Second World War corvette gets $3.5 million in federal funding for repairs

HALIFAX – Canada’s oldest warship is getting $3.5 million in federal funding to help with extensive repairs.

Ottawa says the money will go to the non-profit Canadian Naval Memorial Trust, which owns HMCS Sackville, the sole remaining Flower-class corvette.

HMCS Sackville was commissioned in 1941 and escorted allied ships during the Second World War Battle of the Atlantic.

The vessel has been owned by the memorial trust since the 1980s, and operates seasonally on the Halifax waterfront as Canada’s Naval Memorial and as a museum ship.

The repair work, to be done at Her Majesty’s Canadian Dockyard Halifax, is to be completed by this summer.

Under the funding agreement, the memorial trust and the Department of National Defence are to develop a long-term plan for the ship’s preservation.