The Royal Canadian Navy’s longest serving commissioned vessel – a sailing ketch that was launched about 100 years ago – officially has a new home port.
HMCS Oriole, a 31-metre tall ship, will be welcomed Tuesday to the Atlantic Fleet in Halifax after more than 60 years at CFB Esquimalt in Victoria, B.C.
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The Oriole, with a 20-person crew, first came east for Canada 150 celebrations.
The navy says it is being transferred “to enable an entirely different segment of the Canadian population to enjoy the history and heritage” of the tall ship.
The ketch, which underwent maintenance in Nova Scotia, will also be sent off Tuesday for deployment to the Great Lakes region at a ceremony at HMC Dockyard.
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The Times-Colonist newspaper in Victoria reported in December that HMCS Oriole’s keel was laid down in 1920 in Toronto, where she sailed out of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club before becoming a navy ship.
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