Destroyer of the Town class
| Navy | The Royal Canadian Navy |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Class | Town |
| Pennant | I 65 |
| Built by | Union Iron Works (San Francisco, California, U.S.A.) |
| Ordered | |
| Laid down | 25 Mar, 1918 |
| Launched | 4 Jul, 1918 |
| Commissioned | 24 Sep, 1940 |
| End service | 23 Aug, 1944 |
| Loss position | |
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| History | USS Williams (DD 108) was renamed HMCS St. Clair (I.65) her name commemorating the river which forms the boundary between Michigan and Ontario the destroyer was fitted out for convoy escort duties and sailed for Britain on 30 November, in company with HMCS St. Croix and HMCS Niagara. Operating with the Clyde Escort force, St. Clair escorted convoys in and out of the heavily travelled "western approaches" to the British Isles in the spring of 1941. Late in May, when the German battleship Bismark and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen slipped through the Denmark Straits the old destroyer became involved in the effort to destroy the German battleship. Eventually, a British force located and sank Bismarck on 27 May but not before the tragic loss of the battle cruiser HMS Hood on 24 May. HMCS St. Clair, near the battle area, came under air attack by German long-range bombers. The old destroyer doggedly put up a good defense shooting at least one enemy plane. St. Clair subsequently joined the Newfoundland Escort Force after this group's establishment in June 1941 and operated on convoy escort missions between Newfoundland and Reykjavik, Iceland, through the end of 1941. St. Clair was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force following repairs at St. John, New Brunswick, in early 1942, and operated out of Halifax over the next two years escorting coastwise convoys until withdrawn from this service in 1943 due to her deteriorating condition. Operating as a submarine depot ship at Halifax until deemed unfit for further duty on 23 August 1944 when she was decommissioned. St. Clair was used as a fire-fighting and damage control hulk until 1946. She was handed over to the War Assets Corp. for disposal on 6 October 1946. St. Clair was subsequently broken up for scrap. |
| Former name | USS Williams (DD 108) |
| Noteable events involving St. Clair include: 17 Jan, 1942
The norwegian tanker Nyholt is torpedoed and sunk about 180 nautical miles south of Cape Race in position 45º46'N, 54º18'W by the German submarine U-87. HMCS St. Clair (Lt.Cdr. D.C. Wallace, RCNR) later picks up 23 survivors (two of these died later). |
