USS Mobile Bay wasn’t the first US Navy ship sunk by a Canadian sub

August 3, 2026
David Pugliese

The decommissioned USS Mobile Bay sinks to the bottom after being hit by a torpedo fired from HMCS Corner Brook.

(RCN photo)

The Royal Canadian Navy received a lot of media coverage with its sinking of a U.S. warship earlier in July.

During the RIMPAC 2026 exercises, the RCN’s HMCS Corner Brook torpedoed and sank a decommissioned U.S. Navy ship. The USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) was a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser that served in the United States Navy from 1987 to 2023.

Two helicopters fly above the sea toward a ship in the distance. — A U.S. Army Apache helicopter fires a Spike missile at the decommissioned USS Mobile Bay. (U.S. DoD photo)

Before the decommissioned USS Mobile Bay went to the bottom, courtesy of a Mark 48 torpedo fired by HMCS Corner Brook, it was hit by Spike missiles fired by U.S. Army Apache helicopters.

Here’s a video of the ship sinking.

According to AI, this is the only time that a Canadian submarine has sunk a U.S. ship.

But that is not true.

And it got me thinking about a previous visit I made to HMCS Victoria in 2015. I wrote an article and included my own video of life on board the Victoria-class boat. This article also features a video interview I did with a crew member about the previous sinking of a U.S. Navy ship.

At that point, HMCS Victoria was the only one of the four Victoria-class subs to have fired a live “warshot” torpedo when it sank a target vessel, the former combat stores ship USNS Concord. This took place during RIMPAC 2012 on July 17, 2012.

She was hit by a Mark 48 torpedo and sank to the depth of 4,690 metres.

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