HMCS Athabaskan was the first of three destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy to bear this name. It was a destroyer of the , that served in the Second World War. She was named for the First Nations peoples who make up the Athabaskan language group. She was torpedoed in the English Channel and sunk in 1944.

Athabaskan was ordered 5 April 1940 as part of the 1940-1941 building programme. She was laid down in the United Kingdom on 31 October 1940 by Vickers-Armstrongs of High Walker and built in consort with CA Parsons engine works. She was launched on 18 November 1941 and commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 3 February 1943.

On 18 June 1943, Athabaskan sustained damage during a collision with the boom defence vessel Bargate at Scapa Flow, resulting in a month under repair at Devonport. In July and August 1943, she was based in Plymouth, carrying out anti-submarine patrols in the Bay of Biscay.

Athabaskan was heavily damaged by a Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb, dropped by a KG 100 aircraft, during an anti-submarine chase off Cape Ortegal, in the Bay of Biscay, on 27 August 1943. was sunk in the same incident.

Final action, sinking

On 29 April 1944 at about 0300 hours Athabaskan was patrolling with her sister Tribal-class destroyer Haida in support of a British minelaying operation off the coast of France near the mouth of the Morlaix River. She received the first of a series of Admiralty orders to intercept German warships near Ile de Bas (sometimes Île de Batz) as spotted by coastal radar in southern England. During the subsequent engagement with German naval vessels, Athabaskan was torpedoed and sank. 128 men were lost, 44 were rescued by Haida and 83 were taken prisoner by three German minesweepers sortied from the coast after the departure of Haida.

As might be expected with a night-time naval battle, various sources and even eyewitnesses provide widely differing accounts of the events surrounding the sinking of Athabaskan. Some survivors recount that the ship was initially struck by shore-battery gunfire, and then by a torpedo. It is established, that at 0417 hours Athabaskan was first torpedoed in a port stern by the German torpedo boat . At least one survivor tells of a second torpedo hit fifteen minutes after the first, but the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy attributes the second major explosion to the fires touching off the ammunition magazine. According to an analysis of one author, however, the second explosion was probably friendly fire, torpedoed again by the MTB 677 torpedo boat, which was one of two torpedo boats covering the Hostile 26 minelaying operation.

Athabaskans commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander John Stubbs, was killed in action after declining rescue by Haida to swim back for more crew members. In 2004, the Royal Canadian Navy provided a brass plaque to be laid on the wreck to commemorate the loss. The expedition found more information about the sinking but did not clarify the actual cause. The wreck is in a shattered condition spread over the sea bed.

HMCS Haida motor cutter rescue

thumb|upright|The motor cutter of , which was used to rescue survivors of the sinking of Athabaskan

When Haida quickly departed the area due to the onset of daylight and heightened risk from air and sea attacks, she left behind her motor cutter manned by Leading Seaman W. A. MacLure, Jack Hannam and three volunteers. MacLure and his comrades rescued six Athabaskan survivors along with two Haida crew who had been washed from the scramble nets as the ship departed. As recounted in Canada's official naval history, the German minesweepers chased the motor cutter but gave up for unknown reasons. After a series of breakdowns and encounters with enemy aircraft, MacLure's motor cutter eventually made landfall in England under Royal Air Force escort just before midnight on 29 April 1944.

Legacy

Athabaskan Island, near Bella Bella on the Central Coast of British Columbia, was named in memory of Athabaskan.

École John Stubbs Memorial School near Victoria, British Columbia is named for Lieutenant Commander John Stubbs.

A memorial to the loss of the Athabaskan can be found at Port de Porsguen (near Roscoff)

Notes

References

Further reading

  • HMCS Athabaskan G07
  • Royal Navy - Arctic Operations - HMCS Athabaskan