HMCS Dunver

There has been only 1 vessel named Dunver in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Dunver K03

The name represents an odd effort to honour the City of Verdun, Quebec, without duplicating the name of the British destroyer HMSVerdun.

Far more habitable ships than the smaller corvettes, the frigates of the River class were also faster and had twice the endurance of the corvette. The Royal Navy frigates were named for rivers and hence known as the River class; the Royal Canadian Navy ships were named for towns and cities.

The first River class frigate launched for the Royal Canadian Navy, HMCS Dunver was commissioned at Quebec City, Quebec on September 11, 1943 and arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on October 3, having escorted a Sydney-Halifax convoy en route. After work-ups at Pictou, Nova Scotia, she was allocated to Escort Group C-5 and served continuously on North Atlantic convoys until October 1944. That July, she had been Senior Officer’s ship while escorting convoy HXS.300, the largest of the war, with 167 merchant ships.

On September 9, she and HMCS Hespeler sank German submarine U-484 near convoy ONF.202, south of the Hebrides. In October 1944, she commenced refitting at Pictou, Nova Scotia, completing on December 27, and in April 1945 joined Escort Group 27 in Halifax for the rest of the war. She went to the west coast for refit in June, but this was discontinued in August and she was laid up at Esquimalt, British Columbia. Paid off January 23, 1946, HMCS Dunver was sold and her hull expended as part of a breakwater at Royston, British Columbia in 1948.

• Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Quebec City, Quebec
• Laid down: May 5, 1942
• Launched: November 10, 1942
• Date commissioned: September 11, 1943
• Date paid off: January 23, 1946
• Displacement: 1,445 tons
• Dimensions: 91.9 m x 11.1 m x 2.7 m
• Speed: 19 knots
• Crew: 141
• Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun, one 12-pound (5.45 kg ) gun, eight 20-mm (4 x II) guns, Hedgehog and depth charges.

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1943-45