HMCS Nootka (R96)

The Tribal class were ordered by the Canadian Naval Staff's intent to build a stronger, permanent force.[2] The Tribals were designed to fight heavily armed destroyers of other navies, such as the Japanese Fubuki class.[3] Canada chose the design based on its armament, with the size and power of the Tribal class allowing them to act more like small cruisers than as fleet destroyers.[4] The Naval Staff intended to order the construction of a flotilla of Tribals, with two under construction every year. However, due to war demands, British yards could not accommodate such a request. Therefore, it was decided that Canadian shipyards would construct the second batch of Tribals.[5] They were ordered with modified ventilation and heating systems for North Atlantic winter service. Design modifications were made after deficiencies were noted in Iroquois, the lead ship of the Canadian Tribals. Canadian Tribals were a foot longer than their British counterparts and carried an auxiliary boiler for heating and additional power requirements.[6]

During construction delays soon began due to a shortage of skilled labour and engineering personnel. Furthermore, on the first batch, Micmac and Nootka, there was a shortage of high-quality steel in Canada required in the construction of destroyers. The steel was imported from the United States. By the time the second batch of Canadian-built Tribals, Cayuga and the second Athabaskan, began construction, Canada was capable of providing the steel.[7]

Nootka was ordered as part of the 1942–43 building programme by the RCN in June 1941.[12] The second Tribal to be constructed in Canada, the ship's keel was laid down on 20 May 1942 at Halifax Shipyards in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[18][19] Construction of the ship was slowed by a shortage of skilled labour and engineering personnel. By the end of 1943, Nootka's construction was several months behind schedule. This delayed the construction of the fourth Canadian-built Tribal as there were only two slips at Halifax capable of building the destroyers. Further delays were caused by the contractor for the ships' boilers ad engines, John Inglis Company. The contractor had been overwhelmed by the complexity of the design and the engines for the first Canadian Tribal, Micmac arrived only one full year after the ship's launch.[20] Nootka was christened by Miss R. Gallant, a shipyard employee and named for the Nuu-chah-nulth people, formerly called the "Nootka", an aboriginal people of the Canadian Pacific Coast.[21] The destroyer was launched on 26 April 1944 and commissioned into the RCN on 7 August 1946, performing sea trials off of Halifax.[19][22]

After commissioning, Nootka served as a training ship for the Atlantic Fleet. She was one of the ships assigned to take part in Operation Scuttled, the training exercise designed to sink U-190, a German U-boat that had surrendered to the RCN at the end of the Second World War. However, before Nootka and her fellow ships could find the range on the submarine, the aircraft of the Naval Air Arm successfully attacked the vessel and sank her. In September 1948, she joined the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent and sister ship HMCS Haida on a training cruise to the Ungava Peninsula in Quebec. There the two destroyers left the aircraft carrier and toured the north, visiting Churchill, Manitoba, becoming the first RCN warships to penetrate Hudson Bay.[23][24] She remained as a training vessel until her conversion to a destroyer escort after being paid off on 15 August 1949.

RFA Wave Sovereign replenishing HMS Ocean and HMCS Nootka off Korea, 1952

During the Korean War, Canada rotated its destroyers in and out of the theatre. Nootka departed from Halifax on 25 November 1950 and transited the Panama Canal for the first of two tours of duty. On her first tour, she relieved HMCS Sioux, taking her place as one of the three Canadian destroyers assigned to the region. On 25 January, she was sent for shore bombardment duties in the Inchon area in January and was fired upon by Communist guns. For the first three months of 1951, the three Canadian destroyers in theatre spent the majority of their time screening aircraft carriers and performing inshore patrols. On 16 March 1950 she became the Senior Officer's Ship for the Canadian force in the theatre, replacing Cayuga. In early April 1951, Nootka was assigned to the west coast blockade patrol. On 13–14 May, Nootka captured two junks, five sampans and 28 prisoners after encountering a Chinese fishing fleet off the west coast. Later in May, the destroyer transferred to the east coast, performing bombardment, aircraft carrier screening and patrol missions. Nootka sailed for home on 20 July, replaced by Cayuga.[25]

Her second tour in Korean waters took place from 12 February 1952 until 9 February 1952. Nootka was assigned to the Island Campaign on the west coast, supporting guerrillas and Republic of Korea troops in the islands around Chodo. The ship took part in the Island Campaign in the Haeju region in March. For the majority of 1952, Nootka supported the Island campaign off the west coast. During one inshore patrol around the islands on 26 September, Nootka sank a North Korean minelaying junk, rescuing its crew of five.[26] She returned to Halifax on 17 December 1952 via the Mediterranean Sea, having become the second Canadian warship to circumnavigate the globe and the first destroyer to do so by the Suez Canal.[19][27] Nootka underwent further conversion and modernization in 1953–1954 and resumed training duties with the Atlantic Fleet. In January 1958, Nootka collided with HMCS Algonquin while operating in the Atlantic with the First Canadian Escort Squadron.[28] She participated in the massive RCN deployment for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962; Nootka was assigned a patrol area off the northern tip of Cuba during the crisis.

In summer 1963, Nootka joined Haida for a tour of the Great Lakes. Her last deployment was for a NATO exercise in Bermuda in fall 1963 where she sustained hull damage while docking in strong winds. She was temporarily patched and returned to Halifax and was decommissioned at Halifax on 6 February 1964. She was scrapped at Faslane, Scotland in 1965.[19]

• Arbuckle, J. Graeme (1987). Badges of the Canadian Navy. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 0-920852-49-1.
• Boutiller, James A., ed. (1982). RCN in Retrospect, 1910–1968. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0196-4.
• Brown, David K. (2012). Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923–1945. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-149-6.
• Chappelle, Dean (January 1995). "Building a Bigger Stick: The Construction of Tribal Class Destroyers in Canada 1940–1948". The Northern Mariner. V (1). ISSN 1183-112X.
• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Friedman, Norman (2006). British Destroyers and Frigates, the Second World War and After. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-86176-137-6.
• Gardiner, Robert; Chumbley, Stephen & Budzbon, Przemysław, eds. (1995). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-132-7.
• Gimblett, Richard H., ed. (2009). The Naval Service of Canada 1910–2010: The Centennial Story. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55488-470-4.
• Hodges, Peter (1971). Tribal class destroyers: Royal Navy and Commonwealth. Surrey, UK: Almark Publications. ISBN 0-85524-047-4.
• Macpherson, Ken & Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–2002 (Third ed.). St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing. ISBN 1-55125-072-1.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Thorgrimsson, Thor & Russell, E.C. (1965). Canadian Naval Operations in Korean Waters 1950–1955. Ottawa: King's Printer. OCLC 5285395.
• Tucker, Gilbert Norman (1952). The Naval Service of Canada, Its Official History – Volume 2: Activities on Shore During the Second World War. Ottawa: King's Printer. OCLC 4346983.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.