HMCS Nanaimo was a Flower-class corvette that served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War.

[4][5][6] The "corvette" designation was created by the French for classes of small warships; the Royal Navy borrowed the term for a period but discontinued its use in 1877.

[7] During the hurried preparations for war in the late 1930s, Winston Churchill reactivated the corvette class, needing a name for smaller ships used in an escort capacity, in this case based on a whaling ship design.

She was laid down by Yarrows Ltd. at Esquimalt, British Columbia on 27 April 1940 and launched 28 October later that year.

She was reassigned to Newfoundland Command in October 1941, escorting convoys between St. John's and Iceland.

[12] In March 1942, Nanaimo was assigned to the Western Local Escort Force (WLEF).

On 10 June 1942 she picked up 86 survivors from the British merchant Port Nicholson that was torpedoed and sunk by U-87 northeast of Cape Cod.