The ‘Park’ and ‘Fort’ ships

Several Canadian communities are known as Avondale, including one near Pictou, Nova Scotia, where the Avondale Park was built. This merchant vessel taken under charter by the British Ministry of War Transport to support the Allied landings in Normandy was to become the last British ship sunk in the Second World War. On May 7, 1945, a torpedo struck the Avondale Park while it was sailing in a coastal convoy off the coast of Scotland. She sank in less than ten minutes and two crew lost their lives.

Launched as H.M.S. Flamborough Head, she was one of twenty-one vessels built in Canada as a version of the Fort class of ships modified to be naval maintenance and repair vessels for Britain’s Royal Navy. In 1953, she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed Cape Breton. For several decades thereafter she served numerous functions, including as a training craft and escort maintenance ship, first on the East then West Coast. After being sold to the Artificial Reef Society in 1999, her hull was scuttled off the coast of Nanaimo, British Columbia, as a scuba diving site. The Cape Breton was Canada’s last remaining Second World War Fort class ship. She was named for the Nova Scotia island of the same name, today home to Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the world-famous Cabot Trail.

Fort Anne’s wartime service exemplifies the dangers faced by merchant vessels as they traveled the world’s seas transporting vital cargo. Sailing as part of a convoy in May 1943, Fort Anne was struck and damaged when the convoy came under attack by German U-boat 414 in Mediterranean waters off the coast of Algeria. She was towed safely into port and repaired without loss of life, her captain being named Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his courage and leadership. In 1947 Fort Anne was returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission after being on charter to the British Ministry of War Transport, and was later scrapped in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1958. Her namesake is the seventeenth century star-shaped fort in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, which became Canada’s first national historic site when acquired in 1917.

Built in the Marine Industries Limited shipyard at Sorel, Quebec, Fort Beausejour was owned by the Government of the Dominion of Canada during the war but chartered to Britain. She was managed by Sir R. Ropner & Company Limited. Following the war, she changed hands and names several times before being scrapped in 1967. Her wartime name celebrated the star-shaped fort built by the French in 1755 in Aulac, New Brunswick. Located along the border with Nova Scotia, the fort played a role during struggles for empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was designated a national historic site in 1920.

Fort Langley was finished as a stores-issuing ship. She was one of nine Victory-type vessels built by West Coast shipyards for the Royal Navy fleet train in the Pacific war to supply the warships with fuel, ammunition and supplies. Stores-issuing ships underwent alterations to their design, including modifications to the number of decks, auxiliary machinery and internal configuration, to accommodate their special purpose. Fort Langley in particular was equipped to issue aviation stores. Initially managed by Alfred Holt & Company Limited of Liverpool, England, in 1954 she was transferred to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). Her namesake Fort Langley, today a National Historic Site, began as a nineteenth century Hudson’s Bay trading post and witnessed the birth of British Columbia when the act creating this colony was proclaimed at the fort in 1858.

Fort Louisbourg is a reminder that merchant ships were under constant threat, and not just from enemy torpedoes. While docked in London, England, in January 1944, she was damaged by aircraft bombs. This air attack was part of a larger four month bombing campaign, which began in January 1944, dubbed “Baby Blitz” in Britain and known as “Operation Steinbock” to the Nazis. At least one crew member, Thomas W. Wilson, the ship’s donkeyman responsible for the engine room, was killed. Following the war, Fort Louisbourg was returned to the United States Maritime Commission after being chartered to Britain and was placed in their reserve fleets later to be scrapped in Baltimore, Maryland. Her namesake is the eighteenth-century French fortress on Cape Breton Island which was at the centre of the struggle for empire between French and British forces.

Named for the oldest continuously inhabited community in British Columbia and now a national historic site of Canada, the Fort St. James was the second Fort ship delivered by a Canadian yard and the first to be built in British Columbia. Launched in October 1941 and purchased directly by the British government, she survived the war, and later sailed under private owners, initially as the Temple Bar. She was one of the longest serving Fort ships, registered to Chinese owners until 1991.

Once completed, Kootenay Park was managed by the Canadian-Australasian Line Limited of Vancouver until 1946 when she was sold to Seaboard Shipping Limited of Vancouver and renamed Seaboard Pioneer. Her name was inspired from Kootenay National Park, established in 1920 in British Columbia. Home to the renowned Radium Hot Springs, the park extends 1,406 square kilometres/347,430 acres and forms part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Built, owned and crewed by Canadians, the 10,000 ton freighter Point Pleasant Park became a casualty of war on February 23, 1945 when she was struck and sunk by a torpedo and gunfire from German submarine U-510 off the coast of South Africa. The initial blow killed eight of the 58 crew immediately (another later died in a lifeboat) and trapped dozens more below decks. Freed from the flooding compartment, the survivors abandoned the doomed vessel and spent several days on rations while being exposed to harsh elements in three overcrowded lifeboats. Separated during a storm, one of the boats made landfall on an island before being rescued by a fishing vessel while two days later the rest of the crew were saved by a South African Navy trawler. Her namesake is the historic municipal park merchant and other ships sail past as they entered and departed Halifax Harbour, a vital port for the Allies during the war. Today, the Halifax Memorial commemorating Canadians and Newfoundlanders who died at sea in both World Wars, as well as the SS Point Pleasant Park Monument, are found in the park.

The Rockwood Park was a medium-sized cargo ship of the Gray type, capable of carrying a payload of 4,700 tons. Smaller than its more common 10,000-ton counterparts, this category of vessel was well suited for service to Canada, accommodating a small volume of goods and able to navigate shallow coastal waters, such as around Newfoundland and Labrador, but could, nevertheless, travel the deep seas. While serving as sailing master of Rockwood Park, Canadian Captain Edward Alfred LeBlanc was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1944 “for long, continued, faithful and arduous duty whilst serving at sea and in port,” and for navigating waters infested by enemy submarines over the course of the war. Rockwood Park was named for a city park at Saint John, New Brunswick, one of the largest urban parks in Canada.

During the war, Yoho Park’s nominated manager was the Canadian–Australasian Line Limited of Vancouver. She was later sold to the Western Canada Steamship Company Limited of Vancouver and renamed Lake Winnipeg then becoming Americana in the 1950s after being sold once again. Her namesake was British Columbia’s Yoho National Park, a 1,313 square kilometer/324,449 acre protected park established in 1886 in the Canadian Rockies whose name translates to the Cree expression of awe and wonder.