HMCS Terra Nova (DDE 259)
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HMCS Terra Nova at Pearl Harbor in 1986
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History | |
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Name: | Terra Nova |
Namesake: | Terra Nova River |
Builder: | Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd., Victoria |
Laid down: | 11 June 1953 |
Launched: | 21 June 1955 |
Commissioned: | 6 June 1959 |
Decommissioned: | 11 July 1997 |
Refit: |
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Homeport: | CFB Halifax |
Honours and awards: |
Gulf and Kuwait, 1991 |
Fate: | Sold for scrapping 2009 |
General characteristics | |
Class & type: | Restigouche-class destroyer |
Displacement: |
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Length: |
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Beam: | 42 ft (12.8 m) |
Draught: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
Propulsion: | 2-shaft English-Electric geared steam turbines, 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers 30,000 shp (22,000 kW) |
Speed: | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Range: | 4,750 nautical miles (8,800 km; 5,470 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
Complement: |
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Sensors and processing systems: |
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Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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Armament: |
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HMCS Terra Nova (DDE 259) was a Restigouche-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces from 1959-1997. After her final refit, she was a guided missile destroyer.
She was the sixth ship of her class and the first Canadian war ship to bear the name HMCS Terra Nova. The ship honours the Terra Nova River in Newfoundland as well as an earlier civilian ship, Terra Nova, which gained fame during a scientific exploration voyage to Antarctica. Both the river and the Antarctic (symbolized by a penguin) are featured on the ship's badge.
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Construction and career
Terra Nova was laid down on 11 June 1953 at Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd., Victoria and launched on 21 June 1955. She was commissioned into the RCN on 6 June 1959 with the pennant number 259.
Terra Nova was selected by the Canadian Forces for the Improved Restigouche (IRE) project and completed this refit in 1968. She was also selected as one of ten destroyers in the Destroyer Life Extension (DELEX) project and completed this refit on 9 November 1984.
Terra Nova was given notice in 1973 a Friday afternoon that she was being deployed Monday morning for South East Asia in support of the Canadian Army component of ICCS in Vietnam. She was deployed for 6 months until relieved by HMCS Kootenay.
Operation Friction
Terra Nova was selected in August 1990 for deployment with Operation Friction, the CF contribution to Operation Desert Storm (the Gulf War). She had her Mk.112 ASROC octuple launcher and her Mk. NC10 Limbo ASW mortars removed and was fitted with eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles and a Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS). She was also enhanced with three detachments of Javelin surface-to-air missile systems from 119 Air Defence Battery. With this, she became the first guided-missile destroyer in the Canadian Navy.
Terra Nova was deployed with the Canadian Naval Task Group, led by flagship HMCS Athabaskan and the supply ship HMCS Protecteur. The Task Group was assigned to the international coalition maritime interdiction force in the central Persian Gulf which consisted of a variety of coalition naval forces on station through the fall of 1990. After Operation Desert Storm began in January, the Canadian Naval Task Group undertook escort duties for hospital ships and other vulnerable coalition naval vessels.
Decommissioning
Terra Nova was decommissioned from active service in the CF on 11 July 1997. After being paid off Terra Nova appeared, cast as an American destroyer, in the movie K-19: The Widowmaker.
In December 2007 there was discussion about sinking Terra Nova for a diving attraction in the St. Lawrence River near Brockville, Ontario, however the plans fell through and she remained laid up at CFB Halifax.
On 18 September 2009, the Department of National Defence (DND)[1] called for bids for "the removal, dismantling and disposal" of HMCS Terra Nova and HMCS Gatineau. The deadline for submissions for the work was 8 October 2009. On 4 November 2009, DND announced that Aecon Fabco had won the bid and would tow both vessels to their Pictou Shipyard in Pictou, Nova Scotia.[2]
Terra Nova departed Halifax Harbour on 20 November under tow by the tugboat Atlantic Elm and arrived in Pictou on 22 November , where she joined Gatineau which had arrived a few days earlier. By the summer of 2010 she was being cut up for scrap, mainly aluminum, stainless steel and carbon steel.[3] She later sank at her mooring and was raised by crane in April 2011.[4]
References
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