HMCS Joliette

HMCS Joliette (K418)

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 Admiralty, at the suggestion of Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles, Canada’s Chief of Naval Staff, adopted the name “frigate”. The ships were first called “twin-crew corvette” and they were intended to remedy the corvettes’ shortcoming as an ocean escort.

Commissioned at Québec City, Quebec on June 14, 1944, the River class frigate Joliette left for Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then proceeded to Bermuda for work-ups. Returning to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in August, she became a member of Escort Group C-1 but was reassigned to Escort Group 25 after reaching Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Returning to Londonderry on November 22 from her first round trip to Halifax, she ran aground in Lough Foyle and received extensive bottom damage. Repairs were carried out at Belfast, Northern Ireland, from December 5, 1944, to April 5, 1945, after which Joliette went to Tobermory, Scotland, to work-up. She then returned to Londonderry, but sailed for Canada in June.

Joliette was paid off at Sydney, Nova Scotia, on November 19 and laid up at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. In 1946, she was sold to the Chilean Navy to serve as Iquique, until disposed of in 1968.

• Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Québec City, Quebec.
• Laid down: July 19, 1943
• Launched: November 12, 1943
• Date commissioned: June 14, 1944
• Date paid off: November 19, 1945
• Displacement: 1,445 tons
• Dimensions: 91.9 m x 11.1 m x 2.7 m
• Speed: 19 knots
• Crew: 141
• Armament: two 4-inch (102-mm) guns (1 double mount), one 12-pound (5.45 kg) gun, eight 20-mm guns (4 double mounts), one Hedgehog mortar, depth charges

Battle honours

Atlantic 1944