transferred to the west coast and in July, carried Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip from Vancouver to Nanaimo. Assiniboine was a member of the Second Canadian Escort Squadron based out of Esquimalt, British Columbia. After returning from her conversion to a helicopter carrying destroyer, she was assigned once again to the east coast. The ship was used for trials of the beartrap hauldown system and spent the following two years finding inclement weather conditions to test the system. In 1974, Assiniboine was anchored in Lisbon, Portugal as part of the NATO Standing Naval Force Atlantic, with crew ashore, when the Carnation Revolution occurred. The tension and confusion of the situation saw the vessel recall her crew and leave the area. On 21 January 1975, Assiniboine recovered the crew from the freighter Barma, the rescue effort hampered by high winds. Assiniboine was selected by the Canadian Forces for the Destroyer Life Extension (DELEX) program beginning on 23 April 1979 and completed this refit on 16 November. The refit was performed by Vickers Ltd. at Montreal, Quebec. On 2 July 1981, Assiniboine ran aground in Halifax Harbour in heavy fog, requiring the aid from several tugboats to get free. She had been scheduled to take part in a NATO exercise, but was removed after the ship was required to undergo damage inspection. In 1984, while acting as an escort for the Tall Ships race, she was part of the search for the crew of the lost sailing vessel Marques. In July 1984 the ship returned to Halifax with fractures in the plating of her upper deck. Assiniboine was sent to MIL Davie Shipbuilding at Sorel for a 10-month refit. The refit was extended to 17 months following a series of labour strikes at the shipyard. She was decommissioned from active service in the Canadian Forces on 14 December 1988 and was used as a harbour training ship at CFB Halifax beginning on 3 January 1989. The ship was sold for scrap in January 1995 and sank in the Caribbean Sea while under tow. 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 in the Caribbean Sea Maritime incidents in 1995 1954 ships