HMCS Micmac

Micmac was one of 27 Tribal-class destroyers completed for the Royal Navy (RN), the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the Royal Canadian Navy. She was the lead ship of the Canadian wartime Tribal Destroyer program, followed by sister ships HMCS Nootka, HMCS Cayuga and HMCS Athabaskan.

Ordered in early 1941 she did not commission until late 1945, after the end of hostilities. Micmac's construction, taking 57 months from the date of order to the date of commission; about twice that of Tribals built elsewhere. For example Micmac's Australian-built sister, HMAS Warramunga—ordered by the RAN in September 1939, laid down on 10 February 1940, launched on 7 February 1942, and commissioned on 23 November 1942—took but 29 months while the twenty Tribals constructed for the RN (16) and RCN (4) in British yards averaged but 26 months from the date of order to the date of commission. Micmac's delay was due to economic and political issues that permeated the entire Canadian Destroyer Project.

Economic issues

Economically, Canada's overall limited industrial capacity was a major factor. Tribal class fleet destroyers hull construction required a high-tensile (HT) specialty steel that was neither made in Canada nor available for purchase from the United States. Steel which Great Britain, overtaxed by the growing demands of a general European war, could not provide and that Canadian mills proved slow to produce.

The hulls of low performance corvettes and frigates, designed to merchant ship standards and powered by triple expansion steam engines, could be built from the mild steel readily available from Canadian sources. However, high performance warships, like destroyers, require hulls built as light as practical to obtain the maximum speed possible from the available power plant whilst still carrying a useful armament. A strong yet lightweight hull requires high-strength steel and such speciality steel of the exact specification required for a Tribal hull simply was not to be had from North American sources when Micmac was ordered.^[3]

The propulsion plant required for a Tribal was also unavailable from Britain. And the Canadian order for Micmac's machinery was a first in class effort for the designated manufacturer.^[4] Turbine engines of the size and complexity required by the Tribals never before had been built in Canada. Further, at the time Micmac's engines were ordered, the primary contractor, John Inglis and Company, was itself in considerable administrative difficulty arising from the increased demands of wartime procurement. The serious impact of this situation may be grasped when one considers that Micmac's hull was completed in Halifax after 32 months but the ship had to wait another full year for the delivery of her machinery from Inglis in Toronto before her fitting out could commence.^[3]

Civil political issues

The selection of Halifax Shipyard for the construction of the first Canadian-made Tribal destroyer was made by Canada's Minister of Defence for Naval Services, Angus L. Macdonald.^[5] MacDonald was both a Nova Scotia native and a former Premier of that province, an office he would re-occupy after the war's end until his death in 1954, a political connection that did not go unnoticed.

Building a high performance warship is a complex undertaking that all too often strains the capabilities of experienced shipbuilders. Even when all the requisite materials and technical facilities are readily available difficulties abound. While Canada had few such enterprises in 1941, some did exist, notably the larger and more experienced Vickers yards in Montreal. However a smaller and less equipped shipyard, Halifax Shipyards Limited, was selected for the Canadian Tribal program that began with Micmac.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 Halifax Shipyard, located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was distant from the major industrial centre of Canada. The city had a modest population and an even more modest industrial capacity. Further, from 1940 until the end of the war the limited, albeit increasing, technical facilities and skilled labour force available to Halifax Shipyard were necessarily concentrated upon repair and refit of ships damaged in innumerable Atlantic convoys departing from Bedford Basin. Thus, competition for such limited resources as were available was intense. Halifax, between 1940 and 1945, was one of the busiest and most congested ports in the world and the Halifax Shipyard was already working at capacity handling repair work for Atlantic convoy ships damaged in transit.

While no shipyard in Canada had ever constructed a ship that even approached the complexity of a modern destroyer, Halifax Shipyard had limited experience even by Canadian standards. While the Halifax Shipyard had built four large freighters at the end of the First World War as well as an advanced icebreaker, Micmac's yard number, hull No. 12, indicates just how few hulls the yard had constructed.

However the selection of the Halifax yard also had several advantages. While Halifax Shipyards had not produced a large number of ships, it had produced some advanced and successful vessels. Two of its 1920 refrigerated freighters, SS Canadian Cruiser and SS Canadian Constructor were very large by Canadian standards, and remained the largest Canadian steel ships built until the end of the war.^[6] The icebreaker built by the yard, CGS N.B. McLean was a powerful and long-serving ship as well as one of the largest icebreakers in the word when constructed.^[7] The Halifax yard also benefited from the proximity of naval staff at the RCN's Halifax Naval Dockyard adjoining just to the south of the Halifax Shipyard. Finally, an important consideration for the wartime operation of the crucial convoy port of Halifax was the destroyer program's retention of a skilled workforce which helped stabilize the repair capacity of the port. Demand for skilled shipyard works soared in the winter but fell off in the summer causing many workers to leave. The destroyer program kept a large year round workforce available that could be switch from repair to new ship construction as needed.,^[3][8]

Service politics

The selection of the extremely advanced Tribal design for domestic construction was specifically that of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral P.W. Nelles who was influenced by institutional considerations for the future of the RCN.

It is recalled that the RCN was only established in 1910 and then primarily as a ploy by Laurier's Liberal administration to avoid paying for British dreadnoughts.^{[note 1]} Following the First World War, the RCN was progressively reduced in strength until by 1922 its very survival as an independent service was placed at risk.^{[note 2]} This experience had some influence on members of the Naval Staff who were determined to forestall any possible re-occurrence at the end of the Second World War.

Nelles' evident design was to employ the funding opportunities afforded by the conflict in Europe to establish the post-war RCN as a major, and therefore permanent, part of Canada's defence strategy. Obtaining the necessary infrastructure to support a 'big ship' fleet and the technical know-how to do so in the vicinity of the Navy's home port of Halifax was crucial to that endeavour.

Such was the incongruity of the policy choices made with respect to the Canadian Tribal program that it appeared to some contemporary observers, both in and out of the RCN, that while obtaining the means to build a destroyer was claimed vital for the war effort, the actual construction of a destroyer evidently was somewhat less so.^[9][10][11]

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Royal Navy

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 France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.

Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of Defence (MINDEF) and the Chief of Defence Force (CDF). The Department of Defence as part of the Australian Public Service administers the ADF.

HMCS Nootka (R96)

HMCS Nootka (R96)

HMCS Nootka was a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1946 to 1964. Constructed too late to take part in the Second World War, the ship saw service in the Korean War. She received the unit name Nootka while still under construction in Halifax, Nova Scotia after the RCN renamed the Fundy-class minesweeper Nootka (J35) to Nanoose (J35) in 1943. Nootka was the second Canadian Tribal to be constructed in Canada and the second Canadian warship to circumnavigate the world. The ship was sold for scrap and broken up at Faslane, Scotland in 1965.

HMCS Athabaskan (R79)

HMCS Athabaskan (R79)

HMCS Athabaskan was a Tribal-class destroyer that served with the Royal Canadian Navy in the immediate post-Second World War era. She was the second destroyer to bear the name "Athabaskan", after the many tribes throughout western Canada that speak Athabaskan family languages. Both this ship and the original HMCS Athabaskan were destroyers and thus this one became known as Athabaskan II.

HMAS Warramunga (I44)

HMAS Warramunga (I44)

HMAS Warramunga (I44/D123) was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built during World War II, the destroyer entered service in late 1942. She was initially assigned to convoy escort duties, but was assigned to the joint Australian-American Task Force 74 in 1943, and was involved in supporting numerous amphibious landings through the South-east Asian region until the end of the war. From 1950 and 1952, Warramunga fought in the Korean War, then was converted into an anti-submarine destroyer. Returning to service in 1954, the destroyer was one of the first RAN ships to operate with the Far East Strategic Reserve, and undertook two tours with the organisation before she was decommissioned in 1959 and sold for ship breaking in 1963.

Flower-class corvette

Flower-class corvette

The Flower-class corvette was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy ships of this class were named after flowers.

River-class frigate

River-class frigate

The River class was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. The majority served with the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), with some serving in the other Allied navies: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Free French Naval Forces, the Royal Netherlands Navy and, post-war, the South African Navy.

John Inglis and Company

John Inglis and Company

John Inglis and Company was a Canadian manufacturing firm which made weapons for the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth military forces during the World War II era, then later became a major appliance manufacturer. Whirlpool Corporation acquired control of Inglis in 1987 and changed the company's name to Whirlpool Canada in 2001. Today the Inglis name survives as a brand under Whirlpool.

Premier

Premier

Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.

Halifax Shipyard

Halifax Shipyard

The Halifax Shipyard Limited is a Canadian shipbuilding company located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. Halifax is one of Canada's fastest growing municipalities, and as of 2022, it is estimated that the CMA population of Halifax was 480,582, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County.

Bedford Basin

Bedford Basin

Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast. It is named in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford.

Micmac was launched on 18 September 1943, named in honour of the Mi'kmaq people of the Maritime provinces, continuing the tradition of naming Canadian Tribal-class destroyers after Canadian First Nations. After many difficulties, especially the delayed arrival of the propulsion system from Inglis in Toronto, Micmac was commissioned on 18 September 1945, captained by Lieutenant Commander R.L. Hennessy, DSC, RCN.^[12] Although the war she was intended for had ended the previous May, Micmac was nonetheless the very first destroyer ever constructed in Canada. At an estimated cost of $8,500,000.00 CAD, roughly four times what it cost the RN to build a Tribal, she was also the single most expensive piece of military or naval equipment produced in Canada up to that time.^[3] Commissioned into a rapidly shrinking navy, the crew of the brand new destroyer completed her workups and the ship entered into the routine existence of a peacetime navy while dozens of older RCN ships were paid off into reserve or to disposal. Her surviving tribal sisters in the Royal Navy were themselves all paid off to disposal in 1945 and scrapped by 1949 but Canada and Australia would find new uses for Tribal destroyers as Cold War naval confrontations emerged.

Collision

In March 1947, Micmac received a new commanding officer, LCdr. J. C. Littler, RCN, (Cdr. from 1-7-47) and entered a yard period at HMC Dockyard Halifax to refit and upgrade her automatic weapons. Early in the morning of 16 July 1947, Micmac embarked a number of civilian contractors and proceeded to sea from Halifax to conduct full-power trials off Sambro Head. Shortly after the trials completed, just before 13:00 hrs, HMCS Micmac was in collision with the Victory ship SS Yarmouth County (ex-Fort Astoria).^[13][14] Although damage to the Yarmouth County was slight and none of her crew were injured, Micmac suffered 15 injured and five dead. Five more crewmen, together with a civilian dock worker, were also lost at sea and presumed dead.

Micmac's upper works, forward of the bridge, were extensively damaged. 'A' mount together with its guns was completely destroyed. Moreover, she lost 40 feet of bow, her hull was badly deformed on the port side, and her keel was broken just under 'B' mount. Although the collision was later blamed on navigational errors, the incident led Montreal newspapers to point fingers at the wartime shipbuilding program.^[15] Despite the damage, it was decided to take Micmac in hand for reconstruction as a destroyer escort along with her six surviving sisters. After extensive, albeit temporary, repairs and partial conversion, Micmac recommissioned on 16 November 1949, LCdr. F. C. Frewer, RCN, commanding. However, Micmac's interim repairs did not extend to her broken keel; a state which compromised her structural integrity. Because of this her forward hull could not withstand the deck thrust produced by the recoil of the four 4"/45 HA guns that were planned for her DDE conversion. In consequence Micmac was instead fitted with a single Squid Mk IV triple barrel ASW mortar in the 'A' mount position and a single 40mm Bofors quad mount in the 'B' mount position. All her 4.7" guns were removed and a twin 4"/45 HA mount was shipped in Y position. This configuration gave Micmac a distinctive, if decidedly odd-looking, profile.

DDE conversion

On 30 November 1951 Micmac again paid off, this time to complete her conversion to the new DDE Tribal configuration. During this conversion her broken keel was finally made good and the forward armament was returned to a conventional arrangement of four 4"/45 HA guns in two twin mounts. Micmac recommissioned as DDE 214 on 14 August 1953, Cdr. G. M. Wadds, RCN, commanding, but did not complete her workups until September of the following year.

Because of her hull damage and prolonged refit Micmac was not considered for operations in the Korean War. As she was completed too late to see service in WWII and was unavailable for deployment at the time of the Korean War, Micmac has the distinction of being the only one of the 27 members of her class never to fire a shot in anger. Instead, her service years were spent as a training ship and sometime guard ship to the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent.

In common with the rest of her class, Micmac did not age well. Originally designed to counter enlarged French, German, and Italian inter-war destroyer classes—therefore intended primarily for service in the relatively sheltered waters of the Mediterranean and North Seas—the remarkably heavy armament and very high speed of the Tribal class were purchased at the cost of extremely light hull construction. The transverse strength design^[16] of the class, coupled with light hull plating, therefore lacked sufficient longitudinal stability and proved far too flexible and weak in North Atlantic service. In the absence of longitudinal strength members the increased strength of high tensile steel plate could not entirely compensate for its simple lack of mass. Consequently, ships of this class proved particularly susceptible to structural damage when operating at speed. They also frequently suffered machinery casualties due to excessive hull flexure in heavy seas.^{[note 3]}

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Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)

Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)

The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is a third-level military decoration awarded to officers; and, since 1993, ratings and other ranks of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the British Merchant Navy have been included. Additionally, the award was formerly awarded to members of other Commonwealth countries.

Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported opposing sides in major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based on the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Victory ship

Victory ship

The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engines, giving higher speed to allow participation in high-speed convoys and make them more difficult targets for German U-boats. A total of 531 Victory ships were built in between 1944 and 1946.

Destroyer escort

Destroyer escort

Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a 20-knot warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.

Squid (weapon)

Squid (weapon)

Squid was a British World War II ship-mounted anti-submarine weapon. It consisted of a three-barrelled mortar which launched depth charges. It replaced the Hedgehog system, and was in turn replaced by the Limbo system.

Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union while South Korea was supported by the United States and allied countries. The fighting ended with an armistice on 27 July 1953.

HMCS Magnificent

HMCS Magnificent

HMCS Magnificent was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier that served the Royal Canadian Navy from 1948–1957. Initially ordered by the Royal Navy during World War II, the Royal Canadian Navy acquired the Magnificent while waiting for another aircraft carrier to be completed to their needs and it entered service in 1948 replacing in service HMCS Warrior which had been loaned for two years by the RN.

Hull cracks, feed water and fuel tank leaks, structural failures and turbine damage were a commonplace in Tribals even when they were new. Successive ship alterations^[17] which addressed these issues with stiffener plates, frames, stringers, braces and even turbine blade redesign had limited success. Likely it was this consideration which influenced the RN's decision to dispose of their four surviving Tribal destroyers before 1950 even though none of those ships were then more than 12 years old. As the years passed all of Canada's Tribals, both British and Canadian built, developed more frequent and more extensive structural defects necessitating increasingly long yard time for repairs and restrictions placed on their employment. Eventually, the growing cost of their maintenance and their demands on the Navy's restricted manpower no longer could be justified by their decreased capabilities. Thus, in late 1963 the RCN decided to retire the entire class. Micmac finally paid off to disposal in March 1964 along with her sisters. She was sold and in 1965 went to the ship breakers at Faslane, Scotland.

The original Micmac's ship's bell is installed on the mast of HMCS Acadia Sea Cadet training centre at the Cornwallis Park training facility near Digby, Nova Scotia. HMCS Acadia was the gunnery training ship assigned to HMCS Cornwallis from 1944 to the end of hostilities. (By coincidence, HMCS Acadia had been commanded by the same LCdr. Littler who captained Micmac at the time of her collision.) In the 1970s the name Micmac was allocated to the Sea Cadet Summer Training Centre located on the lower section of CFB Shearwater. Of the five General Training divisions at HMCS Acadia, one is named Micmac. All of the RCN Tribal-class ship's names have at various times been assigned to training divisions of officer cadets at the former Royal Roads Military College.

One Canadian Tribal-class destroyer, the British-built HMCS Haida, survives as a museum ship docked in Hamilton, Ontario.

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CSTC HMCS Acadia

CSTC HMCS Acadia

HMCS Acadia Cadet Training Centre is a Royal Canadian Sea Cadets training centre in Cornwallis Park, Nova Scotia. The centre takes its name from the ship HMCS Acadia, a hydrographic research ship which was commissioned into the navy in both World War I and World War II and based at the end of its naval career at the Cornwallis base as a training ship. In November 1945, HMCS Acadia was decommissioned from Royal Canadian Navy service and the vessel returned to civilian operations with the Canadian Hydrographic Service as CSS Acadia. The name and unit colours of HMCS Acadia were revived in 1956 by the RCN when a new Royal Canadian Sea Cadets summer training centre was established at the naval base HMCS Protector on Cape Breton Island. It was called HMCS Acadia.

CFB Cornwallis

CFB Cornwallis

Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis is a former Canadian Forces Base located in Deep Brook, Nova Scotia.

Digby, Nova Scotia

Digby, Nova Scotia

Digby is an incorporated town in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is in the historical county of Digby and a separate municipality from the Municipality of the District of Digby. The town is situated on the western shore of the Annapolis Basin near the entrance to the Digby Gut, which connects the basin to the Bay of Fundy.

HMCS Acadia

HMCS Acadia

Several Canadian naval units have been named HMCS Acadia.CSS Acadia is Canada's most historic oceanographic and hydrographic survey and research vessel. She was commissioned into naval service as HMCS Acadia (I) during both the First and Second World Wars, while serving with her civilian name before and after each conflict. She is currently a museum ship docked during the summer months at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Acadia is the name the French Colonials gave to Nova Scotia prior to British Rule. CSTC HMCS Acadia (II) is a cadet summer training centre operated by the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets that has used the unit name Acadia from 1956–present. It is currently located at Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.

Royal Canadian Sea Cadets

Royal Canadian Sea Cadets

The Royal Canadian Sea Cadets is a Canadian national youth program sponsored by the Canadian Armed Forces and the civilian Navy League of Canada. Administered by the Canadian Forces, the program is funded through the Department of National Defence, with the civilian partner providing support in the local community. Cadets are not members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

CFB Shearwater

CFB Shearwater

Canadian Forces Base Shearwater, commonly referred to as CFB Shearwater and formerly named HMCS Shearwater, is a Canadian Forces facility located 4.5 nautical miles east southeast of Shearwater, Nova Scotia, on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Following a base rationalization program in the mid-1990s, the Canadian Forces closed CFB Shearwater as a separate Canadian Forces base and realigned the property's various facilities into CFB Halifax. These include:Shearwater Heliport, which is operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The primary RCAF lodger unit is 12 Wing, commonly referred to as 12 Wing Shearwater. 12 Wing provides maritime helicopter operations in support of the Royal Canadian Navy's Atlantic Fleet (MARLANT) from the Shearwater Heliport and Pacific Fleet (MARPAC) from the Patricia Bay Heliport in British Columbia. 12 Wing is also headquartered at Shearwater Heliport. Shearwater Jetty, the former CFB Shearwater Annex, which provides dock facilities in support of Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic and MARLANT warships.

Royal Roads Military College

Royal Roads Military College

Royal Roads Military College (RRMC) was a Canadian military college from 1940 to 1995, located in Hatley Park, Colwood, British Columbia, near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Museum ship

Museum ship

A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small number of museum ships that are still operational and thus capable of regular movement.

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) southwest of Toronto in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Central Canada, it is Canada's most populous province, with 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by total area. Ontario is Canada's fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is Ontario's provincial capital.