 It was initially expected that the corvette fleet would be superseded by a line of larger frigates and destroyers , but the narrowness of Montreal 's Lachine Canal prevented larger ships from getting to Atlantic Ocean from Great Lake shipyards . The corvette fleet stayed . Eventually 123 were built , the largest class of ships ever used by the Canadian Navy . The corvettes were dubbed the Flower class after a similar British design . The British gave them names of flowers such as <unk> and <unk> . The Canadian Navy decided to name their ships after Canadian towns . While they should have been called the Town class , a line of American destroyers was already using that name so the term " flower " was retained for Canadian corvettes . 
