For Posterity's Sake
A Royal
Canadian Navy Historical Project
HMCS CORMORANT
20

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HMCS Cormorant 20
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Battle honours and awards: Quebec
1759, Minorca 1798, China 1856,
1959
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Built: 1965
Acquired by RCN:
Jul 1975
Commissioned:
10 Nov 1978
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Paid off: 02
Jul 1997
Fate: Unknown
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Built at Cantiere Navale Apunia,
Marine-Carrara,
Italy in 1965, she was the former Italian-flag
stern trawler Aspa Quarto. She was purchased for
Maritime Command in Jul 1975, and converted principally at Davie
Shipbuilding, Lauzon, Que., to her new purpose. She was commissioned there
10 Nov 1978. She
served as mother ship to SDL-1 (Submersible Diver Lockout), a
mini-sub capable of reaching a
depth of 2000 feet, and which has been extensively used to chart the
bottom of Halifax harbour. Between 23 Aug and 05 Oct 1989,
Cormorant, along with CFAV Quest, was deployed to Canada's eastern
High Arctic waters, conducting defence research in Baffin Bay,
Lancaster Sound and Davis Strait. In the course of the operation,
dubbed NORPLOY 89, she visited Canada's northernmost Inuit community,
Grise Fjord, on Ellesmere Island. Her SDL-1 also found and filmed
the Breadalbane, crushed and sunk by ice off Beechey Island in 1853
while searching for John Franklin's lost Northwest Passage
expedition. During this deployment she holed her bow on pack ice.
Her crew made emergency repairs and she was able to return to Halifax and
repairs were effected on the syncrolift. During her career she was used for a variety of purposes
ranging from retrieval of illegal drug caches; covering vents in the
sunken barge Irving Whale to recovering the bell from the wreck of
the Edmund Fitzgerald. Cormorant had among her complement the first
women to be assigned to a Canadian naval vessel. She was paid off on
2 July 1997. Initially sold to United
States owners for diving operations, she remained
docked in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, rusting away. The
Cormorant was purchased at auction by Neil Hjelle in September 2009
to be refit and used for research in the Mediterranean and Middle
East. As of Mar 2015, Cormorant still lay idle and deteriorating at
Bridgewater, NS.
Photos
and Documents Ship's
company photos Commissioning
book
Commanding Officers |
LCdr J.G.
Morrison - 24 Jul 1978 - 17 Aug 1981
LCdr Jack W.D.
Alexander - 17 Aug 1981 - 27 Jun 1983 LCdr
Brian John Fisher
- 27 Jun 1983 - 30 Jul 1984
LCdr R.W. Bowers - 30 Jul 1984 - unk |
LCdr A.G.D. Perusse - Jun 1986 - 10 Jun
1988
LCdr M.P. Palmer - 10 Jun 1988 - 10 Aug
1990 LCdr P.O. Gaynor
- 10 Aug 1990 - 08 Oct 1992 LCdr
A.T. Pinnell
- 08 Oct 1992 - Aug 1994 |
In memory of those who have crossed the bar
They shall not be
forgotten |
A-B
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Adams,
Glenn R,
____-2008 |

Alexander, Jack
W.D.
1937-2016
2nd Commanding Officer
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Boucher,
Roger Phillippe
1947-2013
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C-D |

Croucher,
Selby Claude
1944-2010
Commissioning crew as a PO1
Electrician |

Dohan,
John Chester
____-2018 |

Downie,
Robert E.
____-2003 |

Doyle,
Lloyd Emmerson
____-1992 |
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E-F |

Esbaugh,
Thomas Jerome
1952-2012 |
Fisher,
Brian John
____-2017
3rd Commanding Officer |
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G-H |

Hatt,
Myles R.
1958 - 2016 |
Hughes,
Douglas Frederick
1937-2011 |
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M-N |
MacAdams,
Betty Lou
1943-2007 |

McGowan,
Louise Catherine
____-2012 |

Mclellan, Barry
____-____ |

McVarnock,
Thomas
1937-2011 |

Molloy,
John Patrick
____-2011
Commissioning crew as Sgt
Electrician |

Morgan,
Philip Wade
1963-2019 |
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O-P |

Poirier,
Pamela Denise
1959-2008 |
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Rank,
Gordon Henry
1939-2017 |
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W-X |
Wolfe, Henry Harvey
____-2014 |
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Former Crew Members
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MacDonald, James A., STWD
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Miniou, Scott, RP/NESOP |
Weir, Garry, MS, NRAD Op 274, 1991 |
Photos
and Documents

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Battle Board for HMCS Cormorant 20
Maritime Command Museum, CFB Halifax, NS
Courtesy of Jarrod David |
The Welcome Aboard Booklet for HMCS
Cormorant 20
Courtesy of Janet Lawrence
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HMCS Cormorant and CFAV Quest, NORPLOY 1989
Courtesy of John Newton, Rear-Admiral, RCN |

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SDL-1 in the hangar of HMCS Cormorant 20
From the collection of Dale Silvester
Courtesy of Jim Silvester |

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HMCS Cormorant recovering SDL-1
From the collection of Dale Silvester
Courtesy of Jim Silvester |

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HMCS Cormorant 20
From the collection of Dale Silvester
Courtesy of Jim Silvester |

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Former HMCS Cormorant, Bridgewater, Nova
Scotia, awaiting disposal,19 Jul 2003
Source: ShipSpotting.com
Photographer: Gerrard
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Former HMCS Cormorant, Bridgewater, NS, 16 Mar
2015
Having been sold to private interests,
Cormorant has been laying derelict at Bridgewater for many years
Courtesy of Dennis Morrison |


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Former HMCS Cormorant at Bridgewater, Nova
Scotia - 21 Mar 2015
Although
she still appeared to be afloat, she has listed in the range of 45
degrees from the vertical (far enough to expose her port bilge keel)
and the Canadian Coast Guard reported that she is on the bottom and
not moving with the tide. Perhaps her starboard bilge keel is in
contact with the bottom. You can see in photo 1 that her port anchor
is deployed.
Source:
Sandy's
Ramblings
Both
photos © Sandy McClearn 2014
These
photos are published here with permission of the copy write owner.
They are not to be republished or sold without permission of Sandy
McClearn |
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