HMSC Long Branch

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

HMCS Long Branch (K487)

Named for a village in Ontario, now absorbed by Toronto, the Flower Class corvette Long Branch was originally laid down as HMS Candytuft but was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned on the Clyde, Scotland, on January 5, 1944.

In April, following a month’s work-ups at Tobermory, Scotland, Long Branch joined Escort Group C-5 at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and sailed to pick up her maiden convoy, ONS.233. She developed mechanical defects during the crossing and was under repair at St. John’s, Newfoundland, for 6 weeks. On June 14, she left St. John’s to resume her duties, but returned from her next westbound convoy with the assistance of the HM tug Tenacity.

Repaired, she left St. John’s a week later to join HXS.300, the largest convoy of the war, and continued as an ocean escort until her final departure from Londonderry on January 27, 1945. Arriving at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on February 11, she commenced a refit on completion of which, in April, she was assigned to Halifax Force for local duties.

On June 17, she was paid off at Sorel, Quebec, for disposal. Sold for commercial use in 1947, she was renamed Rexton Kent II (later dropping the ‘II’) and finally scuttled off the east coast of Canada in 1966.

• Builder: A. & J. Inglis Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland.
• Laid down: February 27, 1943
• Launched: September 28, 1943  
• Commissionning date: January 5, 1944
• Paying off date: June 17, 1945
• Displacement: 970 tons
• Dimensions: 63.5 m x 10.1 m x 2.9 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 85
• Armament: one 4-inch (102-mm) gun, one 2-pound (0.9 kg) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 single mount), one Hedgehog mortar, depth charges

Battle honours

Atlantic 1944-1945