The Navy has finally blown “secure” for HMCS Iroquois.  The grand old gal will head for mothball retirement this December after 20 years under the White Ensign.  She was the first of the Tribal Class destroyers to join the RCN, and one of the best known.

 Iroquois was in action within months of commissioning in late 1942.  She picked up 628 survivors when Nazis sank the troop ships California and Duchess of York off the coast of Portugal. She shivered on the Murmansk convoy run and saw more than her share of action there, then joined forces with RN ships for channel raids, playing a major part in sinking 15 German ships. Crown Prince Olaf of Norway was escorted back to Oslo at the war’s end by Iroquois, then she was revamped in Canadian dockyards as an anti-submarine ship.

Korea In 1952

 Iroquois sailed for Korea in 1952 and became the first RCN ship to sustain casualties in the Korean War when three of her men were killed by shore batteries during a bombardment.

 She sailed into Halifax this week after her last cruise – a courtesy call to Newfoundland.  Her 200 officers and men will join other ships of the fleet.

 As she sails out of Halifax for the last time heading for Sydney, N.S., and mothballs, you’ll be bound to hear the odd World War II Tribal veteran hum a few bars from The Song of the Tribals . . .
 
 “You’ll get ‘no secure’ in this two-funnelled sewer, so cheer up my lads, bless ‘em all”.