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Vol. 65, No. 1 spring 2020


14 compartment at the forward end. T e gun platform was directly connected to the wheelhouse, and a


deck higher than earlier designs. T is also elevated the bridge, making a three-level superstructure. T e gun was the 4-inch semi-automatic Mk. XIX with a high angle mount for engaging air as well as surface targets. Hedgehog was mounted beside the gun, integrated with and fi red by the new Type 144 Asdic. IE corvettes had forced draught boiler rooms and dispensed with the characteristic large stokehold ventilators around the funnel. T eir IE name came from enlarged bunkers that doubled their range to 7400 nautical miles at 10 knots.


Another twelve IE corvettes were ordered in 1943 as Canadian production in the smaller shipyards began switching to Algerine-class minesweepers. T e British also wanted Algerines so off ered in trade four more IE corvettes being built in Britain, and twelve of a completely new corvette type, the Castle-class.


T e fi nal corvette order from Canadian yards was for fi ſt een IE ships for the USN, commissioned as the Action-class of Patrol Gunboats (PG-86 – 100). T ese joined ten modifi ed corvettes provided to the USN by the RN in 1942, known as the Temptress-class (PG- 62 – 71). Only eight of the Action-class served the USN, the other seven going directly to the RN. T e Americans replaced the 2-pounder anti-aircraſt gun with a 3-inch 50 cal. weapon, and the Temptresses carried a second similar gun forward instead of the older model 4-inch gun. T ey sank no U-boats and suff ered no losses.


T e IE and Castle corvettes formed most of the mid ocean escort groups during the last eighteen months of the war, while the corvettes of the earlier programs moved back to the inshore duties for which they were originally designed. T is was somewhat ironic because the use of Allied air power and specialized submarine hunter-killer groups had forced the U-boats into quieter zones where the older corvettes now operated.


By May 1944 the RCN was fully responsible for all trans-Atlantic convoy escort, and the mid-ocean escort force now numbered nine Canadian groups.


T e IE type fought no major battles and sank no submarines during their relatively brief careers. Nineteen Canadian corvettes served in Operation Neptune, the naval component of Overlord. During that time Alberni shot down a JU-88 but itself was sunk by U-480 a month later. Regina was torpedoed by U-667 in August, and Trentonian was lost to U-1004 in February 1945.


Canada’s east coast was one of the last areas where ships destined for the United Kingdom could be threatened, and several were sunk during the last few months of the war. In late November Shawinigan was patrolling independently aſt er escorting the regular ferry to Port-Aux-Basques in Newfoundland. Sometime during the night the corvette was sunk by U-1228 with the loss of all hands.


Where have all the Flowers gone?


With the European war over in May 1945 there was no further need for Atlantic escort forces, and disposal was swiſt . T e eight survivors of the original ten Flowers built for the RN were returned to Britain by June, where four were scrapped and the others sold for conversion into whalers. T e RCN corvette fl eet sailed to Sorel, Quebec, where all but one were handed over to the War Assets Corporation by April 1946.


T irty-eight Flowers went straight to the breaker’s yards; the rest, including most of the IE type and the Castles, were sold for other uses. Forty-nine were converted into merchant ships, serving under more than a dozen fl ags. T ey became coastal steamers, weather ships, salvage ships, and thirteen were converted into whale catchers. Most of these vessels had gone to the breakers by the end of the 1960s, some were lost, but a few sailed on into the 1970s.


Seven mercantile corvettes returned to naval service; the former Norsyd and Beauharnois smuggled Jews into Palestine before being taken into the new Israeli Navy, and Barrie was converted into an Argentinian Navy survey vessel. Four of the eleven Castles that went to the Chinese were converted back to warships; Copper Cliff , Orangeville, and Bowmanville were taken


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