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HMS Amaranthus (K17) was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy.[1] She took part in the Second World War, being involved in escorting convoys from West Africa to the United Kingdom from May 1941 onwards.[2]

Design and construction

The Flower-class arose as a result of the Royal Navy's realisation in the late 1930s that it had a shortage of escort vessels, particularly coastal escorts for use on the East coast of Britain, as the likelihood of war with Germany increased. To meet this urgent requirement, a design developed based on the whale-catcher Southern Pride - this design was much more capable than Naval trawlers, but cheaper and quicker to build than the Hunt-class destroyers or Kingfisher-class sloops that were alternatives for the coastal escort role.[3][4]

The early Flowers, such as Amerantus were 205 feet 0 inches (62.48 m) long overall, 196 feet 0 inches (59.74 m) at the waterline and 190 feet 0 inches (57.91 m) between perpendiculars. Beam was 33 feet 0 inches (10.06 m) and draught was 14 feet 10 inches (4.52 m) aft.[5][6] Displacement was about 940 long tons (960 t) standard and 1,170 long tons (1,190 t) full load. Two Admiralty Three-drum water tube boilers fed steam to a Vertical Triple Expansion Engine rated at 2,750 indicated horsepower (2,050 kW) which drove a single propeller shaft. This gave a speed of 16 knots (18 mph; 30 km/h).[6] 200 tons of oil were carried, giving a range of 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 mi; 7,400 km) at 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h).[6]

Design armament was a single BL 4-inch Mk IX naval gun forward and a single 2-pounder "pom-pom" anti-aircraft cannon aft, although the pom-poms were not available until 1941, so early ships were completed with improvised close-range anti aircraft armament such as Lewis guns or Vickers .50 machine guns instead.[7][8]

Amaranthus was one of a group of ten Flower-class corvettes ordered by the Admiralty on 21 September 1939.[9][10] The ship was laid down at the Scottish shipbuilder Fleming and Ferguson's Paisley shipyard as Yard number 563 on 4 May 1940.[9][10][11] She was launched on 17 October 1940 and completed on 12 February 1941.[9][10]

Wartime service

References

  1. ^ Colledge, J. J. (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy : the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. Ben Warlow. London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
  2. ^ "HMS Amaranthus (K 17) of the Royal Navy - British Corvette of the Flower class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  3. ^ Friedman 2008, pp. 133–134
  4. ^ Lambert & Brown 2008, pp. 3–4
  5. ^ Friedman 2008, p. 324
  6. ^ a b c Lambert & Brown 2008, p. 4
  7. ^ Elliott 1977, p. 184
  8. ^ Lambert & Brown 2008, p. 73
  9. ^ a b c Friedman 2008, p. 341
  10. ^ a b c Lambert & Brown 2008, p. 67
  11. ^ "Amaranthus". Scottish Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.

Sources

  • Elliott, Peter (1977). Allied Escort Ships of World War II: A complete survey. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers. ISBN 0-356-08401-9.
  • Friedman, Norman (2008). British Destroyers and Frigates: The Second World War and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-015-4.
  • Lambert, John; Brown, Les (2008). Flower-Class Corvettes. St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada: Vanwall Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55068-986-0.
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