HMCS Lady Evelyn

HMCS Lady Evelyn was a commissioned patrol boat of the Royal Canadian Navy during the First World War. Originally built as the Deerhound, she was acquired in 1907 by the Canadian government and renamed Lady Evelyn. After the war, she was sold for civilian service and scrapped in 1936.

SS Deerhound
She had been built by John Jones and Sons in 1901 in Tranmere, Merseyside, Great Britain as the Deerhound for the North Pier Steam Ship Company Limited, Blackpool. From 1905 to 1907 she operated between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly. She was sold in 1907 by the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company for use as a mail tender in Canada.

Lady Evelyn
Canada's Postmaster General purchased the Deerhound in 1907 at a cost of some $65,000 to act as a mail tender for transatlantic steamers. Renamed the Lady Evelyn, she met liners in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to transfer mail to and from trains at Rimouski in order to speed its delivery. She replaced the Rhoda, an older, smaller ship that had previously performed these duties. In 1914 the Lady Evelyn was involved in the rescue of survivors from the RMS Empress of Ireland when that ship sank following a collision off Rimouski.

HMCS Lady Evelyn
The Lady Evelyn was one of a number of Canadian government ships taken over by the Royal Canadian Navy during the First World War. Commissioned in 1917, she spent her career on the East Coast, and was decommissioned in 1919. At the time of the December 1917 Halifax Explosion, the Lady Evelyn was on patrol off the harbour's approaches.

Postwar career
The Howe Sound Navigation Co. brought the Lady Evelyn to Vancouver in 1921. In 1923 she was bought by the Union Steamship Company of British Columbia and remained with them until 1936, when she was scrapped.