Name Arrowhead Operator Royal Navy Laid down 11 April 1940 Length 62 m Builder Marine Industries | Namesake Sagittaria Ordered 22 January 1940 Launched 8 August 1940 Draft 3.51 m | |
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HMCS Arrowhead was a Flower-class corvette that was originally commissioned by the Royal Navy but served primarily with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War. She fought primarily in the Battle of the Atlantic as a convoy escort. She was named for Sagittaria, which is an aquatic water plant that is sometimes known as Arrowhead.
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Background
Flower-class corvettes like Arrowhead serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were different from earlier and more traditional sail-driven corvettes. The "corvette" designation was created by the French as a class of small warships; the Royal Navy borrowed the term for a period but discontinued its use in 1877. During the hurried preparations for war in the late 1930s, Winston Churchill reactivated the corvette class, needing a name for smaller ships used in an escort capacity, in this case based on a whaling ship design. The generic name "flower" was used to designate the class of these ships, which – in the Royal Navy – were named after flowering plants.
Construction
Ordered 22 January 1940 under the 1939-40 Flower class program by the Royal Navy from Marine Industries Ltd. in Sorel, Quebec Arrowhead was laid down 11 April 1940. She was launched on 8 August 1940 and commissioned 22 November later that year. On the 15 May 1941 she was one of ten corvettes loaned to Canada. She could be told apart from other Canadian Flower class vessels by her lack of minesweeping gear and the siting of the after gun tub amidships.
Royal Navy
After commissioning Arrowhead sailed to Sunderland to fully fit out which took two months. She worked up at Tobermory and joined EG-4 of Iceland Command.
Royal Canadian Navy
In June 1941, after commissioning in the RCN, Arrowhead joined Newfoundland Force and spent the majority of 1941 escorting convoys from St. John's to Iceland. In late December, Arrowhead was sent to Charleston for a refit. She returned to Halifax in February 1942 and did one more cross-Atlantic convoy before being reassigned to Western Local Escort Force (WLEF). In July she joined the Gulf Escort Force and participated in the Battle of the St. Lawrence.
Arrowhead spent the final months of 1942 bouncing around commands, joining Halifax Force in October, and returning to WLEF at the end of November. She stayed with WLEF until August 1944. In June 1943, when WLEF introduced dedicated escort groups, Arrowhead was first assigned to group W-7 before transferring to W-1 in December.
During her period with WLEF, Arrowhead had two major refits, one in Charleston in the spring of 1943 and one in Baltimore in May 1944 where her fo'c'sle was extended. After returning to service she was assigned to Quebec-Labrador convoys in September 1944. In December of that year, Arrowhead was reassigned to Western Escort Force's Escort Group W-8 and used on the "Triangle Run" between Boston/New York, Halifax and St. John's until May 1945.
Arrowhead was assigned to convoy HX 358 with three other loaned corvettes, Eyebright, Hepatica and Trillium. After arrival at Milford Haven, on 27 June 1945 she was paid off and returned to the Royal Navy.
Post-war career
In 1947 Arrowhead was sold for conversion to a whale-catcher with a gross register tonnage of 757 tons, emerging in 1948. She was renamed Southern Larkspur. Eventually, the vessel was broken up at Odense, Denmark in December 1959 by H.I. Hansen.