HMCS Riviere du Loup

There has been only one vessel named HMCS Riviere du Loup in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Riviere du Loup (K357)

Commissioned at Québec City, Québec on 21 November 1943, the Flower Class corvette HMCS Riviere du Loup arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 18 December. She began working-up exercises in Bermuda in February, and completed them in St. Margaret’s Bay. Continuing mechanical problems necessitated repairs, which continued at Halifax until August. Having lost much of her original crew during this period, she returned to Bermuda for further work-ups.

In September 1944, HMCS Riviere du Loup returned to Halifax and joined Escort Group W-3, Western Escort Force. In October, she was assigned to Escort Group C-3 and left St. John’s, Newfoundland, on 13 November to pick up her first transatlantic convoy, HX.319.

Still plagued by troubles by the time she arrived in the United Kingdom, HMCS Riviere du Loup underwent a month’s repairs at Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her career as a mid-ocean escort ended with her arrival at Halifax in May 1945 from convoy ON.304, and she was paid off on 2 July and placed in reserve at Sorel, Québec. She was sold to the Dominican Navy in 1947 and renamed Juan Bautista Maggiolo.  She was broken up in 1972.

• Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Québec City, Québec
• Date laid down: 5 January 1943
• Date launched: 2 July 1943
• Date commissioned: 21 November 1943
• Date paid off: 2 July 1945
• Displacement: 985.6 tonnes
• 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 x I), one Hedgehog mortar and depth charges

Battle honours

• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1944
• Atlantic 1944-1945