The British and Canadians found the enemy in WW2 was not only in the air, on the ground, and on the ocean surface. The enemy was also skulking deep in the seas, waiting to sink warships and merchant ships with a volley of torpedoes. The Germans were determined to gain ocean supremacy, to squash the supply route to starve out the British. Their plan was well into action when the Canadians were dragged into battle with the sinking of the SS Athenia on September 3, 1939. The Battle of the Atlantic was on, and Canada urgently needed more ships.
The Corvette was the ship of choice, a small ship, quick to construct and less costly than the larger frigates or destroyers. The vessel would be well-suited for coastal patrol, and its smaller size made it very maneuverable. British Naval engineer William Reed designed the ship after a whaling boat, said Juno Beach, and England’s PM Sir Winston Churchill dubbed it “the Corvette”.
Built in civilian shipyards along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and both Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the Corvette went into mass-production. The government tendered contracts for the building of 64 vessels between 1939 and 1940, then for 43 more in later war years. The first Corvettes off the production lines were sent to the Royal Navy with the title Flower Class, since the British gave them flower names. The Royal Canadian Navy ships were named after cities across Canada, but still Flower Class. Slightly larger Castle Class Corvettes were also constructed in the mid-1940s, built mainly in Britain.
Corvette Speed 16 Knots
The Corvette had a displacement weight of 950 tonnes. It measured just over 62 metres in length by 10 metres across. The engines were fitted with “reciprocating piston steam engines because,” Juno Beach stated, “Canadian shipyards did not have the technical expertise to produce high-performance engines.” Speed was not available to the ships, either – the Corvettes reached 16 knots and were therefore slower than U-boats. The smaller size gave them an advantage in dodging, though. Initially, the boats were not well-fitted, receiving older equipment such as the ASDIC system instead of Sonar, and had few weapons.
Upgrades were made to the ships built from 1941 to 1944. While the 100-mm gun remained at the fore, depth charge rails at the stern and launchers on both sides, machine guns were replaced by a two-pound pom pom gun, two Oerlikon 20-mm guns, 70 depth charges instead of 40, and a Hedgehog at the stern. (A Hedgehog is a forward-throwing bomb launcher with either 24 or 12 missiles.) New radio, radar and sensor systems made tracking the enemy U-boats easier.
Using the weaponry was not only damaging to the U-boats, it was damaging to the Corvettes. Upon firing the depth charges, said James B. Lamb in The Corvette Navy, “the tremendous detonation of our charges is like a giant hammer striking our hull…The whole ship is given a ferocious shaking, and on deck we clutch for support; in the engine room we must have broken every pipe we have.
Navy Reserves Manned Corvettes
The first Corvettes were manned mostly with Naval Reserves and Naval Volunteer Reserves. “The professional officers were posted to the larger ships – destroyers, cruisers and, later, aircraft carriers…,” said Canadian Military Heritage. There was little time to train crews to work as teams when the ships were ready, and the “obvious enthusiasm [of volunteers] could not completely make up for the heritage of an inadequate industrial infrastructure.” But the men did their best and fought courageously.
Daily living aboard the Corvettes was a challenge. Being smaller, the ships were tossed vigorously on ocean rollers, causing great distress for the sailors. Huge waves washed over the decks soaking everything from stem to stern, top to bottom; in winter the water turned into an icy white coating that had to be manually chipped away. The great weight of ice made the vessels difficult to steer and at risk of sinking in the wind and waves. The smaller vessels also were not immune to attack. HMCS Shawinigan, as one example, was torpedoed off the coast of Newfoundland on November 24, 1944, with all 91 crew members lost at sea, according to Dr. Roger Sarty in The Battle of the Atlantic.
Pressed into service as convoy escort, the Corvettes crossed the oceans in a dedicated effort to regain control of the Atlantic shipping lanes. While not always able to prevent disaster, the Corvettes provided vital safety for many from the enemy in the deep.
Sources:
The Corvette Navy: True Stories From Canada’s Atlantic War, by James B. Lake, published by Macmillan, Toronto 1977. Pp 45
The Battle of the Atlantic: The Royal Canadian Navy’s Greatest Campaign 1939-1945, by Dr. Roger Sarty, Access to History Series 9, published by CEF Books 2001. Pp 38-40
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
