HMS Buttercup under Belgian command | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | Buttercup |
Namesake | Buttercup |
Ordered | 8 April 1940 |
Builder | Harland & Wolff Ltd., Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Laid down | 17 December 1940 |
Launched | 10 April 1941 |
Commissioned | 24 April 1942 |
Decommissioned | December 1944 |
Out of service | 23 May 1941 |
Reinstated | Returned to the Royal Navy |
Fate | Scrapped in 1969 |
Belgium | |
Name | HMS Buttercup |
Acquired | 23 May 1941 |
Out of service | Late 1944 |
Fate | Returned to the Royal Navy |
Norway | |
Name | Nordkyn |
Acquired | 20 December 1944 (bought 1946) |
Decommissioned | 9 April 1956 |
Fate | Sold November 1957 |
Norway | |
Name | Thoris |
Owner | Thorendahl Ltd. |
Acquired | 1957 |
Fate | Sold and broken up 1969 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Flower-class corvette |
HMS Buttercup (pennant number: K193) was a Flower-class corvette built for the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War first as part of the Royal Navy Section Belge (RNSB), and then later as part of the Royal Norwegian Navy. Between 1946 and 1957 she served as HNoMS Nordyn. The Norwegian government then sold her and she became the whaler Thoris until she was broken up in 1969.
Buttercup was the first of two corvettes to serve with the Royal Navy Section Belge (RNSB) of the Free Belgian forces, along with HMS Godetia. With the liberation of Belgium in late 1944, Buttercup returned to Royal Navy control.
From 20 December 1944, the Royal Norwegian Navy borrowed Buttercup to replace the Castle-class corvette HNoMS Tunsberg Castle, which had been lost to a mine on 12 December 1944 off the coast of Finnmark.
HNoMS Buttercup served from 15 February 1945 until 8 May as part of the Liverpool Escort Force. As part of "Group B2" she participated in two westbound and two eastbound allied transatlantic convoys. None of these was attacked by enemy forces and all the convoys arrived at their destinations.
When Buttercup got back to Liverpool on 6 May she was ordered to Rosyth to prepare to sail for Norway. She sailed on 13 May 1945 for Oslo carrying the Chief of Staff of the Navy High Command and other naval officers. She arrived at Oslo on 15 May.
The Norwegian Government acquired Buttercup in 1946 and on 10 August renamed her HNoMS Nordkyn. She served initially as a fisheries protection vessel.
Nordkyn, Kommandor Oscar Hauge, sailed from Tromsø on 28 July 1948 for Svalbard. She was carrying Kaptein Rolf von Krogh on an expedition for the Norsk Polarinstitut. She carried out a hydrographic survey between Bear Island (Bjørnøya), and Spitsbergen. Between 2 and 9 September Nordkyn served as a base for a Catalina that the Polarinstitut employed for mapping glacier fronts. Nordkyn returned to Tromsø on 18 September. [1]
In 1950 Nordkyn was reclassified as a frigate and received the pennant number F309. She was stricken from the Navy list on 9 April 1956 at Horten.
In November 1957 the Norwegian Government sold Nordkyn to Thor Dahl A/S, Sandefjord, a whaling company. Her new owners had Framnæs Mekaniske Værksted rebuild her, renamed her Thoris, and employed her as a whaler in the Antarctic where she worked with Thor Dahl's whale factory ship.
Thoris was sold in June 1969 for scrapping at Grimstad.
The Castle-class corvette was an ocean going convoy escort developed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It was the follow-on to the Flower-class corvette, and designed to be built in shipyards that were producing the Flowers. The Castle-class was a general improvement over the smaller Flowers which were designed for coastal rather than open ocean use.
The first USS Yarnall (DD–143) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Lincoln, to the Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS Lincoln, and subsequently to the Soviet Navy as Druzhny.
The first USS Thomas (DD–182) was a Wickes-class destroyer of the United States Navy that entered service just after World War I.
Thirteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Shark after the shark:
The Norwegian armed forces in exile were remnants of the armed forces of Norway that continued to fight the Axis powers from Allied countries, such as Britain and Canada, after they had escaped the German conquest of Norway during World War II.
HNoMS Otra was an Otra-class minesweeper built in 1939 for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Captured by the Germans during the 1940 invasion of Norway and renamed Togo, she was returned to the Norwegians in 1946. Otra remained in service until being sold for scrapping in 1963.
HMCS Penetang was a River-class frigate that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1944 to 1945 during the Second World War. She fought in the Battle of the Atlantic as a convoy escort. She was recommissioned and served as a Prestonian-class frigate from 1954 to 1956. She was named for Penetanguishene, Ontario.
HNoMS Heimdal was a Norwegian warship built at Akers mekaniske verksted in Kristiania, Norway in 1892 with build number 137.
HMS Lotus was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy.
HMS Leith was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War.
SS Irma was a 1,322-ton steamship built by the British shipyard Sir Raylton Dixon & Co. Ltd. in Middlesbrough in the north-east of England. She was delivered to the Norwegian passenger ship company Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab of Bergen in 1905. Irma sailed for the company until she was attacked and sunk by two MTBs belonging to the Royal Norwegian Navy on 13 February 1944.
Empire Endurance was a 8,514 GRT steam cargo liner that was built in 1928 as Alster by Deschimag Werk Vulkan, Hamburg, Germany for the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd. In the years leading up to the Second World War Alster carried cargo and passengers between Germany and Australia. After the outbreak of war she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine for use as a supply ship.
HMS Godetia was the second Flower-class corvette with that name built for the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War as part of the Section Belge of the Royal Navy (RNSB). With the liberation of Belgium in late 1944, the vessel was returned to the United Kingdom. In common with other Flower-class corvettes, the ship was named after an eponymous flower.
The second HMS Manners (K568) was a British Captain-class frigate of the Royal Navy in commission during World War II. Originally constructed as the United States Navy Evarts-class destroyer escort DE-523, she served in the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1945.
HMS Vesper was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.
HMCS Prestonian was a River-class frigate that served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War and as a Prestonian-class frigate from 1953–1956. She saw action primarily as a convoy escort. She was named for Preston, Ontario, however due to possible confusion with HMS Preston, her name was altered. In 1956 she began service with the Royal Norwegian Navy as Troll.
HNoMS Trondheim was a C-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy as HMS Croziers. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun during 1944 and 1945. On completion she was sold to the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1946 and renamed Trondheim. She was scrapped in 1961.
Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Buttercup, named for the buttercup flower:
HMS Shrewsbury Castle was one of 44 Castle-class corvette built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was named after Shrewsbury Castle in Shrewsbury. Completed in 1944, she was loaned to the Royal Norwegian Navy as a convoy escort during the war, renamed HNoMS Tunsberg Castle and was sunk by a mine in December 1944.