HMCS Crescent was a Canadian C-class destroyer

C class destroyer (1943)

The C class was a class of 32 destroyers of the Royal Navy that were launched from 1943 to 1945. The class was built in four flotillas of 8 vessels, the Ca, Ch, Co and Cr classes, ordered as the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Emergency Flotillas respectively...

, launched on 20 July 1944. She was one of 32 destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

s of that class built between 1943 and 1945 as part of the War Emergency Programme

War Emergency Programme destroyers

The War Emergency Programme destroyers were 112 destroyers built for the British Royal Navy during World War II. They were based on the hull and machinery of the earlier J, K and N class destroyer. Due to supply problems and the persistent failure by the Royal Navy to develop a suitable...

.

1949 'mutiny'

Some years after the war for which she was built, a noteworthy event in her history - and that of the Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 as a whole - occurred on 20 March 1949, when she was at Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 - at the time the last mainland holdout of Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

's Chinese Nationalists

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

, which was to be overrun by the Communist People's Liberation Army

People's Liberation Army

The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...

 a month later.

Whether with or without connection to the above circumstances (a later commission of inquiry headed by Rear-Admiral Rollo Mainguy

Rollo Mainguy

Vice-Admiral Edmond Rollo Mainguy, OBE, CD, RCN was a Canadian naval officer.He was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1901 and attended the Royal Naval College of Canada during World War I....

 found no such connection), on 20 March, eighty-three of Crescent's junior ratings locked themselves in their messdecks, and refused to come out until getting the captain to hear their grievances.

The captain acted with great sensitivity to defuse the crisis, entering the mess for an informal discussion with the disgruntled crew members and carefully avoided using the term "mutiny" which could have had severe legal consequences for the sailors involved.

This case was almost simultaneous with two other cases of mass disobedience in other Canadian naval ships at very distant other locations: the destroyer Athabaskan

HMCS Athabaskan (R79)

HMCS Athabaskan was the second destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy to bear the name Athabaskan, after the many tribes throughout western Canada that speak Athabaskan family languages. Its pennant was later changed to DDE219...

 at Manzanillo, Colima

Manzanillo, Colima

The name Manzanillo refers to the city as well as its surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Colima. The city, located on the Pacific Ocean, contains Mexico's busiest port. Manzanillo was the third port created by the Spanish in the Pacific during the New Spain period...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and the carrier Magnificent

HMCS Magnificent (CVL 21)

HMCS Magnificent was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier that served the Royal Canadian Navy from 1946–1956.-Operational history:...

 in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

. In both of these other cases, the respective captains acted similarly to their colleague of the Crescent.

Ship's Bell

The Christening Bells Project at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum includes information from the ship's bell of Crescent, which was used for baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

 of babies onboard ship from 1946 to 1957. The bell is currently held by the Army Navy and Air Force Veterans, Sidney, British Columbia.

See also

• List of ships of the Canadian Navy
• Royal Canadian Navy#"Mutinees" in 1949