HMS Bergamot (K189)

HMS "Bergamot" (K189) was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy.

She was laid down at Harland and Wolff in Belfast on 15 October 1940 and launched on 15 February 1941. Her commissioning followed on May 12 of the same year and her pennant number was K189.

Her main duty was as a convoy escort and in this capacity she crossed the Atlantic - North and South - several times, escorting convoys to and from the United Kingdom.

On two occasions "Bergamot was" involved in Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union, once to Murmansk and once to Archangel. Most notably she took part in convoy PQ18, sailing all the way from Loch Ewe in Scotland to Russia, subjected for days on end to attacks by German aircraft.

She sailed from Liverpool with the convoy which initiated the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1943. From then on the Mediterranean was her "home": escorting supplies to Tobruk; being involved in the invasions at Salerno in September 1943 and Anzio in January 1944; she was also present when the Italian fleet surrendered to the Allies.

After the war she was sold in May 1946 to a Greek company and became a ferry, carrying passengers between the various Greek islands. She belonged to different companies and had different names — "Syros", "Delphini" and "Ekaterina". She was broken up in 1974.

External links

* [http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/search3.php?query=Bergamot&Submit=Find+Vessel HMS "Bergamot" on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.]