HMCS Brandon
Several Canadian naval units have been named HMCS Brandon.
Battle honours
References
HMCS Brandon (K149)
HMCS Brandon was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She saw service primarily in the Battle of the Atlantic as an ocean escort. She was named for Brandon, Manitoba.
Background
Flower-class corvettes like Brandon serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were different from earlier and more traditional sail-driven corvettes. The "corvette" designation was created by the French as a class of small warships; the Royal Navy borrowed the term for a period but discontinued its use in 1877. During the hurried preparations for war in the late 1930s, Winston Churchill reactivated the corvette class, needing a name for smaller ships used in an escort capacity, in this case based on a whaling ship design. The generic name "flower" was used to designate the class of these ships, which – in the Royal Navy – were named after flowering plants.
Corvettes commissioned by the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were named after communities for the most part, to better represent the people who took part in building them. This idea was put forth by Admiral Percy W. Nelles. Sponsors were commonly associated with the community for which the ship was named. Royal Navy corvettes were designed as open sea escorts, while Canadian corvettes were developed for coastal auxiliary roles which was exemplified by their minesweeping gear. Eventually the Canadian corvettes would be modified to allow them to perform better on the open seas.
HMCS Brandon (MM 710)
HMCS Brandon is a Kingston-class coastal defence vessel that has served in the Canadian Forces since 1999.
Brandon is the eleventh ship of her class which is the name for the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Project. She is the second vessel to use the name HMCS Brandon.
Brandon was laid down on 6 December 1997 at Halifax Shipyards Ltd., Halifax and was launched on 10 July 1998. She was officially commissioned into the CF on 5 June 1999 and carries the pennant number 710.
She is assigned to Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) and is homeported at CFB Esquimalt.
Design and Construction
The Kingston-class coastal defence vessel was conceived to use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment and construction techniques in a ship designed to military specifications. The construction of the design required the building of partially outfitted steel block units, which were assembled into larger blocks and those blocks were integrated into the ship. The decks were assembled upside down with pre-outfitting of the underside of the deck prior to installation on the ship. The ship is outfitted with a degaussing system from Power Magnetics and Electronic Systems.
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