HMCS Athabaskan (R79)
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HMCS Athabaskan II as DDE219 © Canada, Department of National Defence |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 1940 |
| Laid down: | May 15, 1944 |
| Launched: | May 4, 1945 |
| Commissioned: | January 12, 1947 |
| Decommissioned: | |
| Fate: | sold for scrapping, 1969 |
| Struck: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,850 tons (standard), 2,520 tons (full) |
| Length: | 377 feet (114.9 m) |
| Beam: | 37.5 feet (11.4 m) |
| Draught: | 9 feet (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, steam turbines, 2 shafts, 44,000 shp |
| Speed: | 36 kt |
| Range: | 524 tons oil, 5,700 nm at 15 kt |
| Complement: | 190 (219 as leader) |
| Armament: | 8 - 4 in L/45 QF Mk.XVI, 4 x twin mounting HA Mk.XIX
1 x twin 40 mm Bofors mount Mk.V |
| Aircraft: | N/A |
| Motto: | We Fight as One |
| Battle Honours: | Korea 1950-53 |
HMCS Athabaskan (R79) was the second destroyer of the Canadian Navy to bear the name Athabaskan after the many tribes throughout western Canada that speak Athabaskan family languages. Its pennant was later changed to DDE219. Both this ship and the original Athabaskan were Tribal class destroyers and thus the latter became known as the Athabaskan II.
On February 26, 1949, when the Athabaskan was on fuelling stop at Manzanillo, Mexico, ninety Leading Seamen and below - constituting more than half the ship's company - locked themselves in their messdecks, and refused to come out until getting the captain to hear their grievances.
The captain acted with great sensitivity to defuse the crisis, entering the mess for an informal discussion of the sailors' grievances and carefully avoiding using the term "mutiny" which could have had severe legal consequences for the sailors involved.
Specifically, while talking with the disgruntled crew members, the captain is known to have placed his cap over a written list of demands which could have been used as legal evidence of a mutiny, pretending not to notice it.
At nearly the same time, similar incidents happened on Crescent at Nanjing, China and on the carrier Magnificent in the Caribbean, both of whose captains acted similarly to that of the Athabaskan.[1]
