HMS Hyacinth (K84)

	Apostolis in 1943, just after transfer to the Greek navy
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Hyacinth
Builder	Harland and Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Yard number	1071[1]
Laid down	20 April 1940
Launched	19 August 1940
Completed	3 October 1940[1]
Commissioned	2 October 1940
Out of service	Transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy on 24 October 1943
Renamed	Apostolis on transfer
Fate	Scrapped in 1952
Kingdom of Greece
Name	Apostolis
Acquired	1943
Out of service	1952
Fate	Returned to the Royal Navy in 1952
General characteristics
Class and type	Flower-class corvette
Displacement	925 long tons (940 t)
Length	205 ft (62 m)
Beam	33 ft (10 m)
Draught	11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Propulsion	Two fire tube boilers; One 4-cycle triple expansion steam engine; Single shaft;
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h) at 2,750 hp (2,050 kW)
Range	3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	85
Armament	1 × QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun (3-inch/40); 2 × .50 cal machine gun twin machine guns; 2 × 0.303-inch Lewis machine guns; 2 × stern depth charge racks with 40 depth charges;

HMS Hyacinth was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War and achieved three victories over enemy submarines in a highly successful career. Only Sunflower managed to repeat such success among her sister ships. She went on to serve in the Royal Hellenic Navy as RHNS Apostolis (Greek: ΒΠ Αποστόλης), was returned to the Royal Navy in 1952 and scrapped in the same year.

Royal Navy

During the Second World War Hyacinth served in the Eastern Mediterranean where she protected the Palestine coastline and escorted numerous convoys along it. She also took part in the Malta convoys. She was a part of the 10th Corvette Group of the Mediterranean Fleet based in Alexandria together with her sister ships Peony and Salvia.

Since Hyacinth spent most of her time in the Mediterranean, without access to British shipyards, she was not retrofitted as many of her class were, and so retained her short forecastle. Another of her distinctive features was a 3-inch gun instead of the usual 4-inch.[2]

Anti-submarine successes

On 28 September 1941, Hyacinth attacked and sank the Italian submarine Fisalia north-west of the port of Jaffa, at 32º19'N, 34º17'E, just off the beach at Tel Aviv.

On 9 July 1942, while escorting a convoy from Jaffa to Beirut Hyacinth attacked, damaged and captured the Italian submarine Perla. The submarine was towed into port, repaired and put into operation with the Hellenic Navy under the name Matrosos (Greek: Ματρώζος) in 1943.

On 12 September 1943, after Italy had capitulated, Hyacinth and the Australian minesweeper Wollongong sank the German submarine U-617, after the submarine had been damaged in an attack by Wellington and Swordfish aircraft.

Royal Hellenic Navy

In 1943, Hyacinth was transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy, and was renamed Apostolis (Αποστόλης), from Nikolis Apostolis, an admiral of the Greek War of Independence, and served the remainder of the Second World War under the Greek flag.

References

McCluskie, Tom (2013). The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff. Stroud: The History Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780752488615.
see A. V. Dashyan.

Sources

Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMS Hyacinth ". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
"Escort ships and minsweepers. (Эскортные корабли и тральщики)". A.V.Dashyan, «WWII ships. British fleet». part 2. (А.В. Дашьян, «Корабли Второй мировой войны. ВМС Великобритании». Часть 2) (in Russian). Navy Collection. (Морская Коллекция). Retrieved 29 March 2009.
"Italian Submarines In World War II". Regia Marina Italiana. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 27 March 2009.

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[Tom-1] McCluskie, Tom (2013). The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff. Stroud: The History Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780752488615.

[2] see A. V. Dashyan.