page_title: Battle-class trawler
section_title: Second World War and fate
hierarchical_section_title: Battle-class trawler / Construction and service / Second World War and fate
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial photograph of British battleship HMS Revenge underway at sea.
context_page_description: The Battle-class trawlers were a class of naval trawlers built for and used by the Royal Canadian Navy during the First World War. Between the wars, some remained in RCN service, but most were transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries, where they performed a number of functions, including working as lightships and fisheries patrol vessels. During the Second World War, a number of these trawlers were re-acquired by the RCN, but all the navy's Battle-class trawlers were decommissioned soon after the war. A number of the class remained in civilian government and commercial service for years after the war, although most had been disposed of by the early 1960s.
context_section_description: By 1939, only one Battle-class trawler, Armentières, remained in active naval service, although Festubert was in reserve and Ypres had just emerged from a refit to become a gate vessel for Halifax's anti-submarine defences. During 1939, the RCN re-acquired five other members of the class: Arleux, Arras, Loos, and St. Eloi on the east coast, and Givenchy on the west coast. The east coast trawlers served primarily as gate vessels at Nova Scotia ports including Halifax and Sydney. In 1940, the British battleship HMS Revenge accidentally rammed and sank Ypres, but without loss of life. On the west coast, Armentières served as an examination vessel, while Givenchy served primarily as an accommodation ship.
  Following the Second World War, the trawlers that had served with the RCN were soon decommissioned and either sold or returned to civilian government service. Many were broken up in the 1950s or otherwise disposed of in the early 1960s, although two (Armentières and St. Julien) were still in existence in the 1970s, and their final fates remain unclear.
caption: HMS Revenge underway
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