October of that year, with the company seal approved on November 13.

More on the SS Gasestado here. Sold to Victory Transport and Salvage of Montreal, she was resold to Gas del Estado to carry gas bottles along the coast of Argentina. Acquired by the Argentine navy as of November 23, 1954 and renamed Capitan Canepa (below), she undertook survey and research work. Rebuilt by AFNE, her bridge and wheelhouse were moved forward and her stack straightened. She was scrapped in 1973.

In December 1950, boilers from two corvettes scrapped in Hamilton were brought by rail to Kingston for installation in Canada Steamship Lines freighters Simcoe and Elgin.

Some online sources, not the least of which is Wikipedia, simply report Quesnel's disposition as scrapped in Hamilton. Checking some printed references did not give much detail other than 'sold for scrapping'. Certainly, Quesnel was in Hamilton, based on the food-can reference, above. Unfortunately, no identification marks are visible in the photos above to conclusively identify her. I did, however, find a somewhat-helpful evidence trail of the Quesnel's final days.

A February 23, 1946 Chicago Tribune article described an agreement between the Tribune's subsidiary Ontario Paper in Thorold, where the paper's newsprint was produced and the adjacent Beaver Wood Fibre plant. Using a 'floating power plant' - a Canadian naval corvette moored in the adjacent Welland Canal - steam as well as existing sulphite pulp would be piped to the Beaver plant. This agreement was mentioned in a year-end speech, both items reported in the Chicago Tribune:

The above clippings certainly place a corvette at the Thorold mill, as mentioned in the Whig photo caption at top. The Brantford Expositor reported the move of the Quesnel to Kingston on May 11, 1949. This report links the Quesnel's use at the pulp mill to its tow to, and scrapping in, Kingston.

Six corvettes stayed in Hamilton well into 1950. The Dwor Metal Company of Port Colborne purchased the steel from the vessels that were to be scrapped at Stelco in Hamilton in July of that year.

An August 7, 1964 story mentions a converted corvette that had been docked at McAllister-Pyke's Portsmouth dock  for some time was to have its engine removed at the Kingston Shipyards

Thanks to Bram Risseeuw for assistance with this post.