entering service. This was done to extend the detection range of the ships and to eliminate any speed advantage of the nuclear submarines. St. Laurent was a member of the Second Canadian Escort Squadron in 1960 based out of Esquimalt, British Columbia. In February 1960, St. Laurent, with two sister ships, departed Esquimalt, British Columbia performed a training cruise around the Pacific making several port visits and returning in April. In March 1961, St. Laurent, Ottawa and deployed with the United States Navy's Carrier Division 17 off Hawaii. Prior to undergoing her DDH conversion, a Variable Depth Sonar (VDS) system was test fitted to the ship, which required the alteration of the stern. The ship then underwent the DDH refit in 1962, emerging on 4 October 1963. This meant extensively rebuilding the superstructure. A hangar and flight deck were added and to make room for these the original single stack was twinned. The flight deck addition required the removal of one gun and one Limbo mount. The ship was then assigned to the east coast. In 1964, with and , St. Laurent sailed on a training cruise to the Pacific. In 1966, Canada sent St. Laurent and to the Bahamas to participate in their independence celebrations, the only country to send warships. In 1969, the ship tracked a Cuban-bound Soviet task force that was transiting through Canadian waters. St. Laurent experienced keel damage later in her career and was paid off early as the Canadian Forces opted to not include her in the Destroyer Life Extension (DELEX) program of the 1970s. She was decommissioned from the Canadian Forces on 14 June 1974 and sat in Halifax as a source for spare parts for her sisters. Her early decommissioning is attributed to cost-cutting in the Canadian Forces at the time. The ship was sold on 27 September 1979 to Dartmouth Salvage Co. for scrapping. St. Laurent was resold and while en route to breakers in Brownsville, Texas, she took on water in the tail end of a powerful storm and foundered off Cape Hatteras on 12 January 1980. References Notes Footnotes Sources External links Canadian Navy of Yesterday & Today: St. Laurent class destroyer escort St. Laurent-class destroyers Cold War destroyers of Canada Shipwrecks of the Carolina coast 1951 ships Maritime incidents in 1980