Figure 1: USS Spry (PG-64) 14 June 1944, in the Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, South Carolina. This is a starboard broadside view. U.S. Navy photo 1616-44. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Spry (PG-64) 14 June 1944, in the Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, South Carolina. This is a starboard quarter view. U.S. Navy photo 1612-44. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Spry (PG-64) 14 June 1944, in the Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, South Carolina. This is a stern, down view. U.S. Navy photo 1618-44. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Spry (PG-64) 14 June 1944, in the Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, South Carolina. This is a stern view. U.S. Navy photo 1613-44. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Spry (PG-64) 14 June 1944, in the Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, South Carolina. This is a port quarter, down view. U.S. Navy photo 1617-44. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Spry (PG-64) 14 June 1944, in the Cooper River off the U.S. Navy Yard Charleston, South Carolina. This is a port bow view. U.S. Navy photo 1615-44. Click on photograph for larger image.
Originally ordered for the French Navy but taken over by the British Royal Navy after the fall of France, HMS Hibiscus was a 925-ton Flower class corvette that was commissioned on 21 May 1940. The ship was built by Harland and Wolff, Ltd., at Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was approximately 205 feet long and 33 feet wide, with a top speed of 16.5 knots and a crew of 87 officers and men. Hibiscus was armed with one 4-inch gun, one 3-inch gun, two 20-mm cannons, two depth charge racks and four depth charge projectors.
For almost two years, Hibiscus was assigned to convoy duties in the perilous North Atlantic. Although she never sank a German U-boat, she did protect many merchant ships from attack and saved numerous lives. On 30 August 1940, Hibiscus rescued 11 men from the Norwegian merchant ship Norne that was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. On 18 October 1940, this small escort rescued 34 men from the sunken British merchant ship Sandsend and on 28 September 1941 Hibiscus saved another 34 men from the British merchant ship Margareta, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat.
By early 1942, the United States was in the war but was desperately short of ocean-going escorts. On 2 May 1942 at Leith, Scotland, the Royal Navy transferred the HMS Hibiscus to the US Navy as part of a reverse Lend-Lease agreement. Approximately 24 Flower class corvettes were given to the US Navy until newer American escorts could be built. On 2 May Hibiscus was commissioned into the US Navy as the USS Spry (PG-64), with Lieutenant Maxim W. Firth in command. Spry was immediately attached to a convoy that steamed from Londonderry, Northern Ireland, to Argentia, Newfoundland, and then the ship went on to Boston for an overhaul. Once work was completed on Spry, the corvette was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for escort duty and arrived there on 1 August 1942. For several months, Spry escorted convoys between Guantanamo Bay and Trinidad, until it was assigned to the convoy route between Trinidad and Recife, Brazil, in January 1943. After another overhaul in Charleston, South Carolina, Spry went to Boston in June 1944. For the next year, until the war ended, Spry was given convoy escort and weather patrol duty between Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland.
Spry was decommissioned in England on 20 August 1945 and was returned to the Royal Navy on 26 August. She was officially stricken from the US Navy list on 17 September 1945 and was sold in 1947 by the British government. Spry was converted into a merchant ship and renamed Madonna and served in this capacity until 1955, when she was sold for scrap in Hong Kong.
Spry was one of those humble warships that performed an incredibly important job during a critical time in the Battle of the Atlantic. The United States was desperately short of escorts and England (who herself was struggling to survive) managed to give us 24 badly needed corvettes until our shipyards could build newer and better ocean escorts. Spry and her sisters helped to “hold the line” until more of our ships could be built, even though these British corvettes are rarely mentioned by today’s historians. However, it is still important to remember that there was a time when the United States was so ill prepared for war that we had to use warships supplied to us by another country until we could build more of our own.
