Canadian River class destroyer
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| Class overview | |
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| Operators: |
 Royal Canadian Navy
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| In service: | 1931–1945 |
| Completed: | 14 |
| Lost: | 4 |
| General characteristics Saguenay & Skeena | |
| Displacement: | 1,337 tons |
| Length: | 320 ft (98 m) |
| Propulsion: | 32,000 shp (24,000 kW) |
| Speed: | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Notes: | Other characteristics as per A-class destroyer |
The River class was a class of fourteen destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) that served before and during the Second World War. They were named after Canadian rivers.
The River class was a dissimilar collection of warships, consisting of twelve vessels purchased from the Royal Navy and two built specifically by British yards for the RCN. They included two A class, five C class, two D class, one E class, two F class, one G class and one H class.
HMCS Saguenay and HMCS Skeena were the first ships specifically built for the RCN and were adapted from the Royal Navy's A class.
The majority of the River-class ships began the Second World War with the same equipment that they were built with; however, this was gradually modified as the war progressed. Modifications included removing gun mounts to make room for additional depth charge and torpedo systems, as well as adding new communications and radar masts. The River class were the backbone of the RCN destroyer fleet and served as leaders of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force during the Battle of the Atlantic. Four of the class were lost and one severely damaged during the war: HMCS Fraser and HMCS Margaree were sunk by collisions in 1940; HMCS Ottawa was torpedoed by U-91 in 1942, and Skeena was driven aground on Viðey Island near Reykjavík, Iceland in 1944. Saguenay lost much of her stern in a November 1942 collision, and was subsequently relegated to training duties. The surviving ships were all decommissioned and scrapped following the war.
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