HMCS St. Francis
Destroyer · Lost 1945 · Buzzards Bay & Vineyard Sound
The WWII convoy-escort destroyer HMCS St. Francis sank in Buzzards Bay in 1945 on her way to the scrapyard, after a collier rammed her in fog.
The Vessel and Her Loss
Launched at Quincy as USS Bancroft in 1919, she was one of fifty destroyers sent to Britain in 1940 and became the Canadian HMCS St. Francis, escorting Atlantic convoys and rescuing survivors of the torpedoed Starcross. Sold for scrap in 1945, she was under tow of the tug Peter Norman when the collier Windward Gulf rammed her in fog in Buzzards Bay. She sank in 60 feet of water with no loss of life and was later flattened with dynamite.
Vessel
- 1919
- Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp.
- Quincy, Massachusetts
- Steel
- 314.3 ft
- 31.7 ft
- Not established
- Steam (screw)
- Not established
Loss
- July 14, 1945
- Collision
- Buzzards Bay, about 2 miles off Acoaxet, near Westport
- Not established
- Duluth, Minnesota
- Not established
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 58 ft
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Massachusetts exempted shipwreck site
Position
- 41.46° N 71.11° W
- Approximate position
- Westport, Massachusetts
Pin at the dive-site position published by the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, rounded.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (75/100)
Based on the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources' shipwreck page; the newspapers and books it cites were not independently inspected.
Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources — HMCS St. Francis
Full state shipwreck page read (vessel details, loss narrative, history, coordinates).
