The CARTAGENA, originally named TR4, was one of 60 minesweeping trawlers ordered in Canada for the Royal Navy during the First World War. They were copies of the British Castle Class trawlers based on the mercantile prototype designed by the Smith Dock Company, Stockton-upon-Tees. TR4was built by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, Ontario, and commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy in May 1918.

The military tasks most often allocated to these Admiralty Trawlers were patrol, convoy escort and minesweeping. Over 200 of these craft were sunk, chiefly by mines, performing these duties.