Flower Class Corvette H.M.C.S. Snowberry Revell's No. 05061-0389
The Flower Class corvettes will always be associated with the Battle of the North Atlantic, even though they were also used in all theatres of war in World War II. Alongside other escort ships she bore the main burden of the battle against the German submarines. The escort ships of this class were derived from the collaboration between the British Admiralty and the Smiths Dock Company, which in 1938 had a successful design for a commercial whaler called the Southern Pride. The main feature of this original design was that in accordance with merchant shipping practice it could easily be built in many small British dockyards and its basic engines could be handled by civilian dockyards. Sixty Flower Class corvettes had been ordered before the war broke out and by the end of 1940 at total of 141 of the original design had been ordered. The first vessel (launched on 24.1.1940) was completed in 5 months, the subsequent ones at the rate of one every 23 days. Once it had been decided that corvettes were no longer to be used as coastal escort ship, but on the high seas, some modifications had to be made. Later these vessels were given a different hull with extended forecastle that improved their trust and overhang to protect them against the Atlantic seas. In the course of the war the corvettes were equipped, amongst other things, with radar, more and more powerful anti-aircraft weapons (AA MG or 20mm Oerlikon guns), more depth charges and at the end of 1941 with the "Hedgehog" anti-submarine weapon. From 1943 they were equipped with better electronics. During this period more modifications were made to the bridge to incorporate new equipment and protections. These ships proved to be the most seaworthy and were used by navies throughout the world. (Total build 265). Displacement : 940 tons, power plant : 4-cylinder triple-expansion/Scotch boiler; capacity : 2,750 hsp; speed : 16 knots; range : 4,000 miles at 12 kts; crew : 47 men. When in the spring of 1942 the German submarines moved their zone of operations to the American coastal region, the US Navy found itself obliged to make up its full deficit of suitable escort vessels from British corvettes. 10 corvettes were immediately delivered in America, and a further 8 from Canadian shipyards. H.M.C.S. Snowberry : This ship built by Davie Shipbuilding Lauzon, Quebec, was completed on 30th November 1940. She was ordered by the British Navy and on completion was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and used as a convoy ship in the North Atlantic. In November 1943, assisted by other escort vessels, she sank U-Boot U536 500 miles west of Cape Finisterre. She spent most of her life in the North Atlantic and a brief period in the English Channel, before she was returned to the Royal Navy in 1945, and scrapped in 1947.
