HMCS Bonaventure

HMCS Bonaventure in 1961
History
Canada
Name:	Bonaventure
Namesake:	Bonaventure Island
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Laid down:	27 November 1943
Launched:	27 February 1945
Acquired:	23 April 1952
Commissioned:	17 January 1957
Decommissioned:	3 July 1970
Homeport:	Halifax, Nova Scotia
Motto:	Nos Toz Seus (Not for us alone)
Nickname(s):	"Bonnie"
Fate:	Broken up in Taiwan 1971
Badge:	On a field barry wavy of ten argent and azure a horseshoe with base or in which a wyvern wings displayed gules gorged with a coronet of Canada
General characteristics
Class and type:	Majestic-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	normal: 16,000 tonnes full load: 19,920 tonnes
Length:	waterline: 629.9 ft (192.0 m) flight deck: 704 ft (215 m)
Beam:	79.9 ft (24.4 m) deck width: 112.5 ft (34.3 m)
Draught:	24.5 ft (7.5 m)
Propulsion:	Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines, four Admiralty 3-drum type 350 psi (2.4 MPa) boilers, two shafts; 40,000 hp (30,000 kW)
Speed:	24.5 knots (45.4 km/h)
Complement:	1,200 (1,370 war)
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-10 surface search AN/SPS-12 air search SPS-8 height finder
Armament:	4 × 3 inch (76 mm) 50 twin mounts 8 × Bofors 40 mm guns
Aircraft carried:	34 including McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee jet fighters Grumman CS2F Tracker ASW Sikorsky HO4S ASW helicopters Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King ASW helicopter

HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22) was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and the successor Canadian Forces Maritime Command from 1957 to 1970 and was the third and the last aircraft carrier to serve Canada's military. The ship was laid down for the British Royal Navy as HMS Powerful in November 1943 but work was suspended in 1946 following the end of the Second World War. At the time of purchase, the Canadian Navy made it a requirement that new aircraft carrier technologies be incorporated into the design. Bonaventure never saw combat during her career; however, she was involved in major NATO fleet-at-sea patrol during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

As HMS Powerful she was laid down at Harland and Wolff in Belfast on 21 November 1943, and launched on 27 February 1945. Work was suspended following the end of the Second World War, and only resumed when it was bought by the Royal Canadian Navy in the early 1950s, which was looking to replace the Second World War–era light carrier HMCS Magnificent (another Majestic-class carrier), which had some deficiencies including not being able to operate newer jet age aircraft. Both the United States and Great Britain offered carriers for consideration and the incomplete HMS Powerful, a Majestic-class light fleet carrier, was purchased in 1952 from the Royal Navy on the condition that it be fitted with an angled flight deck, steam catapults and an optical landing system.

Bonaventure was named for Bonaventure Island, a bird sanctuary in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and was commissioned with the requested improvements into the Royal Canadian Navy on 17 January 1957. In 1966 the carrier began a mid-life refit in Quebec City which took 18 months and cost $11 million, both behind schedule and well over budget. Following the 1968 Unification of the Canadian Forces, and budget cuts, Bonaventure was decommissioned in Halifax, on 3 July 1970, and was scrapped in Taiwan in 1971. Components from Bonaventure's steam catapult were used to rebuild the catapult aboard Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, another Majestic-class carrier.

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Wikipedia