HMS Kempenfelt ( I18 ) HMS " Kempenfelt " was a C - class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s . A flotilla leader , she saw service in the Home Fleet before World War II and the ship made several deployments to Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War , enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict . " Kempenfelt " was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy ( RCN ) in 1939 and renamed HMCS " Assiniboine " . During World War II , she served as a convoy escort in the battle of the Atlantic , sinking one German submarine by ramming , on anti - submarine patrols during the invasion of Normandy , and was employed as a troop transport after VE Day for returning Canadian servicemen , before being decommissioned in mid - 1945 . " Assiniboine " was sold for scrap in 1945 , but she ran aground while being towed to the breakers and was not broken up until 1952 . Design and construction . " Kempenfelt " 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 Yarrow water - tube boilers . " Kempenfelt " carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ship ' s complement was 175 officers and men . The ship mounted four 45 - calibre 4 . 7 - inch Mark IX guns in single mounts , designated ' A ' , ' B ' , ' X ' , and ' Y ' from front to rear . For anti - aircraft ( AA ) defence , " Kempenfelt " 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 changes made to " Assiniboine " s armament during the war ( dates can only be roughly assigned ) were first the replacement of the ship ' s rear torpedo tube mount by a 12 - pounder AA gun and the 2 - pounders were exchanged for quadruple Mark I mounts for the QF 0 . 5 - inch Vickers Mk III machine gun . Later , ' Y ' gun was also removed to allow her depth charge stowage to be increased to at least 60 depth charges . ' X ' gun was later removed and the 12 - pounder was resited in its place to further increased her depth charge capacity . Later changes included fitting a split Hedgehog anti - submarine spigot mortar on each side of ' A ' gun , exchanging her two quadruple . 50 - calibre Vickers machine guns mounted between her funnels for two Oerlikon 20 mm AA guns , and the addition of two Oerlikon guns to her searchlight platform . The ship ' s director - control tower and rangefinder above the bridge were removed in exchange for a Type 271 target indication radar . A Type 286 short - range surface search radar was also added as was a HF / DF radio direction finder on a short mainmast . The ship was ordered on 15 July 1930 from J . Samuel White at Cowes under the 1929 Programme . " Kempenfelt " was laid down on 18 October 1930 , launched on 30 September 1931 , as the 2nd ship to carry the name , and completed on 30 May 1932 . Built as a flotilla leader , she displaced 15 long tons more than the rest of her class and carried an extra 30 personnel . These personnel formed the staff of the Captain ( D ) of the flotilla . Service . " Kempenfelt " was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla , of the Home Fleet , after her commissioning . The ship briefly mounted an experimental gun on ' B ' mount for evaluation purposes during this time ; it was replaced by the standard 4 . 7 - inch gun . She was based at Rosyth for most of the rest of 1932 , but visited the Mediterranean between January and March 1933 before returning home . The ship was given a refit at Devonport that ended in January 1934 . Shortly afterwards , " Kempenfelt " participated in the Home Fleet ' s tour of the West Indies that ended in March . The ship visited various Scandinavian ports during the remainder of the year . She participated in King George V ' s Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead on 16 July 1935 . Following the Italian invasion of Abyssinia , " Kempenfelt " was sent in August to the Red Sea with the other ships of the 2nd Flotilla to monitor Italian warship movements until April 1936 . She was given a brief refit at Devonport that lasted until June upon her return to the UK . During the first stages of the Spanish Civil War in late 1936 , the ship evacuated British nationals from several different Spanish ports . In December , " Kempenfelt " began a more thorough refit at Devonport that lasted until 10 April 1937 and returned to Spanish waters afterwards to intercept shipping carrying contraband goods to Spain and to protect British - flagged ships . On 6 March , the ship and the destroyer , rescued survivors from the Nationalist heavy cruiser after she had been sunk by Republican destroyers during the Battle of Cape Palos . She was refitted at Chatham in May – June 1938 and made a number of port visits in Scandinavia the following month . " Kempenfelt " was transferred to the Portsmouth Local Flotilla and remained there until the war began in September 1939 . Wartime service and transfer . The ship was transferred to the 18th Destroyer Flotilla , based at the Isle of Portland , where she escorted shipping and conducted anti - submarine patrols . " Kempenfelt " had been purchased before the war began by the Canadian government , but it agreed to allow the British to retain her until the Royal Navy could compensate for her loss by requisitioning enough auxiliary anti - submarine vessels . By the time that the British were ready to turn her over to the RCN , the ship was under repair after a collision and the hand over was delayed until 19 October . She was renamed " Assiniboine " and arrived at Halifax , Nova Scotia on 17 November . The ship had not yet been fitting with the steam heating necessary to operate in a Canadian winter and she was transferred to the Caribbean in exchange for the destroyer . " Assiniboine " arrived at Kingston , Jamaica on 8 December . Assigned to the North America and West Indies Station , the highlight of the ship ' s service in the Caribbean was the capture of the German blockade runner in the Mona Passage between the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico on the night of 8 / 9 March 1940 . Initially intercepted by the light cruiser , the crew of " Hannover " disabled their steering gear and set the ship on fire . " Assiniboine " took the burning ship under tow to prevent her from entering the waters of the neutral Dominican Republic while the cruiser sprayed water on the fire . The two ships swapped roles in the morning and the destroyer put some of her crew aboard " Hannover " to help " Dunedin " s boarding party fight the fire while the cruiser towed the freighter to Kingston . " Assiniboine " arrived in Halifax on 31 March for a refit . After the completion of her refit , the ship escorted local convoys in and around Halifax until 15 January 1941 when she was transferred to Greenock and assigned to the 10th Escort Group of the Mid - Ocean Escort Force that was based there . " Assiniboine " rescued survivors from on 28 February and was damaged in a collision with on 5 April . Her repairs were not completed until 22 May and she was transferred to St . John ' s , Newfoundland in June to reinforce escort forces in the Western Atlantic . In early August , " Assiniboine " , her sister and the ex - American destroyer , escorted the battleship to Placentia Bay where Prime Minister Winston Churchill met President Franklin Roosevelt for the first time . Whilst escorting Convoy SC 94 in early August 1942 as part of Escort Group C1 , " Assiniboine " s Type 286 radar spotted in a heavy fog on 6 August . The destroyer closed on the contact and briefly spotted the submarine twice before losing her in the fog . The submarine reappeared crossing the destroyer ' s bow at a range of , and both ships opened fire . The range was too close for " Assiniboine " s 4 . 7 - inch guns to engage , but her . 50 - calibre machine guns shot up the submarine ' s deck and conning tower . This kept the Germans from manning their deck gun , but the flak gun was already manned and firing . It punched holes through the destroyer ' s plating that set some petrol tanks on the deck afire and disabled ' A ' gun . The destroyer was unable to ram " U - 210 " until the rear 4 . 7 - inch gun hit the conning tower , killing the entire bridge crew and the . 50 - caliber machine guns were able to silence the flak gun . This caused Lieutenant Sorber , the senior surviving officer , to order the submarine to dive , but this meant that she had to hold a straight course while doing so . " Assiniboine " was able to take advantage of this and rammed " U - 210 " abaft the conning tower whilst she was diving . This caused the electric motors to fail , damaged her propellers and led to water entering the submarine , as a result of which Sorber ordered the ballast tank s to be blown and the submarine abandoned . The destroyer rammed her again when " U - 210 " resurfaced , dropped a pattern of depth charges set to detonate at shallow depth and hit her one more time with a 4 . 7 - inch shell before the submarine finally sank . A number of survivors were rescued by " Assiniboine " and the British corvette , before the former ship had to head home for repairs as she was taking on water below the waterline . She required nearly two months of repairs at Halifax and was assigned to Escort Group C3 when they were completed on 20 December . Whilst en route to Londonderry , " Assiniboine " dropped a shallow pattern of depth charges on a submarine contact and badly damaged her stern on 2 March 1943 . The ship was repaired at Liverpool between 7 March and 13 July and then assigned to Escort Group C1 . She continued her escort work until April 1944 when she began a refit at Shelburne , Nova Scotia . Upon its completion in July , " Assiniboine " was assigned to the Western Approaches Command . The following month , the 12th Support Group , including " Assiniboine " , engaged three German minesweeper s on 12 August , without sinking any . She remained in British waters for the rest of the war ; the ship was damaged in a collision with on 14 February 1945 and was under repair until early March . " Assiniboine " returned to Canada in June and was briefly used as a troop transport before a boiler room fire on 4 July effectively ended her career . She was paid off on 8 August and placed on the disposal list . Whilst on tow to the breakers in Baltimore , she ran aground near East Point , Prince Edward Island . Attempts to get her off failed , and she was left to rust until eventually being broken up in place in 1952 .