HMS Heartsease (K15)

HMS Heartsease was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She served with both the Royal Navy and the United States Navy during the Second World War, with the latter navy as USS Courage. She then spent several years in civilian service before her unexplained disappearance in late 1958.

Construction and commissioning

Heartsease was originally to have been named HMS Pansy, but the name was changed prior to her launch.^[1] She was ordered on 19 September 1939 and laid down at the yards of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland on 14 November 1939. She was launched on 20 April 1940 and commissioned into service on 20 April 1940.^[2]

Wartime service

Convoy escort

Heartsease spent most of her early career escorting convoys through British waters. On 22 September 1940 she picked up 31 survivors from the Norwegian merchant SS Simla which had been torpedoed and sunk by U-100 west of Ireland.^[2] On 15 October she rescued nine survivors from the British merchant SS Thistlegarth which had been sunk by U-103 45 nautical miles (83 km) west-north-west of Rockall.^[2] She was then called to the assistance of the inbound convoy SC-7, which had come under attack from a U-boat wolfpack and was sustaining heavy losses. On arrival Heartsease was assigned to escort the damaged SS Carsbreck into port.^[3] On 23 December she collided with the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Tetcott in the Irish Sea. Both ships were saved and towed into port. A subsequent enquiry placed the blame on the captain of Heartsease.^[4]

American service

She was transferred to the US Navy on 3 April 1942 with Lt. Christopher Sylvanus Barker, Jr. USN commanding and renamed USS Courage.^[2] She patrolled the western Atlantic for most of her career as a United States ship, escorting convoys from as far north as Greenland to as far south as Argentina. From 24 January 1945, she was stationed at Iceland. She was returned to the Royal Navy on 23 August 1945, after the end of the war.^[5]

Mercantile service

She was put up for disposal and was sold into civilian service on 22 July 1946. She was renamed Roskva in 1951, Douglas in 1956 and finally Seabird in 1958. She was announced missing in December 1958 and declared lost a month later in the Celebes Sea, the cause of her loss is unknown.^{[2] [6]}

References

• 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. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• HMS Heartsease and her transfer in The Echo of a Fighting Flower, by Peter Coy, p. 25 - at Google books
• Hyperwar: USS Courage (PG-70)

External links

• HMS Heartsease at Uboat.net