Downy Woodpecker

HMS Spiraea was a Flower-class corvette of the British Royal Navy. Named for a genus of shrub, Spiraea served in the Second World War as an escort.

The corvette was launched on 31 October 1940 at Glasgow, Scotland and entered nominal service on 27 February 1941. In 1943, she recovered the survivors of two separate sinkings (the merchant vessels Oporto and Fort Howe), of which the Fort Howe effort was in conjunction with HMS Alisma.

Spiraea was sold to Greece in August 1945 and became the Thessaloniki.

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Helgason Helgason (2009), HMS Spiraea (K 08): Corvette of the Flower class, uboat.net. Retrieved 23 July 2009.