HMCS Fortune
Template:Short description Template:Use Canadian English
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMCS Fortune was a Template:Sclass2 built for the Royal Canadian Navy. Named for Fortune Bay, located in Newfoundland, the vessel served in the Royal Canadian Navy for ten years before being sold for commercial purposes. Renamed MV Edgewater Fortune she saw service as a commercial yacht.
Design
The Bay class were designed and ordered as replacements for the Second World War-era minesweepers that the Royal Canadian Navy operated at the time. Similar to the Template:Sclass2, they were constructed of wood planking and aluminum framing.<ref name=m2>Macpherson and Barrie, p. 271.</ref><ref name=con1>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 49.</ref>
Displacing Template:Convert and Template:Convert at deep load, the minesweepers were Template:Convert long with a beam of Template:Convert and a draught of Template:Convert.<ref name=m2/><ref name=con1/> They had a complement of 38 officers and ratings.<ref name=m2/><ref group=note>Gardiner and Chumbley claim the complement was 40.</ref> The Bay-class minesweepers were powered by two GM 12-cylinder diesel engines driving two shafts creating Template:Convert. This gave the ships a maximum speed of Template:Convert.<ref name=con1/> The ships were armed with one Bofors 40 mm gun and were equipped with minesweeping gear.<ref name=m2/><ref name=con1/><ref name=hazegray>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Service
Initially named Belle Isle,<ref name=c1>Colledge, p. 245</ref> Fortune was laid down on 24 April 1952 by Victoria Machinery Depot at Victoria with the yard number 51 and launched on 14 April 1953.<ref name=m1>Macpherson and Barrie, p. 273.</ref><ref name=miramar>Template:Cite ship register</ref> The minesweeper was commissioned on 3 November 1954 with the hull identification number 151.<ref name=m1/><ref name="hazegray" />
Fortune joined the Second Canadian Minesweeping Squadron after commissioning. In November 1955, the Second Canadian Minesweeping Squadron was among the Canadian units that took part in one of the largest naval exercises since the Second World War off the coast of California.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
After nine years of naval service, including acting as the flagship of the Second Canadian Minesweeping Squadron during the Cuban Missile Crisis,<ref>Haydon (1993), p. 272</ref> Fortune was decommissioned on 28 February 1964.<ref name=hazegray/> Put up for auction in 1965 by the Crown Assets Corporation,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> the ship was then sold into mercantile service. She was initially known as Greenpeace Two and used in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the Cannikin nuclear test in the Aleutians in November 1971.<ref name=m1/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The vessel was then refitted as the charter yacht MV Edgewater Fortune<ref name=hazegray/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and was used for short cruises along the coast of British Columbia. She was also occasionally used for fishing, and for school trips to learn about the wildlife on the coast and in the water. Subsequently, the ship was turned into a Template:Convert floating home in Vancouver.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
- Template:Cite book
- {{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book
|_exclude=case, year, _debug | last1 = Colledge | first1 = J. J. | author-link1= J. J. Colledge | last2 = Warlow | first2 = Ben | date = 2006 | orig-date = 1969 | title = Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present | edition = Rev. | location = London | publisher = Chatham Publishing | isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8 | OCLC = 67375475
}}