USS MacKenzie (DD-175)

USS MacKenzie (DD–175) was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I, later transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as the Annapolis-class destroyer HMCS Annapolis.

History
The second Navy ship to be named for Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, she was laid down by the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California, 4 July 1918; launched 29 September 1919; sponsored by Mrs. Percy J. Cotton, and commissioned 25 July 1919, Lieutenant Commander E. T. Oates in command. On 17 July 1920, she was designated DD-175.

Following commissioning and shakedown, MacKenzie became a unit of the Pacific Fleet and operated with Destroyer Squadrons 2 and 4 until decommissioned at Mare Island 27 May 1922. MacKenzie remained in reserve until she recommissioned at San Diego, 6 November 1939.

In 1940, the ship was one of 50 destroyers exchanged, under the terms of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, for strategic bases off the North American coast. She arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 20 September 1940. There, on the 24th, she decommissioned, was turned over to the Royal Canadian Navy and recommissioned HMCS Annapolis. MacKenzie was struck from the US Navy list 8 January 1941.

HMCS Annapolis
Following the Canadian practice of naming destroyers after Canadian rivers, Annapolis was named after the Annapolis River of Nova Scotia; and, with deference to the U.S. origin, sharing a name of significance to the United States Naval Academy. Until 1944, Annapolis sailed with the Halifax and Western Local Escort Forces escorting convoys from east of St. Johns, Newfoundland, to New York. In April 1944, she was attached to HMCS Cornwallis, near Annapolis, Nova Scotia, where she remained as a training ship until the end of the war. On 4 June 1945, she was turned over to the War Assets Corporation and sold to Frankel Brothers, Ltd., of Toronto for scrapping.

The ship's bell of HMCS Annapolis is currently held by the town of Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. The Christening Bells Project at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum includes information from the ship's bell of HMCS Annapolis, which was used for baptism of babies onboard ship.