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Gunboat Photo Archive

USS Spry (PG 64)



Call sign:
Nan - Baker - George - Zebra

ex-HMS Hibiscus (K 24)


Spry served the Navies of Great Britain and the United States.
British Flower Class Corvette/Temptress Class Patrol Gunboat:

  • Laid down in 1941 by Harland and Wolff, Ltd., Belfast, Northern Ireland for the French Navy but taken over with the fall of France and named HMS Hibiscus (K 24)
  • Launched 6 April 1940
  • Transferred to the U.S. Navy at Leith, Scotland 2 May 1942 and commissioned USS Spry (PG-64) the same day
  • Decommissioned 20 August 1945 at Chatham, England
  • Returned to the Royal Navy 26 August 1945
  • Struck from the Navy Register 17 September 1945
  • Sold into mercantile service in 1947 by the British and renamed Madonna
  • Sold for scrap in 1955 at Hong Kong.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,375 t.
  • Length 205' 2"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 14' 7"
  • Speed 16.5 kts.
  • Complement 87
  • Armament: One 4"/50 gun mount, one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm guns, and four depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two-225psi Scotch boilers, one vertical triple expansion Harland and Wolff steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Flower Class Corvette
    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
    HMS Hibiscus (K 24)
    Spry 81k Royal Navy photo Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II
    Spry 78k As seen from the sloop of war HMS Fowey (U 15), HMS Hibiscus (K 24) as part of a convoy escort in September 1941
    Imperial War Museum Admiralty Official Collection, by Beadell, S.J. (Lt), photos © IWM (A 5511), (A 5512) and (A 5513)    		 Mike Green
    Spry 76k
    Spry 74k
    USS Spry (PG 64)
    Spry 114k 20 August 1943
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Joe Radigan
    Spry 305k c. Late 1943
    Seen from blimp K-84 [of ZP-41], flying anti-submarine patrol from Pici Field, Fortaleza, Brazil
    National Archives photo 80-G-55206    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Spry 90k 14 June 1944
    Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, SC
    Starboard quarter view
    U.S. Navy photos 1612-44, 1613-44, 1615-44, 1616-44, 1617-44 and 1618-44    		 Robert Hall
    Spry 71k
    Spry 125k
    Spry 99k
    Spry 139k
    Spry 141k
    Spry 141k 14 June 1944
    Wearing Measure 16 camouflage, Charleston Navy Yard, Charleston, South Carolina
    Photo from National Museum of the U.S. Navy    		 Michael Mohl
    View the Spry (PG-64)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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