HMCS Kentville

There has been only one vessel named Kentville in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Kentville (J312 / 182)

The Kentville was a Bangor Class minesweeper. The Bangor Class ships were built in order to replace the old Basset Class minesweepers, as they were larger, faster, had much greater endurance, and burned oil as opposed to coal.

As enemy mines were laid only once in 1943 in Canadian waters, the Bangors were used primarily as escorts to coastal shipping or as local escorts to ocean convoys. Sixteen of them, however, assisted in sweeping the approaches to Normandy before D-Day, and stayed to help clear German and Allied minefields in the Channel for some months afterward.

Commissioned at Port Arthur, now Thunder Bay, Ontario on October 10, 1942, Kentville arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 15, having escorted a Quebec-Sydney convoy en route. After work-ups, she was assigned to Halifax Force in January 1943. With the exception of the period between May and November 1943, when she served with Sydney Force, she spent her entire career based out of Halifax. In May 1944, she underwent a refit at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Upon completion of this in July, she proceeded to Bermuda for work-ups and returned to Halifax in mid-August. Kentville was paid off at Sydney, Nova Scotia on October 28, 1945, and went into reserve, first at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, and then in 1946 at Sorel, Quebec. Reacquired by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1952, she was refitted and placed in reserve at Sydney, and was again in commission during the summer of 1954. Transferred to the Turkish Navy on November 29, 1957, and renamed Bartin, she remained in service until 1972.

• Builder: Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Port Arthur, Ontario.
• Laid down: December 15, 1941
• Launched: April 17, 1942
• Date commissioned: October 10, 1942
• Final date paid off: November 29, 1957
• Displacement: 672 tons
• Dimensions: 54.9 m x 8.7 m x 2.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 83
• Armament: (original) one 3-inch (76-mm) gun, three 20-mm guns (3 single mounts) and depth charges; (post war) one Hedgehog mortar, one 40-mm gun, two 20 mm guns (2 single mount) and depth charges.

Battle honours

Atlantic 1944-1945