HMCS Nootka

There have been 2 vessels named HMCS Nootka in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Nootka (1st of name) (J35)

Commissioned on December 6, 1938, at Esquimalt, British Columbia, the Fundy Class minesweeper HMCS Nootka was named for the Vancouver Island sound. She performed local patrol duty until March 1940, when she was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Arriving there in April, she was assigned to Halifax Local Defence Force where she remained throughout the war. On April 1, 1943, she was renamed HMCS Nanoose so that her original name could be allotted to a Tribal Class destroyer. She was paid off at Halifax on July 29, 1945, and like 2 of her sisters, sold in 1946 to become a tug. Her Chinese owners renamed her Sung Ling.

• Displacement: 467.4 tonnes
• Dimensions: 49.7 m x 8.4 m x 4.4 m
• Speed: 12 knots
• Crew: 38
• Armament: one 12-pound (5.45 kg) gun

HMCS Nootka (2nd of name) (R96 / 213)

Named after the First Nation’s tribe, the Tribal Class destroyer HMCS Nootka was commissioned on August 7, 1946, at Halifax and served as a training ship on the east coast and in the Caribbean until her conversion to a destroyer escort in 1949 and 1950. Earmarked for Korean duty, she transited the Panama Canal in December 1950 for the first of 2 tours of duty in that theatre of war. Returning to Halifax via the Mediterranean at the end of 1952, she became the second Royal Canadian Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe. During 1953 and 1954, she underwent further conversion and modernization, afterward resuming her original training duties. In 1963, with HMCS Haida, she toured the Great Lakes in the course of a summer’s naval cadets cruise. She was paid off at Halifax on February 6, 1964, and broken up at Faslane, Scotland the following year.

• Displacement: 1958 tonnes
• Dimensions: 114.9 m x 11.4 m x 3.40 m
• Speed: 36 knots
• Crew: 259



• Armament: (Original) six 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns (3 double mounts), two 4-inch (102 mm) guns (1 double mount), four 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (1 quadruple mounts), four 2-pound (0.9 kg) guns, six 20-mm guns and depth charges; (Post-War) four 4-inch (102 mm) guns, two 3-inch (76 mm) guns (1 double mount), four 40-mm (4 single mounts), four 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (1 quadruple mount), two Squid mortars.

Motto: “Tikegh Mmook Solleks” (Ready to fight)

Battle honours

Korea 1951-1952