HMCS Dundalk

There has been only 1 vessel named Dundalk in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Dundalk Z40 / 501

The Dun Class tanker HMCS Dundalk was built originally for the Royal Canadian Navy to fill a World War II need. Prior to building HMCS Dundalk, a barge and a dredge had been converted to tankers, but they were not sufficient to answer all demands. For this reason orders were placed for the construction of 2 small ships, HMCS Dundalk and HMCS Dundurn. They were small tankers but had the carrying capacity sufficient to refill escort vessels for the hazardous voyages they undertook to protect merchant ship convoys as well as to maintain supplies in the storage tanks of ports along the east coast of Canada. HMCS Dundalk was built in Walkerville, Ontario and commissioned there on November 13, 1943.

HMCS Dundalk was used to deliver fuel oil from Halifax, Nova Scotia refineries to bases on the east coast of Canada and in Newfoundland. Occasionally HMCS Dundalk served as a lighter, a vessel used to load and unload other ships. 

At war’s end, the navy expressed an interest to retain HMCS Dundalk as a naval auxiliary vessel, emphasizing their preference for her over commercial tankers. Both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts required one each for ship fuelling and coastal fuel deliveries. It was decided to keep HMCS Dundalk in Halifax while her sister was transferred to the Pacific Coast. HMCS Dundalk  was paid off at Halifax on April 9, 1946, and subsequently served with a civilian crew as Canadian Naval Auxiliary Vessel (CNAV) and Canadian Forces Auxiliary Vessel (CFAV) HMCS Dundalk until December 17, 1982. 

  • Displacement: 950 tons
  • Dimensions: 54.5 m x 10.1 m x 4 m
  • Speed: 11 knots
  • Crew: 30
  • Armament: (wartime) one 12-pound (5.45 kg ) gun and two 20-mm guns (2 x I).

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