Flower Class, British Corvettes

Imperial War Museum. Via Wikimedia Commons

Specifications:

The Flowers were antisubmarine corvettes based on a whalecatcher hull and intended for rapid production. The original design was intended for coastal protection and aimed at minimizing manpower requirements. However, it soon became clear that U-boat wolf packs were a deadly threat to convoys in the ocean lanes, and the "Flowers" were pressed into service as ocean escorts. This required greater manpower for the sustained voyages, obviating some of the advantages of the design, which was eventually superseded by the "River" class.

The ships had excellent maneuverability, although they yawed badly in a heavy sea. Their chief weaknesses were their speed and range. While adequate for screening against submerged submarines, their speed was inadequate to catch a surfaced submarine in a night action. Their limited range, a consequence of their origins as coastal escorts, meant that they could only escort a convoy partway across the North Atlantic before handing it off to freshly fueled escorts near Iceland.

Units in the Pacific:

References

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2014 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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