HMCS Arvida

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

HMCS Arvida (K113)

Commissioned at Québec City on May 22, 1941, the Flower Class corvette HMCS Arvida arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 6. She joined Sydney Force in July, acting as escort to local sections of transatlantic convoys until September, when she joined Newfoundland Command. She left Sydney, Nova Scotia on September 5 to join her maiden ocean convoy, SC.43 and was thereafter in almost continuous service as an ocean escort until the end of 1943. In June 1942, she became a member of Escort Group C-4 and, in May 1943 of C-5. While escorting convoy ON.188 in mid-June 1943, she was damaged by her own depth charges and arrived at Iceland on June 16, for a week of repairs. Three of HMCS Arvida ’s convoys received particularly rough handling by U-boats: ONS.92 (May 1942), ON.127 (September 1942), and SC.107 (November 1942). While with ON.127, she rescued survivors of the destroyer HMCS Ottawa (1st of the name) on September 13.

She had major refits at Saint John, Lunenburg and Baltimore, Maryland. While at Baltimore, she was given her extended forecastle, afterward joining Escort Group W-7 of Western Local Escort Force. In mid-May 1944 she was sent to Bermuda to work up, returned to Halifax on June 9, and in August joined Escort Group W-2. In December she transferred to W-8, remaining with that group until the end of the war. HMCS Arvida was paid off on June 14, 1945, at Sorel, Quebec, and later sold for commercial use, entering service in 1948 as the Spanish-flag La Ceiba.

• Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Québec City, Quebec
• Laid down: February 28, 1940
• Launched: September 21, 1940
• Date commissioned: May 22, 1941
• Date paid off: June 14, 1945
• Displacement: 950 tons
• Dimensions: 62.5 m x 10.1 m x 3.5 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 single mounts), one Hedgehog mortar, and depth charges.

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1941-45
• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942, 1944