HMCS Toronto (FFE 319)
HMCS Toronto
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| History | |
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 Canada
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| Name: | Toronto |
| Namesake: | Toronto, Ontario |
| Ordered: | 1 February 1943 |
| Builder: | Davie Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd., Lauzon |
| Yard number: | 550 |
| Laid down: | 10 May 1943 |
| Launched: | 18 September 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 6 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 27 November 1945 |
| Identification: | pennant number: K538 |
| Recommissioned: | 26 November 1953 |
| Decommissioned: | 14 April 1956 |
| Reclassified: | Prestonian-class frigate |
| Identification: | pennant number: FFE 319 |
| Motto: | "Be worthy" |
| Honours and awards: |
Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1944 |
| Fate: | Transferred to Norway in 1956 as Garm |
| Badge: | Azure, a mural crown argent, masoned sable, surmounted by a beaver proper holding in the dexter paw a fid spike or |
 Norway
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| Name: | Garm |
| Namesake: | the Ragnarök hound Garmr |
| Acquired: | loaned 10 March 1956; purchased 1959 |
| Commissioned: | 1956 |
| Decommissioned: | 1977 |
| Renamed: | Valkyrien (1965) |
| Reclassified: | torpedo boat depot ship (1965) |
| Identification: | (as Garm) F315 |
| Fate: | sold 1977 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | River-class frigate |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | |
| Beam: | 36.5 ft (11.13 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft (2.74 m); 13 ft (3.96 m) (deep load) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp (4,100 kW) |
| Speed: |
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| Range: | 646 long tons (656 t; 724 short tons) oil fuel; |
| Complement: | 157 |
| Armament: |
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HMCS Toronto was a River-class frigate that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War and as a Prestonian-class frigate from 1953-1956. She was named for Toronto, Ontario. She was later acquired by the Royal Norwegian Navy and renamed Garm and then again in 1965 as HNoMS Valkyrien .
Toronto was ordered 1 February 1943 as Giffard (after Giffard, Quebec) as part of the 1943-1944 River-class building program. She was laid down on 10 May 1943 by Davie Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd. at Lauzon and launched 18 September 1943. Her name was changed to Toronto and she was commissioned into the RCN on 6 May 1944 with the pennant K538.
The River-class frigate was designed by William Reed of Smith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees. Originally called a "twin-screw corvette", its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with the Royal Navy at the time, including the Flower-class corvette. The first orders were placed by the Royal Navy in 1940 and the vessels were named for rivers in the United Kingdom, giving name to the class. In Canada they were named for towns and cities though they kept the same designation. The name "frigate" was suggested by Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles of the Royal Canadian Navy and was adopted later that year.
Improvements over the corvette design included improved accommodation which was markedly better. The twin engines gave only three more knots of speed but extended the range of the ship to nearly double that of a corvette at 7,200 nautical miles (13,300 km) at 12 knots. Among other lessons applied to the design was an armament package better designed to combat U-boats including a twin 4-inch mount forward and 12-pounder aft. 15 Canadian frigates were initially fitted with a single 4-inch gun forward but with the exception of the HMCS Valleyfield, they were all eventually upgraded to the double mount. For underwater targets, the River-class frigate was equipped with a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar and depth charge rails aft and four side-mounted throwers.
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Wikipedia