HMCS Levis (K115)
Encyclopedia
HMCS Lévis was a Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
which took part in convoy escort duties during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
She was laid down at Davie Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd.
Davie Shipbuilding
Davie Shipbuilding is a historic shipbuilding company located in Lauzon, Quebec. The facility has undergone restructuring and is currently operating as Davie Yards Incorporated.-History:...
, Lauzon
Lauzon, Quebec
Lauzon is a former city in southern Quebec, Canada, located on the St. Lawrence River northeast of Lévis. Founded in 1910, Lauzon had a population of about 14,500 when it merged with Lévis in 1989...
on 11 March 1940 and launched on 4 September of that year. She was commissioned into the RCN on 16 May 1941.
Her first and only commanding officer was Lieutenant Charles Walter Gilding RCNR.
Upon joining the fleet, Lévis was assigned to convoy escort duty in the Northwest Atlantic. Levis was part of the 19th Escort Group escorting convoy SC-44 when she was torpedoed at 0205 local time on 19 September 1941 by U-74 under the command of Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat
Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat
Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat was a Korvettenkapitän with the Kriegsmarine during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
east of Cape Farewell
Cape Farewell, Greenland
Cape Farewell , is a headland on the southern shore of Egger Island, Greenland. Located at it is the southernmost extent of Greenland, projecting out into the North Atlantic Ocean and the Labrador Sea on the same latitude as Stockholm and the Scottish Shetland Islands. Egger and the associated...
at position 60°07′N 38°37′W.
The explosion of the torpedo on the port side killed all but 2 of the ratings on the stokers' messdeck. Compartments up to the No. 2 bulkhead were flooded. The surviving crew abandoned ship to except for a damage control party of 10 officers and ratings. Mayflower took Lévis under tow for approximately 12 hours, however No. 2 bulkhead was buckled and not watertight and the ship sank at 1710 local time later that day. 91 crew were rescued and 18 were killed as a result of the torpedo attack. Lévis was the first Flower-class corvette to be sunk.