Posts Tagged ‘Corvette’

How typically and wonderfully Canadian it is that the origins of our navy can be found not in some grand idea to build an all-powerful ocean fleet, but in the practical need to protect our national interest in cod and turbot. And how typically Canadian is it that when our tired and soaked corvette crews—returning from service on the stormy North Atlantic—encountered American sailors who could not help but wonder why the Canadians manning those sea-battered little escort ships weren’t receiving submariner’s pay. Canada has a proud and storied naval history, and while it is true that our ongoing interest in enforcing [...]

Few warships epitomize the Atlantic war more than the lowly Flower-class corvette. An auxiliary vessel hastily built to mercantile standards and pushed into service by the score, with poor equipment and green crews, the corvette was hardly a match for Germany’s U-boat fleet. Nor did it inspire the imagination—except perhaps in perverse ways—of those who served in them. But the humble corvette made Allied victory in the Atlantic possible: they allowed the convoy system to be extended throughout the North Atlantic, and they provided the ‘forces of position’ which freed better equipped anti-submarine vessels to do their job. Perhaps most important [...]