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HMSHeartsease(K15)

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For other ships with the same name, seeHMS Heartsease.

History
United Kingdom
NameHMSHeartsease
Ordered19 September 1939
Builder
Yard number1063[1]
Laid down14 November 1939
Launched20 April 1940
Completed4 June 1940[1]
Commissioned4 June 1940
Decommissioned3 April 1942
IdentificationPennant number:K15
FateTransferred to theUS Navy3 April 1942
United States
NameUSSCourage
Acquired18 March 1942
Commissioned3 April 1942
Decommissioned22 August 1945
IdentificationHull number:PG-70
FateReturned to Royal Navy 23 August 1945
United Kingdom
NameHMSHeartsease
Recommissioned23 August 1945
Out of serviceSold into merchant service 22 July 1946
Renamed
  • Roskvafrom 1951
  • Douglasfrom 1956
  • Seabirdfrom 1958
FateSunk byIndonesian Air ForceDecember 1958
General characteristics
Class and typeFlower-classcorvette
Displacement925 long tons (940 t)
Length208 ft 6 in (63.55 m)
Beam33 ft (10 m)
Draught11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Propulsion
Speed16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement85
Armament

HMSHeartseasewas aFlower-classcorvetteof theRoyal Navy.She served with both the Royal Navy and theUnited States Navyduring theSecond World War,with the latter navy asUSSCourage.She then spent several years under a succession of names in civilian service. In 1957 she was chartered on behalf of Indonesian rebels to smuggle rubber,copraandmatériel.TheIndonesian Air Forceintercepted and sank her off the coast ofMinahasainNorth Sulawesiin December 1958.

Construction and commissioning[edit]

Heartseasewas originally to have been named HMSPansy,but the name was changed prior to her launch.[2]She was ordered on 19 September 1939 andlaid downat the yards ofHarland and Wolff,Belfast,Northern Ireland, on 14 November 1939. She waslaunchedon 20 April 1940 andcommissionedinto service on 20 April 1940.[3]

Wartime service[edit]

Convoy escort[edit]

Heartseasespent most of her early career escorting convoys through British waters. On 22 September 1940 she picked up 31 survivors from the Norwegian merchantSSSimlawhich had been torpedoed and sunk by the GermanU-boatU-100west of Ireland.[3]On 15 October she rescued nine survivors from the British merchantSSThistlegarthwhich had been sunk byU-10345 nautical miles (83 km) west-north-west ofRockall.[3]She was then called to the assistance of the inboundConvoy SC 7,which had come under attack from a U-boatwolfpackand was sustaining heavy losses. On arrivalHeartseasewas assigned to escort the damagedSSCarsbreckinto port.[4]On 23 December she collided with theHunt-classdestroyerHMSTetcottin theIrish Sea.Both ships were saved and towed into port. A subsequent enquiry placed the blame on the captain ofHeartsease.[5]

American service[edit]

She was transferred to the US Navy on 3 April 1942 with Lt. Christopher Sylvanus Barker Jr., USN, commanding and renamed USSCourage.[3]She patrolled the western Atlantic for most of her career as a United States ship, escorting convoys from as far north asGreenlandto as far south asArgentina.From 24 January 1945, she was stationed atIceland.She was returned to the Royal Navy on 23 August 1945, after the end of the war.[6]

Mercantile service[edit]

She was put up for disposal and was sold into civilian service on 22 July 1946. She was renamedRoskvain 1951,Douglasin 1956 and finallySeabirdin 1958.

A Norwegian crew took her to the Far East asDouglas.[7]In the latter part of 1957 a Chinese-Indonesian businessman, A.P. Lim, engaged her and her Norwegian captain to smuggle raw rubber fromSumatratoJohoron theMalay Peninsula[8]and later to Singapore.[9]Lim's client was thePRRI( "Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia" ) right-wing rebel movement,[8]which was smuggling rubber out of Sumatra to fund its rebellion against the Indonesian government of PresidentSukarno.

Early in 1958 Indonesian forces defeated the PRRI in its main strongholds and ports on Sumatra, reducing its rebellion to a residual guerilla war. However, the PRRI was allied with thePermestarebel movement inNorth Sulawesi,which was supported byTaiwan.In December 1958Douglas,now renamedSeabird,smuggled a cargo of small arms, ammunition andM20 recoilless riflesfrom Taiwan[10]toBolaang Bayon the coast ofMinahasa.[11]There she began to load a cargo ofcopra,[11]which Permesta was smuggling out of Minahasa to fund its rebellion. However, before she could start her voyage theIndonesian Air ForcefoundSeabirdand sank her.[11]

Seabirdwas announced missing in December 1958[3]and a month later she was declared lost in theCelebes Sea,with the cause of her loss officially declared as "unknown".[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^abMcCluskie, Tom (2013).The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff.Stroud: The History Press. p. 148.ISBN9780752488615.
  2. ^Colledge & Warlow 2006,p. 159.
  3. ^abcdeHelgason, Guðmundur (1995–2012)."HMS Heartsease (K 15)".German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net.Retrieved9 August2012.
  4. ^Kindell, Don."Convoy SC.7".Arnold Hague Convoy Database.
  5. ^Dymond, S.P."Operational History Commissioning".HMS Tetcott 1941 – 1957.Holsworthy Museum. Archived fromthe originalon 24 July 2008.
  6. ^"Courage PG-70".US Naval Ships History.historycentral.com.
  7. ^Conboy & Morrison 1999,p. 27.
  8. ^abConboy & Morrison 1999,p. 28.
  9. ^Conboy & Morrison 1999,p. 29.
  10. ^Conboy & Morrison 1999,p. 157.
  11. ^abcConboy & Morrison 1999,p. 158.
  12. ^King, Ian M (23 February 2012)."Flower Class (1940) Corvette UK Built Ships".Britain's Navy Fighting Ships Operations History.Ian M King.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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