Flower class corvette

	General characteristics
Missing image USS_Intensity_(PG-93).jpg USS Intensity USS Intensity (ex-HMS Milfoil), in 1943.
Displacement:	940 tons (980 tons revised)
Length:	62.5 m (63.5 m revised)
Beam:	10 m
Draught:	11.5 m
Propulsion:	2 fire tube boilers, one 4-cycle triple expansion steam engine
Speed:	16 knots at 2,750 hp (30 km/h at 2 MW)
Range:	3,500 nautical miles at 12 knots (6,500 km at 22 km/h)
Complement:	85 men (109 men revised)
Armament:	1 x 4 in (102 mm) BL MK.IX gun, two .50 caliber (12.7 mm) twin machine guns, two Lewis .303 calibre (7.7 mm) machine guns, two stern depth charge racks, 40 depth charges. The revised class added one 2-pounder (907 g), 6 x 20 mm anti-aircraft guns and two hedgehog depth charge projectors

The Flower class was a class of 267 corvettes developed by the Royal Navy specifically for the protection of shipping convoys during the Second Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. They were a stopgap measure in the war against the German U-boats: small ships that could be produced quickly and cheaply in large numbers. They were the mainstay of convoy protection in the first half of the war. After the war the Flowers were sold off and served around the world from the Israeli Navy to the Chilean Navy.

The name "corvette" originally referred to the 19th century sloop-of-war, a small screw warship with a similar shipping-protection role.

Properly speaking there are two Flower classes: 64 ships launched from 1940 onwards were larger and better armed; this subclass is sometimes called the "revised Flower class". The revised Flowers of the United States Navy are also known as Action-class gunboats and have the "PG" hull classification symbol. This article covers both sets of ships.

Design and construction

The design of the Flower class was derived from that of a whaler, the Smiths Dock Company's Southern Pride of 1938. Originally intended for coastal convoy protection, nevertheless they soon found themselves in the role of ocean escort. They were a stopgap measure to take the strain of convoy protection until large numbers of larger vessels — destroyers and frigates — could be produced. They were constructed in shipyards all over the United Kingdom and eastern Canada where larger ships like destroyers could not be built due to dock size limitations.

Corvettes were slow and poorly armed, intended solely for anti-submarine warfare (though many Canadian Flowers were adapted for minesweeping and the revised Flowers had limited anti-aircraft capability).

The early Flowers had the standard Royal Navy layout of a raised forecastle, a well deck then the bridge and a continuous deck running aft. Later Flowers had the forecastle extended aft past the bridge to the aft end of the funnel, a variation that was known as the "long forecastle" design. Apart from providing a very useful space where the whole crew could gather out of the weather, the added weight improved the ships' stability and speed and was retrospectively applied to a number of the earlier build.

Originally the mast was immediately in front of the bridge, a notable exception to naval practice. It was moved in the long forecastle types to the normal position of immediately behind the bridge, however this does not seem to have been done in all of the conversions.

A cruiser stern finished the appearance.

145 Flower class corvettes were built in the United Kingdom, starting in 1939. A large number (120 reported by one source) were also built by Canadian shipyards. The Canadian design had detail variations. Canadian Flowers had the bandstand, where the aft pom-pom gun was mounted moved to the rear of the superstructure. And they had the galley moved somewhat forward to just abaft the engine room. .

Operation

They were used extensively by the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second Battle of the Atlantic and elsewhere. Many were constructed for or transferred to other navies, including the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Hellenic Navy, the Free French and French Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Indian Navy and United States Navy during and after the war.

The Royal Navy Flower-class corvettes were officered and crewed by members of the Royal Naval Reserve and the Volunteer Reserve. The captains were largely from the merchant navy.

Service on corvettes was cold, wet, monotonous and uncomfortable. The ships were nicknamed "the pekingese of the ocean". They had a reputation of being very bad at rolling in heavy seas, with 80-degree rolls (that is, 40 degrees each side of the normal upright position) being fairly common - sailors said "they would roll on wet grass" - however, they were very seaworthy ships.

35 were lost at sea, of which 22 were torpedoed by U-boats, and 4 sunk by mines. It is thought that Flowers participated in the sinking of 47 U-boats and 4 Italian submarines. (Tables of both sets of sinkings appear below.)

Construction of Flower-class corvettes was superseded toward the end of the war; larger shipyards concentrated on River-class frigates and smaller yards on the improved Castle class corvettes. However, nearly half of the Allied escort vessels belonged to the Flower class.

German Flowers

Four Flower-class corvettes under construction for the French Navy at Saint-Nazaire were captured by Germany after the battle of France. Construction was continued and they were launched in 1943–1944 as PA-1 to PA-4. One was sunk as a blockship and the other three were put out of action or sunk by Allied bombing.

After the war

Corvettes were among the first ships to be sold or scrapped after the war. The Flowers had seen years of hard service in the Atlantic and had been made obsolete by the larger frigates and destroyers. 32 were sold on to the navies of Chile, the Dominican Republic, Greece, India, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, and Venezuela where some served, typically as coastal patrol vessels, until the 1970s.

110 went into commercial use as freighters, smugglers, tugs, weather ships, and whalers. The remainder were scrapped.

Two Canadian Flowers that had been sold as freighters were bought in 1946 by the Mossad Le'Aliya bet, a Jewish organization in Quebec that smuggled Jewish survivors of the Holocaust into Palestine. The corvettes sailed in the summer of 1946 but were intercepted by the destroyer HMS Venus and they and their passengers were interned in Palestine. After Israel became independent in 1948 these ships were commissioned into the Israeli Navy as Hashomer ("guard") and Hagana ("defence").

The Flowers were disposed of so quickly that in 1950 the Royal Navy could not supply one to play Compass Rose in the film of Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea. Krizeis of the Royal Hellenic Navy (formerly HMS Coreopsis) played the role before she too was scrapped.

The only known surviving Flower, HMCS Sackville, has been restored to her wartime appearance, and is now a museum ship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, one of the ports where Atlantic convoys assembled during the war.

Literature

Life in corvettes has been recorded by several authors. Nicholas Monsarrat wrote a well-known fictionalised account in his novel The Cruel Sea which was filmed starring Jack Hawkins. Three Corvettes, a less well known volume by the same author is a collection of wartime essays of his personal experiences as a corvette officer although only the first part deals with Atlantic convoys.

Escort by Derek Rayner is another first-hand account. Notable for being written by an officer who served afloat and in command almost throughout the war.

Ships

Note 1

1 These ships belonged to the revised Flower class.

Note 2

2 These ships were torpedoed by U-boats. See table below.

Chilean Navy

Capana (ex-HMCS Strathroy)

Dominican Navy

Free French Navy

Aconit (ex-HMS Aconite)
Alysse 2 (ex-HMS Alyssum)
Commandant Detroyant (ex-HMS Coriander)
Commandant Drogou (ex-HMS Chrysanthemum)
Commandant d'Estienne d'Orves (ex-HMS Lotus)
Lobelia (ex-HMS Lobelia)
Mimosa 2 (ex-HMS Mimosa)
Renoncule (ex-HMS Renonculus)
Roselys (ex-HMS Sundew)

French Navy

La Bastiaise

Irish Naval Service

Royal Norwegian Navy

South African Navy

Protea (ex-HMS Rockrose)

United States Navy

Action 1 (ex-HMS Comfrey)
Alacrity 1 (ex-HMS Cornel)
Beacon 1 (to the United Kingdom as Dittany)
Brisk 1 (ex-HMS Flax)
Caprice 1 (to the United Kingdom as Honesty)
Clash 1 (to the United Kingdom as Linaria)
Courage (ex-HMS Heartsease)
Fury (ex-HMS Larkspur)
Haste 1 (ex-HMS Mandrake)
Impulse (ex-HMS Begonia)
Intensity 1 (ex-HMS Milfoil)
Might 1 (ex-HMS Musk)
Pert 1 (ex-HMS Nepeta)
Prudent 1 (ex-HMS Privet)
Ready (ex-HMS Calendula)
Restless (ex-HMS Periwinkle)
Saucy (ex-HMS Arabis)
Splendor 1 (to the United Kingdom as Rosebay)
Spry (ex-HMS Hibiscus)
Surprise (ex-HMS Heliotrope)
Tact 1 (to the United Kingdom as Smilax)
Temptress (ex-HMS Veronica)
Tenacity (ex-HMS Candytuft)
Vim 1 (to the United Kingdom as Statice)
Vitality 1 (to the United Kingdom as Willowherb)

Venezuelan Navy

Yugoslavian Navy

Nada (ex-HMS Mallow)

Flowers sunk by U-boats

HMS Picotee was sunk by U-568 on 12 August 1941
HMS Zinnia was sunk by U-564 on 23 August 1941
HMCS Levis was sunk by U-74 on 19 September 1941
HMS Fleur de Lys was sunk by U-206 on 14 October 1941
HMS Gladiolus was sunk by U-558 on 17 October 1941
HMS Salvia was sunk by U-568 on 24 December 1941
HMS Arbutus (K86) was sunk by U-136 on 5 February 1942
Free French Alysse was sunk by U-654 on 9 February 1942
Free French Mimosa was sunk by U-124 on 9 June 1942
HMCS Charlottetown was sunk by U-517 on 11 September 1942
HNoMS Montbretia was sunk by U-262 on 18 November 1942
HMCS Spikenard was sunk by U-136 on 11 February 1942
HMCS Weyburn was sunk by U-118 on 22 February 1943
HMCS Alberni was sunk by U-480 on 21 August 1944
HMS Polyanthus was sunk by U-952 on 21 September 1943
HMS Asphodel was sunk by U-575 on 10 March 1944
HMS Pink was sunk by U-988 on 27 June 1944
HMCS Regina was sunk by U-667 on 8 August 1944
HMCS Shawinigan was sunk by U-1228 on 25 November 1944
HMS Bluebell was sunk by U-711 on 17 February 1945
HMS Vervain was sunk by U-1276 on 20 February 1945
HMCS Trentonian was sunk by U-1004 on 22 February 1945

Submarines sunk, destroyed, or captured by Flowers

U-26 was sunk by HMS Gladiolus on 1940-07-01
Italian submarine Nani was sunk by HMS Anemone on 1941-01-07
U-70 was sunk by HMS Camellia and HMS Arbutus on 1941-03-07
U-110 was captured on 1941-05-09 by the destroyers HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway and the corvette HMS Aubretia. U-110 was sunk the next day to preserve the secret.
U-147 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Wanderer and HMS Periwinkle on 1941-06-02
U-556 was sunk by HMS Nasturtium, HMS Celandine, and HMS Gladiolus on 1941-06-17
U-651 was sunk by the destroyers HMS Malcolm, HMS Scimitar, the corvettes HMS Arabis and HMS Violet, and the minesweeper HMS Speedwell on 1941-06-29
U-401 was sunk by the destroyers HMS Wanderer and HNoMS St. Albans and the corvette HMS Hydrangea on 1941-08-03
U-501 was sunk by HMCS Chambly and HMCS Moosejaw on 1941-09-10
Italian submarine Fisalia was sunk by HMS Hyacinth on 1941-09-28
U-204 was sunk by HMS Mallow and the sloop HMS Rochester on 1941-10-19
U-433 was sunk by HMS Marigold on 1941-11-16
U-131 was sunk by the destroyers HMS Exmoor, HMS Blankney, HMS Stanley, the corvette HMS Pentstemon, the sloop HMS Stork, and a Martlet aircraft from HMS Audacity on 1941-12-17
U-567 was sunk by the sloop HMS Deptford and HMS Samphire on 1941-12-21
U-356 was sunk by the destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, HMCS Chilliwack, HMCS Battleford and HMCS Napanee on 1942-12-27
U-756 was sunk by HMCS Morden on 1942-09-01
U-94 was sunk by an American Catalina seaplane and HMCS Oakville on 1942-08-28
U-588 was sunk by HMCS Wetaskiwin and the destroyer HMCS Skeena on 1942-07-31
U-379 was sunk by HMS Dianthus on 1942-08-08
Italian submarine Perla was captured by HMS Hyacinth on 1942-07-09
U-660 was scuttled after being damaged by HMS Lotus and HMS Starwort on 1942-11-12
U-124 was sunk by HMS Stonecrop and the sloop HMS Black Swan on 1942-04-02
U-82 was sunk by the sloop HMS Rochester and HMS Tamarisk on 1942-02-06
U-252 was sunk by the sloop HMS Stork and HMS Vetch on 1942-04-14
U-432 was sunk by the Free French Aconit on 1943-03-11
U-444 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Harvester and the Free French Aconit on 1943-03-11
U-609 was sunk by the Free French Lobelia on 1943-02-07
U-536 was sunk by the frigate HMS Nene, HMCS Snowberry and HMCS Calgary on 1943-11-20
U-753 was sunk by HMCS Drumheller, the frigate HMS Lagan, and a Canadian Sunderland seaplane on 1943-05-13
Italian submarine Tritone was sunk by HMCS Port Arthur and the destroyer HMS Antelope on 1943-01-19
U-163 was sunk by HMCS Prescott on 1943-03-13
Italian submarine Avorio was sunk by HMCS Regina on 1943-02-08
U-87 was sunk by HMCS Shediac and the destroyer HMCS St. Croix on 1943-03-04
U-224 was sunk by HMCS Ville de Quebec on 1943-01-13
U-135 was sunk by the sloop HMS Rochester, the corvettes HMS Mignonette and HMS Balsam, and an American PBY Catalina aircraft on 1943-07-15
U-306 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Whitehall and HMS Geranium on 1943-10-31
U-617 was destroyed while grounded by HMS Hyacinth and the minesweeper HMAS Wollongong on 1943-09-12
U-436 was sunk by the frigate HMS Test and HMS Hyderabad on 1943-05-26
U-192 was sunk by HMS Loosestrife on 1943-05-06
U-125 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Oribi and HMS Snowflake on 1943-05-06
U-634 was sunk by the sloop HMS Stork and HMS Stonecrop on 1943-08-30
U-638 was sunk by HMS Sunflower on 1943-05-05
U-631 was sunk by HMS Sunflower on 1943-10-17
U-282 was sunk by the destroyers HMS Vidette and HMS Duncan and the corvette HMS Sunflower on 1943-10-29
U-414 was sunk by HMS Vetch. on 1943-05-25
U-523 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Wanderer and HMS Wallflower on 1943-08-25
U-757 was sunk by the frigate HMS Bayntun and HMCS Camrose on 1944-01-08
U-744 was sunk by the destroyers HMS Icarus, HMCS Chaudiere, HMCS Gatineau, the frigate HMCS St. Catharines, and the corvettes HMCS Fennel, HMCS Chilliwack, and HMS Kenilworth Castle on 1944-03-06
U-741 was sunk by HMS Orchis on 1944-08-15
U-641 was sunk by HMS Violet on 1944-01-19
U-845 was sunk by the destroyers HMS Forester and HMCS St. Laurent, the corvette HMCS Owen Sound and the frigate HMCS Swansea on 1944-03-10
U-1199 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Icarus and HMS Mignonette on 1945-01-21

External links

The Flower Class Corvette and WWII Royal Navy Forums (http://p214.ezboard.com/btheflowerclasscorvetteforums)
uboat.net has pages on the original (http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/class.html?ID=42) and revised (http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/class.html?ID=41) Flower classes.
The Flower Class Corvette Association (http://www.fcca.demon.co.uk/)
HMCS Sackville - The Last Corvette (http://www.hmcssackville-cnmt.ns.ca/)
"Corvette K-225" -- a 1943 film (http://imdb.com/title/tt0035757/) (the real K225 was HMCS Kitchener)
Flower Class Corvettes (http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/contents.htm) by Bob Pearson & Chris Banyai-Riepl
1993 film "Lifeline to Victory" (http://imdb.com/title/tt0107414/) -- filmed aboard Sackville

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Categories: Ship classes

Flower class corvette

Design and construction

Operation

German Flowers

After the war

Literature

Ships

Note 1

Note 2

Chilean Navy

Dominican Navy

Free French Navy

French Navy

Irish Naval Service

Israeli Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Hellenic Navy

Royal Indian Navy

Royal Navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

Royal New Zealand Navy

Royal Norwegian Navy

South African Navy

United States Navy

Venezuelan Navy

Yugoslavian Navy

Flowers sunk by U-boats

Submarines sunk, destroyed, or captured by Flowers

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