HMS Poppy (K213)

HMS Poppy was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy as a convoy escort during World War II.

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 sloop sloops that were alternatives for the coastal escort role.

The early Flowers, such as Aubrietia were 205 ft long overall, 196 ft at the waterline and 190 ft between perpendiculars. Beam was 33 ft and draught was 14 ft aft. Displacement was about 940 LT standard and 1170 LT full load. Two Admiralty three-drum water tube boilers fed steam to a vertical triple-expansion engine rated at 2750 ihp which drove a single propeller shaft. This gave a speed of 16 kn. 200 tons of oil were carried, giving a range of 4000 nmi at 12 kn.

Poppy was one of six Flowers ordered on 3 August 1940. The ship was laid down on 6 March 1941, by Alexander Hall & Co., Ltd., at their Aberdeen, Scotland shipyard. She was launched on 20 November 1941, and commissioned on 12 May 1942.

Service history
On 27 June 1942, Poppy departed Reykjavik, Iceland, escorting convoy PQ-17, bound for Arkhangelsk, Russia. On 4 July 1942, the Admiralty ordered the convoy to disperse. Poppy rescued 53 survivors from the United States cargo ship SS Hoosier (1920), at 69.75°N, 39.58333°W. Efforts were made by the captain of HMS La Malouine (K46) to repair Hoosier and take her under tow, but when the GS U-255 was spotted 4 nmi astern she was again abandoned and Poppy tried to sink Hoosier with gun fire, but was unsuccessful.

Poppy escorted 51 convoys during the war, along with anti-submarine exercises with Royal Navy submarines off of Lough Foyle, and once each off Derry and Campbeltown.