Katherine Bickford

HMCS Sackville (K181) – Canada’s oldest warship

HMCS Sackville is the last of Canada’s 123 Flower-class corvettes, one of many convoy escort vessels built in Canada and the United Kingdom during World War II.

In 1988, Sackville was designated a National Historic Site of Canada, due to her status as the last Flower-class corvette known to exist.

• Builder: Saint John Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company Ltd.
• Laid down: 28 May 1940
• Launched: 15 May 1941
• Commissioned: 30 December 1941
• Decommissioned: 8 April 1946
• Displacement: 950 tons
• Length: 62.5 m (205 ft 1 in)
• Beam: 10 m (32 ft 10 in)
• Draught: 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in)
• Propulsion:
• Single shaft
• 2 x Scotch boilers,
• 4-cylnder. triple expansion steam engine, 2,750 hp
• Speed: 16 knots
• Complement: 85
• Armament:
• 1 BL 4 in (102 mm) Mk.IX gun
• 1 QF Mk.VIII 2-pounder gun on antiaircraft mount
• 2 x 20 mm Oerlikon AA cannon
• 2 x Lewis .303 cal twin machine guns
• 4 x Mk.II depth charge throwers
• 2 x depth charge rails with 40 depth charges
• 1 Mk 3 hedgehog