The Amazing Career of HMCS Gatineau

I’ve written before how, as the son of a career Royal Canadian Navy man, my first collection as a nine-year-old was my father’s kit; he gave me everything but his tools and his medals.

By the time I was in my 20’s I was deep into writing about British Columbia and Canadian history, including, of course, stories about the RCN.

But until my first visit to the Royston booming grounds breakwater, which was made up of derelict ships, I had no idea that one of the RCN’s most illustrious veterans was among what I came to term the Royston death-watch which was composed of the hulks of sailing ships, warships, tugboats and a whaler.

Sadly, there was little to see of what had been HMCS Gatineau whose career began in 1934 as the Royal Navy’s HMS Express.

As such she’d participated in the Dunkirk evacuation, escaped being sunk by a German mine, then rescued almost 1000 survivors from the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales when it was sunk off Malaya by the Japanese.

Transferred to the RCN in February 1943, she assisted in sinking a U-boat and participated in the D-Day landing. She was paid off into reserve in 1946 and, two years later, stripped down to her decks and scuttled at Royston.

It was a truly sad end for such a courageous ship with so many battle ribbons and I’ve wanted to tell her story for years.

Next week I finally pay homage to HMCS Gatineau.

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PHOTO: HMCS Gatineau, the former HMS Express. —Canada.ca