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The cost: ships lost in the Battle of the Atlantic

This painting by William McDowell depicts survivors from Athabaskan being rescued by Haida. It was originally presented to the HMCS Bytown Naval Officers’ Mess in 1948.
CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM

The cost: ships lost in the Battle of the Atlantic

Every year on Battle of the Atlantic Sunday, a bell is rung for each of the ships lost during the battle, and for the lives lost with them.

 

Adversus – 20 Dec 1941. Ran aground, McNutts Island, near Shelburne, NS, none lost.

Alberni – 21 Aug 1944, English Channel, 49 lost.

Athabaskan – 29 Apr 1944, sunk by enemy torpedo, North of Île Vierge, off the coast of Brittany (France), 128 lost.

HMCS Trentonian at Milford Haven, freshly painted in the Admiralty Disruptive paint scheme in July 1944
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COURTESY OF ROGER LITWILLER

Bras D’or – 19 Oct 1940, St. Lawrence River, 30 lost.

Charlottetown – 11 Sep 1942, St. Lawrence River, 10 lost.

Chedabucto – 21 Oct 1943, St. Lawrence River, 1 lost.

Clayoquot – 24 Dec 1944, Halifax Approaches, 8 lost.

Esquimalt – 16 Apr 1945, Halifax Approaches, 44 lost. Last Canadian Warship to be sunk, Second World War.

Fraser – 25 Jun 1940, Bay Of Biscay, 47 lost.

Guysborough – 17 Mar 1945, Bay Of Biscay, 51 lost.

HDC 15 (Harbour Defence Patrol Craft) – 14 Apr 1943, Saint John, NB, 6 lost.

Lévis – 19 Sep 1941, North Atlantic, 18 lost. First corvette sunk in Second World War.

Louisbourg – 6 Feb 1943, Western Mediterranean, 37 lost.

Margaree – 27 Oct 1940, Northeastern Atlantic, 142 lost.

MTBs (Motor Torpedo Boats) 459, 461, 462, 465, 466 – 14 Feb 1945, Ostend, Belgium, 26 lost.

The Corvette HMCS Shawinigan was sunk in the Cabot Strait in November of 1944.
UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

MTB 460 – 2 Jul 1944, English Channel, 11 lost.

MTB 463 – 8 Jul 1944, English Channel, none lost.

Ottawa – 13 Sep 1942, North Atlantic, 113 lost.

Otter – 26 Mar 1941, off Halifax, 19 lost.

Raccoon – 7 Sep 1942, St. Lawrence River, 37 lost.

Regina – 8 Aug 1944, Northern coast, Cornwall, 30 lost.

St Croix – 20 Sep 1943, North Atlantic, 147 lost.

Shawinigan – 24 Nov 1944, Cabot Strait, 91 lost.

Skeena – 25 Oct 1944, Iceland, 15 lost.

Spikenard – 10 Feb 1942, North Atlantic, 57 lost.

Trentonian – 22 Feb 1945, English Channel, 6 lost.

Valleyfield – 6 May 1944, Northwestern Atlantic, 123 lost.

Weyburn – 22 Feb 1943, Strait Of Gibraltar, 8 lost.

Windflower – 7 Dec 1941, Northwestern Atlantic, 23 lost.

Ypres – 12 May 1940, Halifax, none lost.