HMS Cygnet (H83)

St Laurent, 20 August 1941
History
United Kingdom
Name	Cygnet
Namesake	Cygnet
Ordered	9 July 1930
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow
Yard number	667
Laid down	1 December 1930
Launched	29 September 1931
Completed	1 April 1932
Decommissioned	30 September 1936
Identification	Pennant number: H83
Fate	Sold to the Royal Canadian Navy, 1 February 1937
Canada
Name	St. Laurent
Namesake	St. Lawrence River
Acquired	1 February 1937
Commissioned	17 February 1937
Decommissioned	10 October 1945
Identification	Pennant number: H83
Honours and awards	Atlantic 1939-45 Normandy 1944
Fate	Scrapped in 1947
General characteristics
Class and type	C-class destroyer
Displacement	1,375 long tons (1,397 t) (standard) 1,865 long tons (1,895 t) (deep)
Length	329 ft (100.3 m) o/a
Beam	33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught	12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Installed power	36,000 shp (27,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Speed	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	145
Armament	4 × 1 - QF 4.7-inch Mk IX guns 1 × 1 - QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun 2 × 1 - QF 2-pounder Mk II AA guns 2 × 4 - 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 × depth charges, 3 chutes

HMS Cygnet was a C-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Home Fleet, although she was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36. Cygnet was sold to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in late 1937 and renamed HMCS St. Laurent. She was stationed on the west coast of Canada when World War II began in September 1939, and had to be transferred to the Atlantic coast for convoy escort duties. She served as a convoy escort in the Battle of the Atlantic and participated in the sinking of two German submarines. The ship was on anti-submarine patrols during the invasion of Normandy, and was employed as a troop transport after VE Day for returning Canadian servicemen. St. Laurent was decommissioned in late 1945 and scrapped in 1947.