Post Description

I imagine when one thinks of a World War II-era warship, they think of sleek battleships and heavy cruisers slicing through waves at 30 knots. A clumsy adaptation of a 30s whale chaser, armed with a single 4-inch gun and a couple dozen depth charges, doesn't exactly fit one's description of "superior firepower." The British designed the Flower-class Corvette as a "stopgap" measure to protect Allied convoys crossing the Atlantic. They were slow, poorly armed, and presumably would have "rolled on wet grass." Nonetheless, they participated in the sinking of at 51 enemy submarines. 225 were built, more than any other surface warship class, and they served in ten allied navies. Even the Germans had four of their own, captured when they overran France. 

The subject of this book is the HMCS Agassiz, a Canadian Flower of the "short forecastle" type, similar to the Compass Rose depicted in Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. She was laid down in Vancouver in April 1940 and commissioned in January the next year. The Agassiz remained in service until 1945, receiving a major refit in 1943. She was scrapped in 1946.