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The Tug H.M.C.S. Alberton
by Leigh Cossey 2018
The tug H.M.C.S. Alberton. (Official RCN Photo SY–116–3–DHH.)
The tug H.M.C.S. Alberton was built in 1944 by Montreal Dry Docks Ltd. at Montreal C. She was 104.5’ x 26.7’ x 11.2’ steel hulled 234.34gt 155.7rt. She was powered by 1–1000bhp, 19.55nhp Sulzer diesel engine by Dominion Engineering Works Ltd., Lachine, QC. In 1944 she was built for the Royal Canadian Navy. She was employed by the RCN as a general duty tug at Sydney NS. In 1946 she was sold to Marine Industries Ltd., Montreal, QC. In 1947 she was sold to Campanila Nocional de Navegaeao, Lisbon, Portugal. In 2004 she was laid up in Portugal and broken up in 2008.
My mother christened the tug HMCS Alberton, a Norton Class tug. She was presented with this engraved tray which we still have in our possession. (Photo from the Leigh Cossey collection.)
Detail of tray inscription. (Photo from the Leigh Cossey collection.)
The tug H.M.C.S. Alberton late in her life as the Aveiro. (Photo from an unknown collection.)
My father’s family have been boat builders for several generations. My Grandfather, Herbert, came to Canada from England in 1903 with a contract in hand to build a sternwheeler (the Saskatchewan) for the Hudson&rsqhuo;s Bay Company at Prince Albert NWT. Afterwards the family settled in Kenora Ontario where he established a boat building business. His oldest son, Hylton, was a naval architect and served in H.M.C.S. Niobe during the First World War, surviving the Mont Blanc explosion. The fifth son, Stanley, my father, was also a naval architect and volunteered for the RCN at the start of the Second World War, but was told that his talents were needed at home. Dad then went to work for German and Milne in Montreal were he was head of the design team for the Norton Class navy tugs. In 1943 he moved to Russel Brothers in Owen Sound later appointed as the head of the drafting department. In 1974 we moved to North Vancouver where he worked for the Burrard Shipyard.
To quote from this article please cite:
Cossey, Leigh (2018) The Tug H.M.C.S. Alberton. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Alberton.php
Site News: April 24, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,289 vessel histories (with 15,634 images and 13,293 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 images).
In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!
My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.