Wartime Shipbuilding in Kingston

In both World Wars, Canada devoted massive industrial resources to war production, and most Kingston plants were involved. Regular production was suspended or reduced while war work contracts took precedence. Warships were built at Esquimalt, Victoria, North Vancouver, Port Arthur, Collingwood, Kingston, Sorel, Levis, Quebec and Saint John. Though inland shipyards were limited in the size and scope of vessel production they could undertake, the Allied navies still required smaller vessels that could be constructed at several inland points. Kingston was one of several on the Great Lakes. The Kingston Shipyards and Canadian Dredge & Dock built 28 ships between them during both World Wars. This post summarizes that production that was vital to the war effort. A huge crowd turns out to see the launch of HMCS Napanee on August 31, 1940 (top photo - Queen's University Archives).

WORLD WAR I

Back in World War I, two Battle-class trawlers were the seventh and eighth vessels built by the Kingston Shipyards. For Royal Canadian Navy service, part of the program referred to as the Canadian Vickers or Norcross trawlers, the vessels would patrol the Atlantic Coast against German U-boats as part of the Canadian Department of Naval Service. The program was approved in February, 1917. Vickers subcontracted construction of two hulls to Kingston. (J.W. Norcross and Roy Wolvin would make several acquisitions leading to the formation of Canada Steamship Lines.)

The Thiepval broke free after launching, ending up at the LaSalle Causinseway adue to heavy winds! These vessels were 139 feet in length, 25 feet wide by 14 feet in height and were completed in Montreal. The cost of each trawler was listed in various accounts as $75,000 or, more likely $150,000. 

• HMCS Loos launched September 27, 1917(see telegram below); commissioned Aug 1 1918; decommissioned 1920; in government ervice;  recommissioned December 12, 1940 as a gate vessel at Shelburne, NS; paid off 1945; broken up 1949.
• HMCS Thiepval commissioned July 24, 1918; transited to Esquimalt via the Panama Canal in 1919; paid off 1920; recommissioned 1923 and widely-travelled in Pacific service; wrecked and sank off British Columbia on February 27, 1930.

The shipyard also built six smaller minesweepers for the Royal Navy in 1917-19 : TR-19 (launched Dec.  22, 1917), -20, -54, -55, -56, and -57. These RN vessels were five feet shorter and narrower than the first two built by the Shipyards.

WORLD WAR II

 * * CORVETTES * * 

In World War II, at Kingston Shipyards, twelve corvettes were built at Kingston between 1941 and 1943: HMCS Napanee, Prescott, Sudbury, Frontenac, Trentonian, Peterborough, Charlottetown, Belleville and Smiths Falls; reverse lend-lease USS Brisk (initially named HMS Flax launched June 15, 1942) for the U.S. Navy; lend-lease HMS Rosebay (initially named USS Splendor launched February 11, 1943) and HMS Honesty (initially named USS Caprice launched September 28, 1942 delayed one day by weather conditions) for the Royal Navy. 

The need for speed in shipbuilding for the war effort meant that one ship's keel would be laid and hull rising from the stocks, another afloat being outfitted, and a third undergoing lake trials. Or, one on the stocks and half of another alongside, ready to take to the stocks when the first launched. In 1943, for the first time, following deepening of the south-end slip by CD&D, two vessels were under construction for the first time simultaneously. While the slip was being deepened, CD&D's Dredge No. 5 sank in a storm on November 10, 1942 and was raised by Pyke Salvage Co.

Launch, commissioning, paid-off and disposition dates for the Kingston-built RCN corvettes:

• HMCS Napanee K118 was launched on August 31, 1940 though not commissioned in Montreal until May 12, 1941. Paid off July 12, 1945, scrapped at Stelco Hamilton in June, 1946. The corvette is still minus its pennant (hull classification) number and deck guns: (above - Morse/Litwiller collection photo).
• HMCS Prescott K161 was launched on 7 Jan 1941 into a frozen Lake Ontario; sailed to Prescott for commissioning 26 Jun 1941, paid off 20 Jul 1945 and scrapped in Hamilton, 1951. The only spectators were the shipyard workmen.
• HMCS Sudbury K162 was launched 31 May 1941, commissioned 15 Oct 1941, paid off: 28 Aug 1945, converted to a salvage tug in 1949, broken up at Victoria, B.C., in 1967.
• HMCS Charlottetown K244 was launched 10 Sep 1941, commissioned in Quebec City 13 Dec 1941, sunk by torpedo in the St Lawrence River near Cap-Chat, QC on 11 Sep 1942 (see photo below)
• HMCS Frontenac K335 was launched 02 Jun 1943, commissioned 26 Oct 1943, paid off 22 Jul 1945 arrived at Sorel in July, 1945 and sold to United Ship Corp.in Oct 1945. Final disposition unknown.
• HMCS Trentonian K368 was launched 1 Sep 1943, commissioned 01 Dec 1943, sunk on 22 Feb 1945 by U-1004, the tenth RCN corvette sunk in the war.
• HMCS Peterborough K342 was launched 15 Jan 1944, commissioned 01 Jun 1944, paid off 19 Jul 1945, sold to the Dominican Republic in 1947, scrapped in 1972. 
• HMCS Belleville K332 was launched 17 Jun 1944, commissioned 19 Oct 1944, paid off 05 Jul 1945, sold to the Dominican Republic in 1947, scrapped in 1972.
• HMCS Smiths Falls K345 was launched 19 Aug 1944, commissioned:28 Nov 1944, paid off 08 Jul 1945, to be towed from Port Weller in 1950 then converted and operated by Honduran and Japanese owners until 1978.

Some corvettes were not able to sail downriver until ice break-up in the spring of 1941. There was a problem taking at least one of the Kingston-built corvettes down the Seaway, requiring subsequent repair. HMCS Napanee sailed for Montreal on November 30, 1940 in a powerful winter storm. The existing system of canals and locks could just handle a corvette if the ship was not fully ballasted. The limits of clearance over the sills of the locks was the main reason why all the final fitting out of Ontario-built corvettes took place in Quebec yards and why no larger vessels—like frigates—were built there. Napanee encountered difficulty in the Morrisburg Canal. Making contact with the bottom, her propeller and rudder were damaged and the hull began to leak. She returned to Kingston for repairs, successfully heading downriver again in the spring of 1941!

A common vantage point for corvette launch photos, near the pilot house:

A less common view, looking toward Ontario Street, shows the stern of the Charlottetown.

* * TUGBOATS * *

Seven ocean-going 105-foot long Warrior-class Rock-series tugboats would be built in 1945, some serving in Singapore and Australia. Two keels for two tugs were laid simultaneously in late-September 1944. With 1000-hp engines, tugs Rockglen (May 30, 1945), Rockforest, Rockpigeon, Rockswift (Dec. 5, 1945) and Rockdoe (Oct. 19, 1945) were launched before Rockelm was on Dec. 15, 1945. The Rockglen and Rockforest were already working in Australia. Rockwarrior would be launched in the spring of 1946 and Rockbird on October 21, 1946. Originally ordered by the British Ministry of Transport, after the end of hostilities, the tugs were to completed per contract. The first four tugs were estimated to be worth $1,500,000. Rockdoe was being tested on October 20, 1945:

(Whig clippings, above and below)

* * TRAWLERS * * 

Two Western Isles trawlers, 164-foot long vessels patrolled the St. Lawrence River. Loaned to the RCN, crewed by RN personnel and never commissioned by the RCN: 

• HMS Ironbound T284 launched September 25, 1942; decommissioned June 17, 1945 in Plymouth, England; sold 1946.
• HMS Liscomb T285 launched March 23, 1942; decommissioned also June 17, 1945; sold to Norwegian interests in 1946.

The two trawlers (above - posted to Vintage Kingston Facebook) were christened on the same day as HMS Flax, at the shipyards on June 15, 1942. Both trawlers had been launched but were being completed while tied at the dock. Flax was being sent down the ways. Both names are places on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.

* * CANADIAN DREDGE & DOCK * *

At Canadian Dredge & Dock, five of 170-ton steel, diesel-powered tugs fot the RCN. Glenfield, Glenvalley and Glenella in 1944; Glenkeen and Gleneagle in 1945. As well, six 120-foot derrick barges, and seven gate vessels were built for the RCN. 

One of the Glen-class tugs in overall grey, pennant number W67 would make it the Glenkeen. RMC visible in background of this undated photo (below - Queen's University Archives):

Ontario shipyards in Collingwood, Kingston, Midland and Port Arthur were justly proud of their contributions to the war effort as illustrated in this September 26, 1942 National Post advertisement:

* * POST-WAR * * 

In peacetime construction, the Kingston Shipyards' minesweeper HMCS Resolute was in a local class by herself, launched June 20, 1953.