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. Both this ship and the original HMCS Athabaskan (G07) were destroyers and thus this one became known as Athabaskan II.

Built too late to see action in the North Atlantic, Athabaskan served in the Korean War and played an important role in Canadian postwar naval reform following a crew protest in 1949.

Construction
Athabaskan was built at Halifax Shipyards in May 1945, one of four Tribal-class destroyers built in Halifax during World War II.

1949 'mutiny'
On 26 February 1949, when the Athabaskan was on fueling stop at Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, ninety leading seamen and below – constituting more than half the ship's company – 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 of the sailors' grievances and carefully avoiding using the term "mutiny" which could have had severe legal consequences for the sailors involved. Specifically, while talking with the disgruntled crew members, the captain is known to have placed his cap over a written list of demands which could have been used as legal evidence of a mutiny, pretending not to notice it.

At nearly the same time, similar incidents happened on HMCS Crescent (R16) at Nanjing, China, and on the carrier HMCS Magnificent (CVL 21) in the Caribbean, both of whose captains acted similarly to that of the Athabaskan.

Korean War
Athabaskan operated during the Korean War, earning the battle honour "Korea 1950-53"

Decommissioning and fate
Athabaskan was sold for scrapping in 1969.