Depth Charges

Heroes Remember

Depth Charges

Transcript

When it was commissioned, it had a single four inch gun forward, a single four inch gun aft on a bandstand, depth charges in racks that could be rolled off the stern and two … and what we called the Y-gun for throwing charges, port and starboard at the stern. The 20-millimetre Oerlikons, at that time, were on tripods and they had to be walked around manually. And they were located one either side of the bridge and one either side of the four aft, the four inch gun on the aft bandstand. It was called a bandstand ‘cause basically that’s what it looked like, a round platform up in the air. And the four inch gun, the forward four inch gun had, ahead of that on the deck, we had what we called the hedgehog. It was basically what you called a spigot mortar with 24 of the mortar bombs on spigots that could be detonated all at once, so they flew off over the bow in a nice spread out pattern. They would go off when they hit something, but not until. They weren’t primed like a depth charge which had a, what they called a pistol in the side, which was twisted to set for, I should call it a detonator, in the side of the depth charge, which you set for a certain depth. And when it went to that depth, the water coming in - plus the pressure - set off the timer, set off the fuse rather, and that exploded the depth charge. But the depth charge, I think, was, I guess, more effective because it used combination of the explosion of the charge and the water pressure to push in the sides of the sub. And the closer they were to the sub, the more devastation that it would cause.

Description

Mr. Irwin describes the armaments aboard his frigate, in particular anti-submarine weaponry

Robert Irwin

Mr. Irwin was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 9, 1921. He lost his father in a car accident while a boy. Because his mother had to work, he and his brother were taken under the wing of the local YMCA, where they both became excellent competitive swimmers. Once old enough, Mr. Irwin worked on the lake boats on Lake Superior. Shortly before enlisting, he also worked for General Electric, where he was promised a job upon his return from active service. Mr. Irwin trained as a wireless operator and, after doing shore duty in the Halifax communications centre, joined the frigate HMCS Prince Rupert, which was assigned to convoy duty. Mr. Irwin spent his entire time at sea aboard this vessel. Notable events during his duty include a possible sub kill off Ireland and the rescue of survivors from a torpedoed British warship in the same action. After leaving the service, General Electric made good on its promise, and Mr. Irwin pursued a 40 year career with them. He now resides in London, Ontario.

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