Flower Class Corvette - Post-war Use

Post-war Use

The relatively small Flowers were among the first warships to be declared surplus by Allied navies following the end of World War II. They had seen years of hard service in the North Atlantic and were made obsolete by the numerous large frigates, destroyers, and cruisers that entered service in the latter part of the war.

32 vessels from the RN, RCN, and USN were transferred to Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Greece, India, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, and Venezuela. These were typically operated according to their original design, as coastal patrol vessels, with many serving until the 1970s.

The Irish Navy bought three Flowers in 1946 (LE Macha, LE Cliona, and LE Maeve). The fledgling navy had intended to purchase an additional three corvettes, as well as a number of surplus minesweepers, but severe budget restrictions cancelled these plans, leaving the original three to serve alone through the 1960s and 1970s, despite antiquated armament, poor accommodation, and maintenance problems. Entry into the EEC in 1973 resulted in funding for replacement ships.

110 surplus Flowers were sold for commercial use. These saw various careers as mercantile freighters, smugglers, tugs, weather ships, and whalers. The remainder were scrapped. Of particular interest is the story of HMCS Sudbury. She was declared surplus by the RCN and sold as a towboat specializing in deep-sea salvage. In November 1955, she rescued the freighter Makedonia in the North Pacific, towing the vessel for over one month through severe weather, becoming one of the most famous salvage ships of all time.

The surplus RCN Flowers Norsyd and Beauharnois were sold as mercantile freighters but were subsequently acquired in 1946 by the Mossad LeAliyah Bet, a branch of the Jewish Defense Association (Haganah) in the British Mandate for Palestine. Mossad Le'aliyah Bet organized Jewish immigration from Europe into Palestine, in violation of unilateral British restrictions. The corvettes were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea during the summer of 1946 by the destroyer Venus and interned in Palestine. After Israel became independent in 1948, these commercial ships were commissioned into the Israeli Navy as the warships Hashomer and Hagana respectively.

Allied navies disposed of their Flowers so quickly following the war, the RN could not supply a single vessel to play Compass Rose in the 1953 film production of Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea. The Royal Hellenic Navy supplied Kriezis (formerly HMS Coreopsis) for the role prior to her scrapping.

The only survivor of the entire class is Sackville, owned by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust. She was laid up in reserve in March 1946 and converted in 1952 to a research vessel for Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries, a role she served in until the early 1980s when she was acquired by the trust. She has been restored to her wartime appearance and serves the summer months as a museum ship on loan to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while wintering securely in the naval dockyard at CFB Halifax under the care of Maritime Forces Atlantic, Maritime Command. Sackville's presence in Halifax is considered very appropriate, given the port was an important North American convoy assembly port during the war. Sackville makes her first appearance each spring when she is towed by a naval tug from HMC Dockyard to a location off Point Pleasant Park on the first Sunday in May to participate in the Commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies held at a memorial in the park overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour. Sackville typically hosts several dozen RCN veterans on this day and has also participated in several burials at sea for dispersing the ashes of RCN veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location.