(5th July 2001)
Canada Accepts Second Upholder
The second of four Upholder Class submarines was today handed over to Canada at a ceremony at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard of BAe SYSTEMS. HMS Unicorn was renamed HMCS Windsor by her new sponsor, Mrs Anne Winterbottom, a leading figure in civic and charitable organisations in Windsor, Ontario.
The ceremony was also attended by British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and the Canadian Deputy Prime Minister, Herb Gray. Geoff Hoon said "The programme to sell the Upholder Class of submarines has been unique. The UK Ministry of Defence has had to refurbish the submarines, to train Canadian crew on Upholder and to act as the seller when normally it is the customer. Novel solutions have been found for novel problems. The programme has proved a strong indication of the close relationship between the UK and Canada."
HMS Unicorn was one of four advanced Upholder Class diesel electric submarines built for the Royal Navy at the end of the 1980s but decommissioned in 1993 as part of defence cuts. They remained laid up until 1998 when they were leased to Canada in a cut-price deal. The first submarine taken out of mothballs and reactivated was HMS Unseen. She was handed over to Canada in October 2000 and renamed HMCS Victoria. The remaining two vessels HMCS Cornerbrook (ex- HMS Urusla) and HMCS Chicoutimi (ex-HMS Upholder) have still to be transferred.