HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400)

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Career

Ordered:	1960
Laid down:	1963
Launched:	1968
Commissioned:	July 23, 1968
Decommissioned:	November 2, 1971
Fate:	Program Cancelled
General Characteristics
Displacement]]:	240 tonnes (236 tons)
Length:	49.95 m (140'9"
Main Foil Span:	66'
Propulsion:	Foilborne: Pratt & Whitney FT4A-2 Turbine, Hullborne: Davey Paxman Ventura 16YJCM Diesel Engine
Speed:	60 knots calm
Range:	Foilborne: 500+ nautical miles, Hullborne: 1500+ nautical miles
Complement:	25: 7 officers, 6 petty officers, 12 men
Armament:	None
Aircraft:	None
Motto:

HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400) was a Canadian naval hydrofoil built in 1960-1967 to test the feasibility of an ocean-going hydrofoil for use in anti-submarine warfare.

Bras d'Or is named in honour of the Bras d'Or Lake on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, where inventor Alexander Graham Bell performed hydrofoil experiments in the early 20th century near his residence at Beinn Bhreagh.

1 Construction
2 Trials
- 2.1 Cancellation
3 External links

[edit] Construction

Bras d'Or was built at Marine Industries Limited (MIL) in Sorel, Quebec, the primary contractor being De Havilland Canada. The Principal Naval Overseer was Cdr. Donald Clark CD RCN who initiated the project on completion and launch of HMCS Nipigon in 1964. The hull was built upside down out of aluminum, rotated on January 22, 1966, when the hull was completed. The foil system was constructed from maraging steel.

[edit] Foils

Bras d'Or flew on a set of surface-piercing foils in a canard configuration (a small foil forward and a larger load-bearing foil aft). The foils were made of maraging steel coated in neoprene to prevent corrosion. Unfortunately, the neoprene coating didn't work very well and the foils cracked anyway. The main foils featured several parts: two anhedral foils, two anhedral tips, two dihedral foils, and a centre high-speed foil. The steerable front foil featured two anhedral sections and two dihedral sections with a strut down the middle, resulting in a diamond shape.

[edit] Machinery

Bras d'or had two propulsion systems: one for foilborne operation and one for hullborne operation, which included four engines. Foilborne power was provided by a United Aircraft of Canada FT4A-2 gas turbine developing 25,500 hp at 21,500 rpm through General Electric gearboxes to a pair of three-bladed supercavitating propellers. Hullborne propulsion was driven by a Davey Paxman Ventura 16YJCM sixteen cylinder diesel engine to a pair of variable-pitch propellers. Auxiliary power and electrical power while foilborne was provided by a ST6A-53 gas turbine powering an auxiliary gearbox. There was also a GTCP85-291 gas turbine for essential ship requirements in emergencies.

[edit] The fire

On November 5, 1966, a De Havilland employee was in the main engine room with the ST6 running when a hydraulic fluid leak ignited on a hot joint in the ST6's exhaust stack. A flash fire resulted. The technician responsible for the fire-suppression system rescued the employee, but as a result did not have time to activate it. The fire was put out one and a half hours later by the Sorel fire department. This delayed the ship's launch to July 12, 1968 and cost $5.7 million.

[edit] Trials

Bras d'Or first flew on April 9, 1969 near Chebucto Head. Bras d'Or exhibited extraordinary stability in rough weather. Bras D'Or was frequently more stable at 40 knots than a conventional ship at 18. Bras D'Or exceeded 63 knots on trials, quite possibly making her the fastest warship ever built.

[edit] Cancellation

Bras d'or's trial program was abruptly cancelled on November 2, 1971 by Minister of National Defence Donald S. Macdonald, attributing it to a change in defence priority (from anti-submarine warfare to sovereignty protection). The ship was laid up for five years, then the program was completely killed, with most of the valuable components either sold by Crown Assets or scrapped.

Fortunately, the ship was saved by a small museum in L'Islet sur Mer, Quebec, called the Musée Maritime du Québec, where it remains on display to this day.