Nautical Research Journal
revolutions per minute. Pressure in the fi re-tube boilers was 225 pounds per square inch. While slow at getting up steam due to their large volume of water, the boiler had a large steam reserve that gave quick acceleration. Corvettes carried 230 tons of fuel oil in bunkers abreast each boiler room, giving a range of 3500 nautical miles at an economical cruising speed of 12 knots. Maximum speed was 16 knots, however at sea state 6 their maximum speed was reduced to 6 knots and the Asdic became ineff ective. T eir whale catcher design made them very agile ships that could easily outmaneuver a U-boat whether surfaced or submerged, although a U-boat was marginally faster on the surface.
Manned initially by four offi cers and forty-eight ratings, by war’s end their complement had increased to between eighty-fi ve and one hundred and fi ve personnel due to more weapons, increasingly complex systems, and longer oceanic voyages. Crew spaces were steam heated, and Canadian corvettes had refrigeration, something the British ships lacked. Offi cers berthed aſt per RN tradition but, as the size of crew grew, they moved to accommodations amidships and the aſt er spaces were reconfi gured for Chiefs and Petty Offi cers (some ships berthed the engineering crew aſt ). Seamen, stokers, and other trades berthed in two fo’c’s’le mess decks. T ere was direct access from the upper mess to the main deck through an open well aſt of the fo’c’s’le. In time seamen also took over the original Chiefs’ and Petty Offi cers’ space aſt of the lower mess deck. Eventually there was double the crew for which the forward messes were designed, and sailors ate and slept wherever they could fi nd room. T e lucky ones slung hammocks from the overhead beams while the rest slept on lockers, benches, or the deck. T e crowding was exacerbated whenever the corvette picked up survivors, crews making space wherever they could squeeze them in. Corvettes were not equipped to care for survivors and did not have a sick berth or medical staff .
By the end of 1940 four RCN corvettes were in commission, fi ſt y were still building and another sixteen had been ordered to meet the crisis as the Atlantic war developed. Six of this second
procurement were ordered with the original short fo’c’s’le. T e remaining ten were revised based on British experience, with an extended fo’c’s’le and greater sheer and fl are to the bows for improved seakeeping, making them three feet longer than their short fo’c’s’le sisters. T e long fo’c’s’le extended aſt of the funnel, increasing the accommodations and enclosing the commanding offi cer’s cabin and galley.
All sixteen corvettes of the second procurement were ordered with extended bridge wings and water-tube boilers. T ese smaller and lighter boilers could not deliver the rapid acceleration of the earlier Scotch boilers, but their steam delivery was more reliable, and their higher pressures could be sustained without causing failure of the boiler. None of these sixteen ships were fi tted for minesweeping.
At the end of 1941 all but one of the original
corvettes and six of the second procurement were in commission, the ten for the RN having sailed to Britain partially fi nished and manned by skeleton Canadian crews. T ey went unarmed since they were to be fi tted out in the United Kingdom, at least one making the crossing with a wooden 4-inch gun. T e RN was reluctant to accept these ships because they, too, lacked gyro compasses, and eventually they were commissioned into the RCN, becoming the only Canadian corvettes with British pattern hulls and Flower names.
T e fi rst eighty corvettes each took about ten months to construct at a cost of around $600,000, a remarkable feat of shipbuilding for the time. Except for three built by St. John Shipbuilding and Drydock in New Brunswick, all Canadian corvettes were built in shipyards along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, or on the west coast. Canadian corvettes were named aſt er towns across the country, and for a brief period were classed as Town-class corvettes until that name was taken for the fi ſt y American World War I-era destroyers given to Britain under lend- lease. Each community sponsored its name ship, and service clubs provided warm clothing, food parcels and other niceties to the crews. Oſt en the mayor’s wife christened the ship, and captains were encouraged to visit and thank the communities, if possible.
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