At the Queen’s Island yard of Harland and Wolff Ltd., in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 900 guests were in attendance for the commissioning of HMCS Bonaventure, Canada’s new light fleet aircraft carrier on 17 January 1957. Laid down in 1943 as HMS Powerful, the new carrier was launched in February 1946, a time when the Royal Navy had no requirement for another ship of that type. The half-finished hull was mothballed so the carrier could be finished later, with an up-to-date design, for another customer.
That customer was the Royal Canadian Navy. In 1952, when Canada bought the half-finished Powerful, she was to be the first genuinely Canadian aircraft carrier, so she needed a genuine Canadian name; therefore, some creative soul at Naval Headquarters in Ottawa chose Bonaventure, the name of an island bird sanctuary in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. She displaced 19,900 tons, measured 213.4 m in length and 24.3 m in beam (not including sponsons), had a top speed of 24 knots, and took a wartime complement of 1,200 men. Improvements on the original design included a steam catapult, a mirror landing sight, and a distinctive angled flight deck that allowed a longer landing run without sacrificing parking space forward. As well as helicopters, Bonaventure was to carry McDonnell Banshee all-weather jet fighters and Grumman Tracker anti-submarine torpedo bombers.
The Bonaventure was eventually scrapped in 1971.
| Carrier name | HMS Powerful - sold to Canada as HMCS Bonaventure in 1952 |
| Class | Majestic Class |
| Type | Light Fleet Aircraft Carrier |
| Launched | Laid down November 1943. Launched February 1945. Sold to Canada. Completed to a modified design. Commissioned 17 January 1957. ASW carrier from 1961. |
| Tonnage | Displacement: 14,224 tons standard ; 18,085 tons full load |
| Engines | Propulsion: Steam Turbines (4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, Parsons geared turbines), 40,000 shp. |
| Speed in Knots | Speed: 25 knots |
| Armament | Guns: 24 x 2 pdr AA ; 19 x 40 mm |
| Crew Complement | Compliment: 1100 (including air group) |
| Range | Range: 12,000 nmiles at 14 knots |
| Length (ft/inches) | Dimensions: 630 pp, 650 wl, 695 oa x 80 x 23.5 feet |
| Flight Deck length (ft/inches) | short, straight flight deck (only 207m/680') |
| Number of aircraft carried | 37 |
| Fate of carrier | Decommissioned July 1970, stricken. Broken up. |
CP-121
The Tracker was purchased for use with the Royal Canadian Navy on board the HMCS Bonaventure. The survivors of 100 examples (17 were exported to the Netherlands), were operated for a short time after unification from the carrier. HMCS Bonaventure's final launch was on December 12, 1969.
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CH-124
The Sea King twin engine anti-submarine helicopter was purchased for use with the Royal Canadian Navy onboard the carrier HMCS Bonaventure.
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P2H-3 Banshee
The RCN obtained 39 F2H-3s transferred from US Navy stocks. The transfer of Banshees to Canada began on November 30, 1955. RCN pilots collected their F2H-3s at NAS Quonset Point in Rhode Island and flew them to Shearwater in Nova Scotia. Once in Canada, they were issued to two operational squadrons, VF-870 and VF-871, and to one test squadron, VX-10. The last RCN F2H-3 was transferred on June 16, 1958. The Banshee had a high attrition rate in RCN service. By the summer of 1962, most of them had been lost in accidents either in flight, while ashore, or aboard the carrier HMCS Bonaventure. The surviving RCN F2H-3s were struck off strength on September 12, 1962. VF-870, the last RCN fighter squadron, was then disbanded.
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Updated: February 9, 2005
