HMCS St. Eloi

St Eloi without her gun
History
Canada
Name:	St. Eloi
Namesake:	Action of St Eloi Craters March - April 1916
Builder:	Polson Iron Works Limited, Toronto, Ontario
Launched:	2 August 1917
Commissioned:	13 November 1917
Decommissioned:	1920
Recommissioned:	1940
Decommissioned:	June 1945
Renamed:	Re-designated Lightship No. 20
Fate:	Disposed of in 1962; final fate unknown
General characteristics
Class and type:	Battle class naval trawler
Displacement:	320 long tons (330 t)
Length:	130 ft (40 m)
Beam:	23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught:	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Speed:	10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Armament:	1 × QF 12-pounder (76-mm) gun

HMCS St. Eloi was one of twelve Battle class naval trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Named after the Action of the St. Eloi Craters, she was built by Polson Iron Works, in Toronto, Ontario, and was commissioned on 13 November 1917. Decommissioned in 1920, she was turned over to the Department of Marine and Fisheries, and like sister ships HMCS Messines, HMCS St. Julien, and HMCS Vimy was converted to a lightship, eventually being designated Lightship No. 20.

Returned to the RCN in 1940, St. Eloi became a gate vessel, designated Gate Vessel 12, and spent part of the war at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Handed over to the Department of Transport in June 1945, St. Eloi was ultimately disposed of in 1962.^[1][2]

References

1. Ken Macpherson and John Burgess, The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1993 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships, (St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell Pub., 1994), 24. ISBN 0-920277-91-8
2. Charles D. Maginley and Bernard Collin, The Ships of Canada's Marine Services, St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing, 2001, 113. ISBN 1-55125-070-5

External links

• Battle Class trawlers