HMCS Quatsino

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

HMCS Quatsino (J152)

The HMCS Quatsino was a Bangor Class minesweeper. The Bangor Class ships were built in order to replace the old Basset Class minesweepers, as they were larger, faster, had much greater endurance, and burned oil as opposed to coal. Most of the Bangors were named after Canadian towns and cities, the rest after bays.

As enemy mines were laid only once in 1943 in Canadian waters, the Bangors were used primarily as escorts to coastal shipping or as local escorts to ocean convoys. Sixteen of them, however, assisted in sweeping the approaches to Normandy before D-Day, and stayed to help clear German and Allied minefields in the Channel for some months afterward.

Named for Quatsino Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, HMCS Quatsino was built at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and commissioned on 3 November 1941. She spent her entire service life on the west coast, alternately a member of the Prince Rupert and Esquimalt Forces.

HMCS Quatsino was paid off at Esquimalt, British Columbia on 26 November 1945, converted for commercial purposes in 1947, and renamed Chen Hsin at Shanghai. She vanished from Lloyd’s Register after 1950.

• Builder: Prince Rupert Dry Dock and Shipyards Co., Prince Rupert, British Columbia
• Date laid down: 20 June 1940
• Date launched: 9 January 1941
• Date commissioned: 3 November 1941
• Date paid off: 26 November 1945
• Displacement: 682.8 tonnes
• Dimensions: 54.9 m x 8.7 m x 2.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 83
• Armament: one 3-inch (76-mm) gun, two 20-mm guns (2 x I) and depth charges.