HMS Vervain (K190)

300px HMS Vervain's 4-inch gun crew in action, July 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Vervain
Ordered:	8 April 1940
Builder:	Harland & Wolff Ltd., Belfast, Northern Ireland
Yard number:	1101
Laid down:	16 November 1940
Launched:	12 March 1941
Completed:	9 June 1941
Commissioned:	9 June 1941
Struck:	20 February 1945
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk on 20 February 1945
General characteristics
Class & type:	Flower-class corvette
Displacement:	925 long tons (940 t; 1,036 short tons)
Length:	205 ft (62.48 m)o/a
Beam:	33 ft (10.06 m)
Draught:	11.5 ft (3.51 m)
Propulsion:	single shaft 2 × fire tube Scotch boilers 1 × 4-cycle triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine 2,750 ihp (2,050 kW)
Speed:	16 knots (29.6 km/h)
Range:	3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)
Complement:	85
Sensors and processing systems:	1 × SW1C or 2C radar 1 × Type 123A or Type 127DV sonar
Armament:	1 × BL Mk.IX gun 2 × Vickers machine gun (twin) 2 × .303-inch (7.7 mm) Lewis machine gun (twin) 2 × Mk.II depth charge throwers 2 × depth charge rails with 40 depth charges originally fitted with minesweeping gear, later removed

HMS Vervain was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War.

On 28 February 1943 the liberty ship SS Wade Hampton was torpedoed by the German submarine U-405 while sailing in a convoy from New York to Murmansk, Russia. Survivors were picked up by Vervain, SS Bayano and HMS Beverly near Greenland.

On 20 February 1945 at 11.45 hours Vervain was escorting a homeward-bound convoy when she was sunk by a torpedo from an U-boat, U-1276 under Oberleutnant zur See Karl-Heinz Wendt, about 25 miles south-east of Dungarvan, Ireland, south of Waterford. Vervain sank after 20 minutes. Three officers and 30 ratings were rescued.

References

• navymemorial.org
• National Archives