HMCS Stadacona

HMCS Stadacona was a commissioned patrol boat of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) that served in the First World War and postwar until 1920. Stadacona is a historic name associated with Canada, the voyages Jacques Cartier, the colony of Samuel de Champlain, and Quebec City.

Origins
Launched as the American yacht Columbia, she was acquired by the RCN in 1915. Sources variously identify her builder as Crescent Shipyard, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with a launch date of 1899, or William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a launch date of 1893. Prior to the arrival of the French, the location that would become Quebec was the home of a small Iroquois village called "Stadacona", after which the ship is named.

Royal Canadian Navy Service
Stadacona was one of a number of American private yachts acquired by the RCN during the First World War. The date generally given for Stadacona's commissioning is August 1915, although she may have been commissioned as late as March 1916. Largely engaged in patrol duties out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Stadacona was also Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Kingsmill's flagship. In early 1919, Stadacona, accompanied by a number of Battle class trawlers, was sent to the west coast via the Panama Canal. She served as a dispatch vessel until being paid off on 31 March 1920, and was then used for fisheries patrol and hydrographic work.

Sale and subsequent career
Sold in 1924, Stadacona became the rum running depot ship Kuyakuzmt before being rebuilt in 1929 as the yacht Lady Stimson. At a later date, she was renamed Moonlight Maid, and in 1941 became a towboat. In 1948, she was burned for salvage at Seattle, Washington.