HMS Zinnia (1915)

HMS Zinnia was an Azalea-class sloop minesweeping sloop of the Royal Navy, built in 1915 at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson yard, at Wallsend in the United Kingdom.It was sold to Belgium on 19 April 1920 to join their new Corps of Destroyers and Sailors.

Design and construction
The Azalea class was based on the previous Acacia-class sloop, but with a heavier gun armament. They were designed at the start of the First World War as relatively fast minesweepers that could also carry out various miscellaneous duties in support of the fleet such as acting as dispatch vessels or carrying out towing operations, but as the war continued and the threat from German submarines grew, became increasingly involved in anti-submarine duties.

Zinnia was 262 ft long overall and 250 ft between perpendiculars, with a beam of 33 ft and a draught of 11 ft. Displacement was 1200 LT normal. Two cylindrical boilers fed steam to a triple expansion steam engine rated at 1800 ihp, giving a speed of 16.5 kn. Zinnia had a main armament of two 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns, with two 3-pounder (47 mm) anti-aircraft guns also carried. She had a crew of 90 officers and other ranks.

Zinnia was ordered on 4 May 1915. She was built by Swan Hunter at their Wallsend shipyard and was launched on 12 August 1915, and was completed on 25 September 1915.

First World War
Following commissioning, Zinnia joined the First Sloop Flotilla, based at Queenstown (now Cobh). On 28 March 1916, Zinnia spotted the German submarine SMU U-44 63 nmi ESE of the Fastnet Rock, shooting twice at the submarine, which dived away unharmed, Zinnia's shells falling short. On 29 March, U-44 torpedoed the sloop HMS Begonia (1915), which did not sink. Zinnia and sister ship HMS Snowdrop (1915) were ordered to go to Begonia's aid, and the damaged sloop was towed into Queenstown. On 20 April 1916, Zinnia came across the German submarine SMU U-69, south-west of Ireland, just after U-69 had sunk the steamer SS Cairngowan (1911), forcing the submarine to dive away, and dropped two depth charges, but U-69 was unharmed. On 23 October 1916, the sloop HMS Genista (1916) was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine SMU U-57 120 nmi west of Cape Clear Island. Zinnia and HMS Camellia (1915) were ordered out from Queenstown to pick up her survivors, but at first failed to find them, and were joined by the cruiser HMS Adventure (1904). Eventually, 12 survivors were picked up.

On 8 March 1917, Zinnia encountered a German submarine, possibly SMU U-53, off Fastnet, and opened fire, claiming an apparent hit on the submarine. On 28 March 1917, Zinnia was escorting the tanker SS Gasfa 15 nmi out of Queenstown when the submarine SMU U-57 torpedoed and sunk Gasfa. Zinnia retaliated with two depth charges, which the submarine's crew considered "uncomfortably close", but the submarine escaped. Seven of Gasfa's crew were killed in the attack, with the remainder rescued by Zinnia. On 3 May 1917, the German submarine SMU U-62 torpedoed the British steamer SS Frederick Knight (1898) West of Ireland. Zinnia came to Frederick Knight's assistance, forcing the submarine to submerge, but could not stop the submarine torpedoing the merchant ship again, sinking Frederick Knight. The next day, U-62 stopped the Danish barque Jörgen Olsen, and attempted to sink the sailing vessel with gunfire. Zinnia again interrupted U-62, opening fire and forcing the submarine to submerge. Jörgen Olsen remained afloat and was towed into Berehaven. On 7 June 1917, the Q-ship HMS Pargust was on patrol off the south coast of Ireland when she was torpedoed by the German submarine SMU UC-29. Part of Pargust's crew abandoned ship as a "panic party", in order to tempt the submarine to surface, which UC-29 did after thirty minutes. Pargust then opened fire, sinking UC-29. Zinnia, the sloop HMS Crocus (1915) and the American destroyer USS Cushing (DD-55) came to the assistance of Pargust which was kept afloat by her cargo of timber, with Crocus towing Pargust into Queenstown, with Zinnia and Cushing in escort. On 20 August 1917, Zinnia collided with the American destroyer USS Benham (DD-49), badly damaging the American ship, which was towed into Queenstown by Zinnia.

Zinnia remained part of the First Sloop Flotilla at the end of the war.

Belgium
On 19 April 1920, Belgium bought the Zinnia as a fishery protection vessel, acquiring her without armament, although by 1923 she was listed as carrying one 4.7 inch gun and three 12-pounder (76 mm) guns. Belgium disbanded its Navy as a military force in 1927, but Zinnia remained in use as a civilian-manned fishery protection vessel.

In May 1940, as Belgium fell to advancing German forces, the ship was seized by the German Army at the port of Ostend. She was reconstructed at the Antwerp shipyard of the Belgian shipbuilders Cockerill as an artillery training ship, with the forward well deck of the ship filled in to give a long forecastle that ran most of the length of the ship, an rebuilt superstructure and a new armament, and renamed Barbara. This armament consisted of a single 10.5 cm SK L/45 naval gun forward, and a heavy close-in anti-aircraft armament of one 3.7 cm SK C/30 gun and ten 2 cm guns. Barbara served with the Naval Anti-Aircraft and Coastal Artillery School from January 1942, and from June 1943, served with the Navy anti-aircraft school at the port of Swinemünde, in addition to acting as a support ship for a flotilla of R boats (motor minesweepers).

The ship was recaptured in October 1945 by the British, and was returned to Belgium at the port of Ostend by a crew of the Royal Navy Belgian Section. It was reassigned to the Belgian Navy and the 105 mm gun was removed.

In 1946, when the Belgian Navy was reformed, the ship was renamed Breydel and resumed its activity as a fishery protection vessel in 1947. Too dilapidated to carry out the new tasks of the Belgian Navy, it was retired in 1949 and scrapped in 1950.