HMCS French

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

HMCS French  (S01 / Z23) / Examination Vessel

French was former RCMP vessel built in Lauzon, QC, in 1938. HMCS French was commissioned at Halifax on 18 September 1939 for local patrol work. By the spring of 1942, she was based at Mulgrave, NS as an examination vessel, and that December was transferred to Saint John, New Brunswick Force. In May 1943 she joined Sydney Force and returned to examination service work in the Gut of Canso, based once more at Mulgrave. In January 1944 she rejoined Halifax Local Defence Force, but after completing a major refit at Lunenburg that July she returned again to Mulgrave. Sold to commercial interests after the war, French was operating out of Halifax as Le Français as recently as 1953. On 15 August of that year she was badly damaged in a hurricane off Cape May, NJ, and abandoned.

• Date commissioned: 18 September 1939
• Date paid off: 2 January 1946
• Displacement: 230 tonnes     
• Dimensions: 42 m x 6.7 m x 3.3 m
• Speed: 11 knots
• Crew: 30
• Armament: one 6 pdr., one .303 m.g.

Battle honours:

• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942