HMCS Spikenard

{{main|Flower-class corvette}}

Flower-class corvettes like Spikenard serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were different from earlier and more traditional sail-driven corvettes.{{cite web |last=Ossian |first=Robert |url=http://www.thepirateking.com/ships/ship_types.htm |title=Complete List of Sailing Vessels |website=The Pirate King |access-date=13 April 2011}}{{cite book |editor-last=Fitzsimons |editor-first=Bernard |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons & Warfare |location=London |publisher=Phoebus |year=1978 |volume=11 |pages=1137–1142 }}{{cite book |title=Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II |location=New Jersey |publisher=Random House |year=1996 |isbn=0-517-67963-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/janesfightingshi00fran/page/68 68] |url=https://archive.org/details/janesfightingshi00fran/page/68 }} 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.{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Nicholas |last2=Lawrence |first2=Richard |title=The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I59v6rkg8egC&pg=PA39 |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=2005 |pages=39–63 |isbn=0-8117-3275-4}} 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.{{cite book |last=Chesneau |first=Roger |last2=Gardiner |first2=Robert |title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJBMBvyQ83EC&pg=PA62 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |date=June 1980 |page=62 |isbn=0-87021-913-8}} The generic name "flower" was used to designate the class of these ships, which – in the Royal Navy – were named after flowering plants.{{cite book |title=North Atlantic Run |last=Milner |first=Marc |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1985 |pages=117–119, 142–145, 158, 175–176, 226, 235, 285–291 |isbn=0-87021-450-0}}

She was originally ordered on 22 January 1940 by the Royal Navy as part of the 1939-1940 Flower-class program as HMS Spikenard (K198). Spikenard was laid down 24 February 1940 and launched later that year on 10 August. She was commissioned on 6 December 1940 in Quebec City, Quebec.{{cite web | url = http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5485.html | work = Uboat.net | title = HMCS Spikenard (K 198) | access-date = 28 July 2013}}{{cite book |last=Macpherson |first=Ken |last2=Burgess |first2=John |year=1981 |title=The ships of Canada's naval forces 1910-1981 : a complete pictorial history of Canadian warships |publisher=Collins |location=Toronto|pages=86, 157 |isbn=0-00216-856-1}} On 15 May 1941 she was one of ten corvettes loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy. She could be told apart from other Canadian Flowers by her lack of minesweeping gear and the siting of the after gun tub amidships.{{cite book |last=Macpherson |first=Ken |last2=Milner |first2=Marc |year=1993 |title=Corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy 1939-1945|publisher=Vanwell Publishing |location=St. Catharines |isbn=0-92027-783-7}}

On 21 January 1941 she sailed with convoy HX 104 to get her final equipment at South Shields, Tyne in the United Kingdom. She was worked up at Tobermory and left on 10 June with convoy OB 332 as a full escort.

After commissioning in the RCN she was assigned as part of the Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF). From July 1941 to January 1942 Spikenard made three round-trips to the Mid-Ocean Meeting Point off Iceland escorting the vital trans-Atlantic convoys. On opening night (27 January 1942), Spikenard{{'}}s commander, Lt-Cdr. H.F. Shadforth, hammered a six-inch spike into the floor of the Seagoing Officers Club, "The Crows' Nest" in St. John's, Newfoundland (better known as "Newfyjohn" during the War). After Spikenard was torpedoed and sunk two weeks later with the loss of all except eight of her crew, fellow NEF officers preserved the nail as "'Spikenard' his Spike". It still remains on display and the members of the Club hold a "Corvette Wake" commemorative dinner every year to remember Spikenard and her crew.{{cite book |last=German |first=Tony |year=1990 |title=The Sea is at our Gates : The History of the Canadian Navy |publisher=McClelland and Stewart Inc. |location=Toronto |pages=[https://archive.org/details/seaisatourgatesh00germ/page/112 112] |isbn=0-7710-3269-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/seaisatourgatesh00germ/page/112 }}

On the night of 10 February 1942, Spikenard was torpedoed by {{GS|U-136|1941|2}} while escorting convoy SC 67. The torpedo struck Spikenard at virtually the same instant as another torpedo exploded against a nearby Norwegian tanker, M/S Heina. In the confusion of battle, the other escorts in the group believed that only the now blazing and illuminated tanker had been struck, and rescued her entire crew. Spikenard was not on fire and the other escorts did not realize she was hit and sinking.{{cite book|last1=Schull|first1=Joseph|title=The Far Distant Ships|date=1961|publisher=Queen's Printer, Canada|location=Ottawa, Canada|pages=101|edition=1961 Canadian Ministry of National Defence}} The other escorts in the group had been caught up chasing contacts and did not realize that Spikenard was gone until she failed to answer repeated radio calls. Some escorts fell back and found only eight survivors. Spikenard{{'}}s Commanding Officer had been the senior officer of the escort group.

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• [http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html?search3.php?query=Spikenard&Submit=Find+Vessel~haguemain HMCS Spikenard at the Arnold Hague Convoy Database]
• {{Cite news|url=http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/canada/ww2/flower/ |title= Flower Class|author=Hazegray |work= Canadian Navy of Yesterday and Today |access-date=25 July 2013}}
• {{Cite news|url=http://www.readyayeready.com/ships/shipview.php?id=1389&ship=SPIKENARD |title= HMCS Spikenard |author=Ready, Aye, Ready |access-date=25 July 2013}}

{{refend}}

{{coord|50|10|N|21|07|W|display=title}}

{{Flower class corvette|original}}

{{February 1942 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spikenard, HMCS}}

Category:Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy

Category:Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Navy

Category:1940 ships

Category:Maritime incidents in February 1942

Category:Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II

Category:Ships built in Lévis