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The ''St. Laurent''-class destroyer was a class of destroyers that served the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s. This was the first major class of warship designed and built in Canada. They were similar to the British Type 12 ''Whitby''-class frigate, but used more American equipment than British. There were seven ships of the class commissioned between 1955 and 1957. They were originally intended as destroyer escorts (DDE) but were later refitted and reclassed as destroyer helicopter escorts (DDH). ==Construction== The need for the ''St. Laurent'' class came about in 1949 when Canada joined NATO and the Cold War was in its infancy. The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was assigned responsibility for anti-submarine warfare and controlling sea space in the western North Atlantic. Design work for a new class of destroyer escorts began that year with the original completion date slated for 1955. They were designed by Montreal naval architects German and Milne "under the direction of a senior constructor, Sir Rowland Baker, seconded from the () Director of Naval Construction. Baker produced a design basically similar to the Whitby (12 ), but incorporating several ideas of his own. Different in appearance to the Type 12 design, the ship that resulted was similar in many aspects.〔Chumbley & Gardiner, p.44〕 The ''St Laurent'' class were built to an operational requirement much like that which produced the British Type 12, and were powered by the same machinery plant. The rounded deck-edge forward was adopted to prevent ice forming.〔Friedman, p.161〕 The vessels were designed to operate in harsh Canadian conditions. They were built to counter nuclear, biological and chemical attack conditions, which lead to a design with a rounded hull, a continuous main deck, and the addition of a pre-wetting system to wash away contaminants. The living spaces on the ship were part of a "citadel" which could be sealed off from contamination for the crew safety. The ships were sometimes referred to as "Cadillacs" for their relatively luxurious crew compartments; these were also the first Canadian warships to have a bunk for every crew member since previous warship designs had used hammocks. Other innovative features not found on other ships of its time included an operations room separate from the bridge, from which the captain could command the ship while in combat, 12 separate internal telephone systems, air conditioning, and the latest advances in radar and sonar technology. The ''St. Laurent'' class originally called for 14 vessels to be commissioned no later than 1955; however, changing design specifications due to the rapidly changing Cold War naval environment, as well as Canada's wartime priorities during the Korean War, saw only the first 7 completed by 1957. The remaining 7 vessels were built as the follow-on to incorporate advancements in naval warship design in the preceding years.〔Blackman, p.35〕 There were also two essentially similar follow-on classes, the (4 ships completed 1962-63) and the (2 ships, completed 1964), the latter completed as helicopter carrying destroyer escorts from the onset, and not converted later as were the seven ''St. Laurent''-class ships. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St. Laurent-class destroyer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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