corvette, along with six surviving merchant ships, limps to safety in Ireland. Before it sets anchor MacClain is asked to sail the Donnacona past the other ships in the harbor so that its crew may be saluted for their bravery. Cast Production Corvette K-225 was produced under the working title of "Corvettes in Action" between February 4 and early May 1943. While much of the film was made on a sound stage, parts of it, notably an outdoor scene at the University of King's College, Halifax, were filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where many of the corvettes were stationed and where many transatlantic convoys were gathered and deployed. Over a three-month period in 1943 camera crews accompanied five convoys in order to gather background footage. As its location was a wartime secret, Halifax is referred to as "Hannington Harbour" in the film. The scenes of the shipyard were filmed at Toronto, Ontario; the Maple Leaf Mills grain elevator at the foot of Spadina Avenue is visible in a few scenes. Corvette K -225 featured a fictional ship in the Royal Canadian Navy, HMCS Donnacona, which was played by HMCS Kitchener (K225). HMCS Kitchener served like the fictional Donnacona on Atlantic convoy escort in World War 2. She was decommissioned in 1945 and scrapped in 1949. Incidentally the real HMCS Donnacona is a currently operating RCN Naval Reserve establishment in Montreal where RCN members are trained and after which the fictional ship was named. Before final casts were announced, Robert Stack, Dick Foran, Diana Barrymore, Evelyn Ankers, Jon Hall, Nigel Bruce and Patric Knowles were considered by Howard Hawks. In the June 11, 1942 issue of The Hollywood Reporter, Robert Rosson was to be the second unit director on the film, shooting 10 days on location in the Atlantic with a convoy, and Hawks was going to direct, as well as produce. Screenwriter Lt. John Rhodes Sturdy, the commanding officer of a Canadian corvette, was also assigned to the film for five weeks as a technical advisor, loaned to the production by Royal Canadian Navy Public Affairs. The start of the film features Lieutenant Commander MaClain and his survivors from his previous ship on board a V&W class destroyer. The V&W-class were former Royal Navy fleet destroyers which had been transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Canadian Navy for escort duty. They were built between 1918 and 1925. Reception