Navy Week: HMCS Ville de Quebec

The HMCS Ville de Quebec delivered 79.2 million pounds of food and relief supplies to Somalia in 2008.

The HMCS Ville de Quebec is among the vessels scheduled to visit Toledo during Navy week.


Built: 1993, Lauzon, Quebec.

Commissioned: 1994.

Type of vessel: Frigate.

Engines: One diesel engine and two gas turbines.

Home port: Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Normal operating area: North Atlantic Ocean and environs.

Crew: 225 (officers and enlisted).

Capabilities and equipment: Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Ville de Quebec is one of 12 Halifax-class frigates in the Royal Canadian Navy. It is equipped with advanced weapons and sensor systems designed to detect, track, and engage hostile air, surface, and submarine forces. Its diesel engine provides for economical cruising operations, while the gas-turbine engines permit operation speeds as high as 30 knots (about 35 mph). Weaponry includes two different types of missiles, torpedoes, and 20-millimeter and 57-millimeter guns.

Other information: The Ville de Quebec's recent missions include fisheries patrols on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, including multinational task group exercises and a major joint exercise off Nova Scotia. In 2009, it provided marine surveillance throughout a meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2008, its missions included escorting cargo vessels through pirate-infested waters between Kenya and Somalia to deliver food and relief supplies to Somalia. Vessels escorted by the Ville de Quebec delivered 79.2 million pounds of food to Somalia. And in 2005, the vessel assisted with relief efforts along the United States Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

Origins of name: The frigate shares its name with a corvette, or convoy escort, that at various times during World War II worked in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and English Channel, including providing support for the Allied invasions of North Africa and Europe. The highlight of the original Ville de Quebec's wartime service was a Jan. 13, 1943, encounter with an enemy submarine in the Mediterranean, which it flushed out with depth charges, then rammed and sank the sub when it surfaced.