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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: 52 ships built after 1942 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 constructionThe design of the Flower class was reputedly derived from that of a whale catcher. 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 spoon type 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. . OperationThey 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. 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 FlowersFour 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 of action or sunk by Allied bombing. After the warCorvettes 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. LiteratureLife 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 by an officer who served afloat and in command almost throughout the war. ShipsNote 11 These ships belonged to the revised Flower class. Note 22 These ships were torpedoed by U-boats. See table below. Chilean Navy
Dominican NavyFree French Navy
French NavyIrish 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
External links
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