HMCS West York

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

HMCS West York (K369) / Flower-class corvette

Commissioned at Collingwood, Ontario on 6 October 1944, West York was named in honour of the Town of Weston, Ontario; there was already another ship bearing the name of Weston in Royal Navy. The ship arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in mid-November and left a month later for Bermuda to work up.

In February 1945, she joined Escort Group C-5 at St. John’s, Newfoundland, leaving 16 February to rendezvous with her maiden convoy, HX.338. She made three round trips across the Atlantic before the end of her career, the last one as escort to convoy ON.305, which she joined from Londonderry, Northern Ireland at the end of May 1945.

Paid off on 9 July 1945 and laid up at Sorel, Quebec, she was later sold for commercial use. As SS West York, she was towing the paid off destroyer HMCS Assiniboine when the towline parted and the Assiniboine was wrecked on Prince Edward Island, 7 November 1945.

The former West York sailed under a variety of names and flags, returning to Canadian registry in 1960 as Federal Express. She sank at Montreal, Quebec, on 5 May 1960 after a collision. Her aft section was raised and broken up later that year.

• Builder: Midland Shipyards Ltd., Midland, Ontario
• Date laid down: 23 July 1943
• Date launched: 25 January 1944
• Date commissioned: 6 June 1944
• Date paid off: 9 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

• Atlantic 1945