Welcome Aboard!

HMCS NANAIMO is the third of twelve ships built under the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Program and the first designated for service in Joint Task Force Pacific (previously Maritime Forces Pacific).  The current HMCS NANAIMO is the second warship to proudly carry that name.

HMCS NANAIMO was launched in Halifax in May of 1996, officially accepted by the navy in August of that same year and then manned by her first official crew. After a series of readiness inspections and performance trials, the ship conducted the first transit of the Panama Canal by a Canadian minor warship since HMCS PORTE DAUPHINE in the late 1970s.

HMCS NANAIMO was commissioned into Her Majesty's service on May 10, 1997, in a traditional ceremony held in Nanaimo, British Columbia and now serves proudly as part of Canada's Pacific Fleet.