HMS Cygnet ( H83 ) HMS " Cygnet " ( H83 ) 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 . Design and construction . " Cygnet " displaced at standard load and at deep load . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines , driving two shafts , which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3 - drum water - tube boilers . " Cygnet " carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ship ' s complement was 145 officers and men . The ship mounted four 45 - calibre 4 . 7 - inch Mk IX guns in single mounts , designated ' A ' , ' B ' , ' X ' , and ' Y ' from front to rear . For anti - aircraft ( AA ) defence , " Cygnet " had a single QF 3 - inch 20 cwt AA gun between her funnels , and two QF 2 - pounder Mk II AA guns mounted on the aft end of her forecastle deck . The AA gun was removed in 1936 and the 2 - pounders were relocated to between the funnels . She was fitted with two above - water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21 - inch torpedoes . Three depth - charge chutes were fitted , each with a capacity of two depth charge s . After World War II began this was increased to 33 depth charges , delivered by one or two rails and two throwers . The ship was ordered on 15 July 1930 from Vickers - Armstrongs , Barrow - in - Furness under the 1929 Programme . " Cygnet " was laid down on 1 December 1930 , launched on 29 September 1931 , as the 14th ship to carry the name , and completed on 1 April 1932 . Service history . After the ship commissioned on 9 April 1932 , she was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet . " Cygnet " spent a lot of time in dockyard hands during her first two years of service . She was repaired at Devonport in November 1932 – January 1933 , March – May , July – August and November 1933 – January 1934 before deploying to the West Indies with the Home Fleet between January and March 1934 . The ship required more repairs upon her return in April – May and then a refit from 25 July to 31 August 1934 . " Cygnet " was detached from the Home Fleet during the Abyssinian Crisis , and deployed in the Red Sea from September 1935 to April 1936 . The ship returned to the UK in April 1936 and refitted at Devonport between 20 April and 18 June before resuming duty with the Home Fleet . In July – August she was deployed for patrol duties off the Spanish coast in the Bay of Biscay to intercept shipping carrying contraband goods to Spain and to protect British - flagged shipping during the first stages of the Spanish Civil War . Transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy . Together with her sister , " Cygnet " was sold to Canada on 20 October 1936 for a total price of £400 , 000 . She was refitted again to meet Canadian standards , including the installation of Type 124 ASDIC , and handed over on 1 February 1937 . The ship was renamed as HMCS " St . Laurent " and commissioned into the RCN on 17 February . " St . Laurent " was assigned to Halifax , Nova Scotia and arrived there in May . She remained there for a year before she was transferred to Esquimalt in 1938 . The ship remained there until she was ordered to the East Coast on 31 August 1939 , arriving at Halifax on 18 September . " St . Laurent " escorted local convoys while based there , including the convoy carrying half of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to the UK on 10 December . The ship was ordered to Plymouth on 24 May 1940 and arrived there on 31 May . Upon arrival , the ship ' s rear torpedo tube mount was removed and replaced by a 12 - pounder AA gun and the 2 - pounders were exchanged for quadruple Mark I mounts for the QF 0 . 5 - inch Vickers Mark III machine gun . On 9 June , " St . Laurent " was ordered to Le Havre , France to evacuate British troops , but none were to be found and the ship evacuated a small group of French soldiers further up the coast on 11 June . The ship was taken under fire by a German artillery battery near Saint - Valery - en - Caux , but she was not hit and Lieutenant Commander H . G . DeWolf , the ship ' s captain , ordered her to return fire although no results were noted . After returning to England , " St . Laurent " escorted several troop convoys on the last legs of their journeys from Canada , Australia and New Zealand in mid - June and was assigned to escort duties with Western Approaches Command afterwards . On 2 July , whilst escorting the British battleship , " St . Laurent " received word that the unescorted British passenger ship had been torpedoed by , about northeast of Malin Head , Ireland . Arriving some four and a half hours after the ocean liner sank , the ship rescued 857 survivors , including German and Italian prisoners of war . Together with the British sloop , she badly damaged the whilst defending Convoy HX 60 on 4 August . On 2 December , " St . Laurent " rescued survivors from the armed merchant cruiser that had been torpedoed and sunk by as well survivors from the British oil tanker " Conch " . After refitting at Halifax from 3 March to 11 July 1941 , " St . Laurent " was assigned to the 14th Escort Group of the RCN ' s Newfoundland Escort Force which covered convoys in the Mid - Atlantic . Whilst escorting Convoy ON 33 in November in a gale , the ship was damaged severely enough by the weather that she was forced to return to Halifax for repairs . " St . Laurent " was transferred to the Mid - Ocean Escort Force in December and remained until March 1943 . She was given a lengthy refit at Halifax in April – August 1942 . In early December 1942 , the ship ' s director - control tower and rangefinder were exchanged for a Type 271 target indication radar mounted above the bridge . By this time , she had been fitted with a high - frequency direction finding system as well . Whilst assigned to Escort Group C1 defending Convoy ON 154 in late December 1942 , " St . Laurent " had her first victory on 27 December 1942 when she was credited with sinking while north of the Azores . The ship was refitted in Dartmouth , Nova Scotia between 17 August and December 1943 . On 10 March 1944 , " St . Laurent " was credited with sinking in the North Atlantic , along with the destroyer , and frigate s and . The other changes made to the ship ' s armament during the war ( exactly when these occurred is unknown ) included the replacement of ' B ' gun by a Hedgehog anti - submarine spigot mortar , exchanging the two quadruple . 50 - calibre Vickers machine guns mounted between her funnels for two Oerlikon 20 mm AA guns , the addition of two Oerlikon guns to her searchlight platform and another pair were fitted on the wings of her bridge , and the removal of her 12 - pounder AA gun . Type 286 short - range surface search radar was also added . ' Y ' gun was also removed to allow her depth charge stowage to be increased to at least 60 depth charges . In May 1944 she was transferred to the 11th Escort Group to support the Allied landings in Normandy . On D - Day itself – 6 June 1944 – she was deployed with the Canadian destroyers , , and stationed in the entrance to the English Channel to prevent U - boat attacks on the invasion convoys . Later she was deployed with her group in the Bay of Biscay for anti - submarine operations . On 8 August she was unsuccessfully attacked by a glide bomb , and on the 13th she and " Ottawa " rescued survivors from which had been sunk with depth charges by a Sunderland aircraft . These duties continued into October , when she returned to Canada to refit . Conducted at Shelburne , Nova Scotia , the refit lasted from November 1944 to 20 March 1945 . " St . Laurent " returned to service in April 1945 , and was attached to the Halifax Escort Force for convoy defence off the east coast . After the German surrender on 6 May , she was employed as a troop transport , until paid off on 10 October 1945 . The ship was sold for scrap and broken up in 1947 .