HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400)
HMCS Bras d'Or at the Musée maritime du Québec, L'Islet-sur-Mer
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| History | |
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 Canada
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| Namesake: | Bras d'Or Lake |
| Ordered: | 1960 |
| Builder: | Marine Industries Limited, Sorel-Tracy, Quebec |
| Laid down: | 1963 |
| Launched: | 12 July 1968 |
| Commissioned: | 23 July 1968 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 November 1971 |
| Status: | Museum ship |
| Badge: | Azure, issuing from a base barry wavy of four argent and azure, an arm embowed or, the hand grasping a pheon-headed spear in bend sinister pointed to the dexter argent |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Hydrofoil |
| Displacement: | 240 t (236 long tons) |
| Length: | 49.95 m (163 ft 11 in) |
| Beam: | 66 ft (20 m) main foil span |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 60 knots (110 km/h; 69 mph) |
| Range: |
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| Complement: | 25 (7 officers, 6 petty officers, 12 men) |
| Armament: | None |
HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400) was a hydrofoil that served in the Canadian Forces from 1968 to 1971. During sea trials in 1969, the vessel exceeded 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph), making her the fastest unarmed warship in the world.
The vessel was originally built from 1960 to 1967 for the Royal Canadian Navy, as a project for the testing of anti-submarine warfare technology on an ocean-going hydrofoil. The RCN was replaced on 1 February 1968 by the unified Canadian Armed Forces, and Bras d'Or was commissioned into that service several months later. Changes in priorities and cost overruns later led to the project's cancellation.
Bras d'Or was named in honour of Bras d'Or Lake on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, where inventor Alexander Graham Bell performed hydrofoil experiments in the early 20th century near his estate and new laboratory at Beinn Bhreagh, setting the world watercraft speed record in the process. In 1909 the lake was also the historic site of the first flight of an aircraft in Canada and the British Commonwealth; the airplane, named the Silver Dart, was built by the Aerial Experiment Association under Dr. Bell's tutelage. The lake's name was thus fitting for a hydrofoil vessel which could 'fly' above an ocean's surface.
A combined Anglo-Canadian study (RCN and British Admiralty) into the use of hydrofoils for anti-submarine work and coastal patrol craft began post Second World War. This led to a 17-tonne prototype, the R-103, built by Saunders-Roe in the UK, and sea-trialled in Canada. That experimental craft resulted in the foil configuration used for Bras d'Or.
Bras d'Or was the third vessel to bear that name (see below + B-119 ex PT-3 during World War II under lend-lease) and was built at Marine Industries Limited (MIL) in Sorel, Quebec, the primary contractor being de Havilland Canada, an aircraft company. The Principal Naval Overseer was Commander Donald Clark, CD, RCN, who initiated the project on completion and launch of HMCS Nipigon in 1964. The hull was built upside down out of aluminum and rotated on 22 January 1966 when it was complete. The foil system was constructed from maraging steel.
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Wikipedia