Destroyers: C Class 1932

[Brian James]

HMCS Fraser H48 pictured in transit,Panama Canal c1939.
She was a C-class Destroyer (HMS Crescent),which was built at Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness in 1932. She was initially assigned to the Home Fleet, although she was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36. Crescent was sold to the Royal Canadian Navy in late 1936 and renamed HMCS Fraser. She was stationed on the west coast of Canada until the beginning of World War II when she was transferred to the Atlantic coast for convoy escort duties. She was transferred to the United Kingdom in May 1940 and helped to evacuate refugees from France upon her arrival in early June. Fraser was sunk on June 25th 1940 in a collision with C Class Light Anti-Aircraft Cruiser HMS Calcutta while returning from one such mission.On June 25th 1940, Fraser, her sister HMCS Restigouche, and the Cruiser Calcutta were returning from St. Jean de Luz after rescuing refugees trapped by the German Army (Operation Ariel), when Fraser was rammed by Calcutta in the Gironde estuary. Struck forward of the bridge by the Cruiser's bow, Fraser was cut in half and sank immediately. All but 45 of the ship's crew were rescued by Restigouche and other nearby ships. Many of the survivors from Fraser transferred that later summer to HMCS Margaree, and were lost when that vessel sank on October 22nd 1940 as a result of a collision with the freighter MV Port Fairy.

[ivorthediver]

A noble ship so sadly removed by such a sad event , looking splendid in a picture like this , as did so many of her kind