User:Hmspennywort

Her design was based on the whalecatcher Southern Pride. She was ordered on 12 Dec 1939, with 16 other Corvettes.Built by A & J Inglis of Pointhouse, Scotland. Given a job number 1165, she was launched on 18 Oct 1941, and completed on 5 March 1941 (a total construction time of 11 months 22 days) at a cost of approximately £90,000.She was fitted with standard machinery - single screw 4 cylinder triple expansion steam reciprocation, with 2 single-ended cylindrical boilers. This equipment was fitted because of the ease of operation for the reservists and hostilities only crews. Her maximum speed was 16 knots. The range at full speed was around 2630 miles, or 3450 miles at 12 knots.Her displacement was 950 tons or 1160 tons when fully loaded.The main difference between her and most of the other Corvettes was that she was fitted with an acoustic hammer on her bow, and mine sweeping gear.The hammer was used to explode mines that were located. The idea being that a bucket built on an A frame was lowered into the sea, and a large weight was then dropped into it. The resulting sound was hopefully enough to set off any acoustic mines within the area The mine sweeping gear enabled her to carry out many forms of sweeping including the LL (mark IV) sweep.Once she had been fitted out, her commissioning Captain ( Lieut. G.C.W Meldrum RNR) took charge of her, a crew were assigned to her (20/02/42). She took on her stores, and then proceeded to carry out her working up period. This included going to Tobermory ( HMS Western Isles) which was the Royal Navy Escort training base under the command of Commodore (Vice-Admiral retd.) G O Stephenson, or as he was commonly known “monkey brand”. This two weeks would either make or brake a ship and company.Once the working up was completed, she was assigned to the escort group B4 based at Londonderry. This meant the she would sail the North Atlantic route escorting merchant ships in some of the most hostile, dangerous waters.