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Gunboat Photo Archive

HMS Willowherb (K 283)
ex-Vitality (PG 100)


Vitality served only in the Royal Navy.
British Flower Class Corvette/Temptress Class Patrol Gunboat:

  • Laid down for the U.S. Navy as Vitality (PG 100) at Midland Shipyard, Ontario, Canada
  • Assigned to the Royal Navy under the Lend-Lease Program
  • Launched 15 April 1943
  • Transferred to the Royal Navy 30 August 1943 and commissioned HMS Willowherb (K-283)
  • Returned to U.S. Navy custody 11 June 1946 and turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal at Baltimore, MD
  • Sold in May 1947
  • Scrapped in 1961 at Hamburg, Germany.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1375 t.
  • Length 205'
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 14' 7"
  • Speed 16.5 kts.
  • Complement 90
  • Armament: Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts, two 20mm guns, two depth charge tracks, four depth charge projectors and one hedgehog depth charge projector
  • Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, one 2,750ihp vertical triple expansion engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Flower Class Corvette 168k "Escort Vessel (Corvette) - (Flower Class) - With Extended Forecastle, Increased Sheer, & Fuller Lines Fwd."
    U.S. Navy preliminary design plan, copied from Smith Dock Co., Ltd., Drawing No. 232. This plan, dated April 1941, is for a modification of the British "Flower" class corvette. Scale of the original drawing is not given, but appears to be 1/16" = 1'.
    The original plan is in the 1939-1944 "Spring Styles Book" held by the Naval Historical Center.
    U.S. Navy photo S-511-30    		 Naval Historical Center
    Willowherb 83k c. 1943
    Midland, Ontario, Canada    		 Tommy Trampp
    View the Vitality (PG-100)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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