HMCS Thiepval

HMCS Thiepval in Petropavlovsk, 1924.

Reacquired by the RCN, Thiepval was recommissioned in April 1923, and in February 1924 was given the task of helping to support the round-the-world flight attempt of Major Stuart-MacLaren. Proceeding across the North Pacific via the Aleutian Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula, Thiepval arrived in Hakodate, Japan, carrying supplies and equipment for the Vickers Vulture flying boat and its crew. In the process, Thiepval became the first Canadian warship to visit the Soviet Union and Japan.[3] The Canadian government had also given Thiepval the secret assignment of investigating American and Japanese territories in the North Pacific to see if they were being fortified in contravention of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty; it turned out that they were not.[5]

After waiting in Hakodate for the flight to approach Japan, Thiepval headed back to the Soviet Union, where she waited for the aircraft and its crew in Petropavlovsk. After arriving on 24 July, the flight was delayed by bad weather until 4 August, when it departed on its next leg. Heavy fog forced an emergency landing at sea, where the aircraft was badly damaged by waves before coming ashore at Nikolskoye, on Bering Island. Thiepval, steaming through the night, rescued the flyers and salvaged the wreckage of their aircraft before sailing for Vancouver.[2][3] During their stay in Hakodate, Thiepval's crew acquired a brown bear, which they brought back to Esquimalt as a mascot. Called Bruno, or sometimes "Haca-Daddy", the bear became addicted to the alcohol given to him by sailors, who also took him along when they went drinking in local taverns. Bruno ultimately died after eating poisonous dockyard supplies.[6]

Following her return from the trans-Pacific voyage, Thiepval returned to patrol work and training duties. In 1925, she came to the assistance of another Battle-class trawler, Armentières, which had struck a rock in Pipestem Inlet in Barkley Sound. The following year, she towed the Mexican schooner Chapultepec off the rocks at Carmnanah Point, on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Mostly, however, her routine consisted of fisheries and search and rescue patrols, as well as chasing rum-runners.[3]

On 27 February 1930, Thiepval was on patrol when she struck an uncharted rock in the Broken Islands of Barkley Sound on British Columbia's coast. Because the vessel had come to rest on a rock ledge, there was some hope that she could be salvaged, and Armentières came to the ship's assistance. The damage proved too great, however, and she sank the following day in the channel that now bears her name. In 1962, three years after the wreck had been located, divers recovered Thiepval's deck gun, which is now displayed in the fishing village of Ucluelet. Lying in just 45 feet (14 m) of water, the wreck is accessible to sport divers and has become a popular dive site.[3] In 1970, the wreck was made a part of Parks Canada's Pacific Rim National Park Reserve as a Shipwreck of National Historical Significance.[7] In 2011, the Department of National Defence organized a survey of the wreck site following reports of unexploded munitions being seen by divers.[8] In March 2017, The Royal Canadian Navy sent divers to conduct a survey of the wreck and develop a plan to remove the unexploded munitions. Removal and disposal of the unexploded ordnance was expected to occur in mid-2017.[7][9]