HMCS Hespeler

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

HMCS Hespeler (K489)

Laid down as HMS Guildford Castle, the Castle class corvette HMCS Hespeler was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned on February 28, 1944, at Leith, Scotland.

Following workups at Tobermory, Scotland, she arrived at Londonderry, Northern Ireland in April to become a member of Escort Group C-5. HMCS Hespeler sailed on April 21to meet her first convoy, ONS.233, and for the next 11 months was employed as an ocean escort.

On July 23, 1944, she left St. John’s, Newfoudland with Escort Group C-5 to escort the largest convoy of the war, HXS.300, and on September 8, while temporarily on patrol duty south of the Hebrides, she sank the German submarine U 484 in co-operation with HMCS Dunver.

She left Londonderry for the last time on March 8, 1945, to escort ON.289 westward, and upon arriving at Halifax, Nova Scotia, began a refit, completing at Liverpool, Nova Scotia in July. She then sailed for the west coast and on November 15 was paid off into reserve at Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Sold for mercantile use in 1946, she was renamed Chilcotin, then in 1958 she became the Liberian-flag Capri, and the Panamanian Stella Maris in 1960. Again under the Liberian flag, she was renamed Westar in 1965. She was gutted by fire at Sarroch, Sardinia on January 28, 1966, and broken up at La Spezia, Italy.

  • Builder: Henry Robb Ltd., Leith, Scotland.
  • Laid down: May 25, 1943
  • Launched: November 13, 1943
  • Commissionning date: February 28, 1944
  • Paying off date: November 15, 1945
  • Displacement: 1,060 tons
  • Dimensions: 76.7 m x 9.8 m x 3.05 m
  • Speed: 16 knots
  • Crew: 112
  • Armament: one 4-inch (102 mm) gun, six 20-mm guns (2 double mounts, 2 single mounts), one Squid anti-submarine mortar, depth charges.

Battle honours

  • Atlantic 1944-1945

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