{"id":24012563,"date":"2026-09-22T09:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/hmcs-bonaventure-canada-last-aircraft-carrier-refit-scrapped\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T09:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:49:38","slug":"hmcs-bonaventure-canada-last-aircraft-carrier-refit-scrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/hmcs-bonaventure-canada-last-aircraft-carrier-refit-scrapped\/","title":{"rendered":"HMCS Bonaventure: Canada Refitted Its Carrier, Then Scrapped It"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>In April 1966 the Royal Canadian Navy sent its only aircraft carrier into a shipyard at Lauzon, Quebec, for a mid-life refit. The point of a mid-life refit is the clue: you spend the money because the ship has another life to run.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>She came out sixteen to eighteen months later, depending on whose account you read, having cost somewhere between eleven and seventeen million dollars against a budget of eight. Thirty-one months after that she was paid off. In 1971 she was cut up in Taiwan.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>HMCS <em>Bonaventure<\/em> was the last aircraft carrier Canada owned, and the country has never replaced her. The men who flew from her have spent fifty years pointing out that she was scrapped at the exact moment the money had already been spent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0 28px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px;font-size:15.5px;line-height:1.65;color:#333\"><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Laid down as:<\/strong> HMS <em>Powerful<\/em>, a Majestic-class light fleet carrier, launched February 1945; work stopped three months later<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Completed for Canada:<\/strong> Construction resumed 1952; commissioned at Belfast 17 January 1957; reached Halifax 26 June 1957<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Size:<\/strong> About 16,000 tons, 214.6 m long, 24 knots<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Modern features:<\/strong> Angled flight deck, steam catapult, mirror landing sight<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Air group:<\/strong> 16 McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee fighters, 8 Grumman CS2F Trackers, Sikorsky HO4S helicopters; rebuilt in 1962 around Trackers and helicopters alone<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Ten-thousandth deck landing:<\/strong> April 1962<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Mid-life refit:<\/strong> Davie Shipbuilding, Lauzon, from April 1966. Budgeted at $8 million; published costs range from over $11 million (the navy&rsquo;s own history) to $17 million, over 16 to 18 months<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Last night deck landing:<\/strong> 28 October 1969<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Last deck landing:<\/strong> 12 December 1969<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Paid off:<\/strong> 3 July 1970 at Halifax, fewer than three years after the refit<\/li><li style=\"margin:0 0 7px\"><strong>Fate:<\/strong> Broken up in Taiwan, 1971. Never replaced.<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A hull that waited seven years<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>She began as HMS <em>Powerful<\/em>, a Majestic-class light fleet carrier laid down for the Royal Navy and launched in February 1945. Three months later the war ended and work stopped. The hull sat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Construction resumed in 1952, this time for Canada, and what emerged in 1957 was not a 1945 ship. She had an angled flight deck, a steam catapult and a mirror landing sight &mdash; the three inventions that made jet operations from a carrier survivable, all of them barely a few years old. The crash barrier came out. She was commissioned at Belfast on 17 January 1957 and reached Halifax on 26 June.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>At 16,000 tons and 214 metres she was small as carriers go. Her air group reflected it: sixteen McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee fighters, eight <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/grumman-s-2-tracker\/\">Grumman CS2F Tracker<\/a> anti-submarine aircraft and a handful of Sikorsky HO4S helicopters. For a middle power in the North Atlantic in 1957, that was a serious instrument.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/hmcs-bonaventure-flight-deck-trackers-1959.jpg\" alt=\"Two officers on the flight deck of HMCS Bonaventure in April 1959, with Trackers parked aft\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">On the flight deck, April 1959: the island, the radar mast, and CS2F Trackers with their wings folded. U.S. Navy photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What she was for<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Canada&rsquo;s job in NATO was submarines. The Atlantic convoy routes that had kept Britain alive twice were the same routes that would have to carry reinforcements to Europe in a third war, and the Soviet submarine fleet was the thing that would try to cut them. <em>Bonaventure<\/em> was the mobile centre of Canada&rsquo;s answer: a flight deck that could put anti-submarine aircraft anywhere in the ocean rather than waiting for the ocean to come within range of a shore base.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Trackers were the point of her. Canada licence-built ninety-nine of them, and eight lived aboard. The Banshees were there to keep Soviet maritime patrol aircraft away from the fleet, and they stayed on standby until 1962.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The ship&rsquo;s Banshee fighter jets were to provide protection in the event of an enemy attack (and stayed on standby until 1962), while the twin-engine Trackers and helicopters assisted attendant destroyers and frigates in anti-submarine work and attack roles.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Ann Burke<\/strong> &mdash; Royal Canadian Navy radar plotter, writing in <em>Legion Magazine<\/em><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Tracker was not a glamorous aeroplane. It was a high-winged twin with a fat fuselage full of sonobuoys, a retractable radar under the belly and a crew of four, and it could stay airborne for nine hours looking for something that did not want to be found. It was also, by a distance, the most capable thing Canada could put over a submarine.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ae-i7udXqsw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-16px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">The Tracker&rsquo;s whole career, from hunting submarines off Nova Scotia to fighting fires in British Columbia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>She went to Cyprus in March 1964 carrying Canadian peacekeepers. She was recalled from a NATO exercise during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 and sent to sea with the rest of the fleet under the cover story of national exercises, to avoid frightening anybody. In April 1962 a Tracker made her ten-thousandth arrested landing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qMCFLyu-eAM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-16px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">HMCS <em>Bonaventure<\/em>, Canada&rsquo;s last aircraft carrier.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The refit<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>By the mid-1960s she needed work, and in April 1966 she went to Davie Shipbuilding at Lauzon on the St Lawrence. The estimate was eight million dollars.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>What the yard found was a ship with problems dating back to her construction &mdash; not surprising in a hull that had been laid down in the war, abandoned for seven years and finished to a different specification. The work grew. The bill grew with it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Here the record genuinely disagrees with itself, and it is worth being honest about. The Royal Canadian Navy&rsquo;s own published ship history says the refit ran sixteen months and cost over eleven million dollars. Other accounts say eighteen months and seventeen million. The Canadian Encyclopedia splits the difference and says the refit cost between 12.5 and 17 million against a budget of eight. What nobody disputes is the direction: it took longer than planned and cost at least half as much again, possibly more than double.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It became a political story. And a political story about a warship is a dangerous thing for the warship, because the figure that sticks in a minister&rsquo;s mind is the overrun, not the asset.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Paid off<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The Trudeau government&rsquo;s defence review of 1968 and 1969 looked at Canada&rsquo;s maritime role and produced an answer built on surveillance and sovereignty. There was no carrier in it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Her last night deck landing was on 28 October 1969. Her last deck landing of any kind was on 12 December 1969. She paid off at Halifax on 3 July 1970, fewer than three years after coming out of the yard, and was sold for scrap. In 1971 the Tung Chen S Steel Company broke her up in Taiwan.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Canadian Encyclopedia&rsquo;s assessment is blunt: she was sold as an economy measure despite having, in its words, another ten years of usefulness in her. And she was not replaced. Canadian fixed-wing naval aviation ended with her; everything Canada has flown over salt water since has taken off from a runway.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;BONNIE was the heart of the fleet and she is irreplaceable.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Colonel David Tate<\/strong> &mdash; last Commanding Officer of VS 880, Canadian War Museum Oral History Project, 18 October 2001<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Colonel David Tate commanded VS 880, the Tracker squadron, from August 1969 until August 1971 &mdash; which is to say he was the last man to command a Canadian carrier squadron. Interviewed by the Canadian War Museum in 2001, thirty years on, he was still not reconciled to it. On hearing it was actually going to happen, he said simply that it was quite a blow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iejHV_mLeK0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-16px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">The longer version of the story, including the refit and the decision to scrap her.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The anchor<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>At Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, where the harbour opens to the Atlantic, one of <em>Bonaventure<\/em>&rsquo;s anchors stands on a granite plinth facing the sea. Plaques around it name the men who died serving in her.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It is a good memorial, and an awkward one. Canada spent seven years finishing a wartime hull, thirteen years operating it, and a fortune refitting it &mdash; then disposed of it three years later and built nothing to take its place. Fifty-five years on, the argument about whether that was thrift or vandalism has never quite been settled, which is why the anchor is still worth visiting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/hmcs-bonaventure-anchor-memorial-point-pleasant-park-halifax.jpg\" alt=\"HMCS Bonaventure&rsquo;s anchor mounted as a memorial at Point Pleasant Park, Halifax\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\"><em>Bonaventure<\/em>&rsquo;s anchor at Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, facing the sea she was taken away from. Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Royal Canadian Navy ship histories (canada.ca), The Canadian Encyclopedia, Canadian War Museum Oral History Project (interview 31D-2-TATE, 18 October 2001), Legion Magazine, Canada Aviation and Space Museum.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was HMCS Bonaventure?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">HMCS Bonaventure was a Majestic-class light fleet carrier and the last aircraft carrier operated by Canada. Laid down for the Royal Navy as HMS Powerful in the Second World War and completed for Canada in 1957, she flew Banshee fighters and Tracker anti-submarine aircraft until 1970.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was HMCS Bonaventure scrapped?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">She was paid off on 3 July 1970 as an economy measure, following the Trudeau government defence review of 1968 and 1969, which built Canada&rsquo;s maritime role around surveillance rather than carrier aviation. The Canadian Encyclopedia judges she had roughly another ten years of usefulness in her.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How much did the HMCS Bonaventure refit cost?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The 1966 to 1967 refit at Davie Shipbuilding was budgeted at eight million dollars. Published figures for the actual cost range from over eleven million, in the navy&rsquo;s own ship history, to seventeen million elsewhere, over sixteen to eighteen months. All accounts agree it ran long and over budget.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What aircraft flew from HMCS Bonaventure?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Sixteen McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee jet fighters, eight Grumman CS2F Trackers built under licence in Canada, and Sikorsky HO4S helicopters. The Banshees were withdrawn in 1962 and never replaced, after which she operated as a pure anti-submarine ship.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When did HMCS Bonaventure make her last deck landing?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Her last night deck landing was on 28 October 1969 and her last deck landing of any kind on 12 December 1969. She paid off at Halifax on 3 July 1970 and was broken up in Taiwan the following year.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Does Canada have an aircraft carrier today?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. HMCS Bonaventure was never replaced, and Canadian fixed-wing naval aviation ended with her. Canadian maritime aircraft have operated from shore bases ever since, although Canadian warships still carry helicopters.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Where can you see something of HMCS Bonaventure?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">One of her anchors stands as a memorial at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, on a granite plinth facing the Atlantic, with plaques naming the men who died serving in her.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was HMCS Bonaventure?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"HMCS Bonaventure was a Majestic-class light fleet carrier and the last aircraft carrier operated by Canada. Laid down for the Royal Navy as HMS Powerful in the Second World War and completed for Canada in 1957, she flew Banshee fighters and Tracker anti-submarine aircraft until 1970.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was HMCS Bonaventure scrapped?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"She was paid off on 3 July 1970 as an economy measure, following the Trudeau government defence review of 1968 and 1969, which built Canada\u2019s maritime role around surveillance rather than carrier aviation. The Canadian Encyclopedia judges she had roughly another ten years of usefulness in her.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How much did the HMCS Bonaventure refit cost?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The 1966 to 1967 refit at Davie Shipbuilding was budgeted at eight million dollars. Published figures for the actual cost range from over eleven million, in the navy\u2019s own ship history, to seventeen million elsewhere, over sixteen to eighteen months. All accounts agree it ran long and over budget.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What aircraft flew from HMCS Bonaventure?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Sixteen McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee jet fighters, eight Grumman CS2F Trackers built under licence in Canada, and Sikorsky HO4S helicopters. The Banshees were withdrawn in 1962 and never replaced, after which she operated as a pure anti-submarine ship.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did HMCS Bonaventure make her last deck landing?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Her last night deck landing was on 28 October 1969 and her last deck landing of any kind on 12 December 1969. She paid off at Halifax on 3 July 1970 and was broken up in Taiwan the following year.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Does Canada have an aircraft carrier today?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No. HMCS Bonaventure was never replaced, and Canadian fixed-wing naval aviation ended with her. Canadian maritime aircraft have operated from shore bases ever since, although Canadian warships still carry helicopters.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Where can you see something of HMCS Bonaventure?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"One of her anchors stands as a memorial at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, on a granite plinth facing the Atlantic, with plaques naming the men who died serving in her.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/beartrap-hauldown-canadian-navy-sea-king-destroyer\/\">Beartrap: The Canadian Invention That Put Sea Kings on Destroyers<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/canadian-naval-and-army-aviation\/\">Canadian Naval and Army Aviation: the full order of battle<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In April 1966 the Royal Canadian Navy sent its only aircraft carrier into a shipyard at Lauzon, Quebec, for a mid-life refit. The point of a mid-life refit is the clue: you spend the money because the ship has another life to run. She came out sixteen to eighteen months later, depending on whose account [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":24011448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24012563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>HMCS Bonaventure: Canada&#039;s Last Carrier | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Canada refitted HMCS Bonaventure in 1966, then paid her off three years later and scrapped her. 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