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HMS Heartsease (K15)

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History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Heartsease
Ordered19 September 1939
Builder
Yard number1063[1]
Laid down14 November 1939
Launched20 April 1940
Completed4 June 1940[1]
Commissioned4 June 1940
Decommissioned3 April 1942
IdentificationPennant number: K15
FateTransferred to the US Navy 3 April 1942
United States
NameUSS Courage
Acquired18 March 1942
Commissioned3 April 1942
Decommissioned22 August 1945
IdentificationHull number: PG-70
FateReturned to Royal Navy 23 August 1945
United Kingdom
NameHMS Heartsease
Recommissioned23 August 1945
Out of serviceSold into merchant service 22 July 1946
Renamed
  • Roskva from 1951
  • Douglas from 1956
  • Seabird from 1958
FateSunk by Indonesian Air Force December 1958
General characteristics
Class and typeFlower-class corvette
Displacement925 long tons (940 t)
Length208 ft 6 in (63.55 m)
Beam33 ft (10 m)
Draught11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Propulsion
Speed16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement85
Armament

HMS Heartsease was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She served with both the Royal Navy and the United States Navy during the Second World War, with the latter navy as USS Courage. She then spent several years under a succession of names in civilian service. In 1957 she was chartered on behalf of Indonesian rebels to smuggle rubber, copra and matériel. The Indonesian Air Force intercepted and sank her off the coast of Minahasa in North Sulawesi in December 1958.

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Flower-class corvette

Flower-class corvette

The Flower-class corvette was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy ships of this class were named after flowers.

Corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war.

Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.

United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of its active battle fleet alone exceeding the next 13 navies combined, including 11 allies or partner nations of the United States as of 2015. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, two new carriers under construction, and five other carriers planned. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the United States Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 2,623 operational aircraft as of June 2019.

Copra

Copra

Copra is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copra is rich in lauric acid, making it an important commodity in the preparation of lauryl alcohol, soaps, fatty acids, cosmetics, etc. and thus a lucrative product for many coconut-producing countries. The palatable oil cake, known as copra cake, obtained as a residue in the production of copra oil is used in animal feeds. The ground cake is known as coconut or copra meal.

Materiel

Materiel

Materiel refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.

Indonesian Air Force

Indonesian Air Force

The Indonesian Air Force sometimes shortened as IDAF / IdAF, is the aerial branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. The Indonesian Air Force is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia and is headed by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Its order of battle is split into three Air Operations Commands. Most of its airbases are located on the island of Java. The Indonesian Air Force also has its ground force unit, called Air Force Quick Reaction Force Command (Kopasgat). The corps is also known as the "Orange Berets" due to the distinctive color of their service headgear.

North Sulawesi

North Sulawesi

North Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the Minahasa Peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia. It borders the Philippine province of Davao Occidental and Soccsksargen regions of the Philippines to the north, the Maluku Sea to the east, Gorontalo and Celebes Sea to the west and the Gulf of Tomini to the southwest. With the outlying island of Miangas to its north, it is the northernmost province of Indonesia. The province's area is 14,500.28 square kilometres (5,598.59 sq mi), and its population was 2,270,596 according to the 2010 census; this rose to 2,621,923 at the 2020 Census, while the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 2,659,543.

Wartime service

Convoy escort

Heartsease spent most of her early career escorting convoys through British waters. On 22 September 1940 she picked up 31 survivors from the Norwegian merchant SS Simla which had been torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-100 west of Ireland.[3] On 15 October she rescued nine survivors from the British merchant SS Thistlegarth which had been sunk by U-103 45 nautical miles (83 km) west-north-west of Rockall.[3] She was then called to the assistance of the inbound Convoy SC 7, which had come under attack from a U-boat wolfpack and was sustaining heavy losses. On arrival Heartsease was assigned to escort the damaged SS Carsbreck into port.[4] On 23 December she collided with the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Tetcott in the Irish Sea. Both ships were saved and towed into port. A subsequent enquiry placed the blame on the captain of Heartsease.[5]

American service

She was transferred to the US Navy on 3 April 1942 with Lt. Christopher Sylvanus Barker Jr., USN, commanding and renamed USS Courage.[3] She patrolled the western Atlantic for most of her career as a United States ship, escorting convoys from as far north as Greenland to as far south as Argentina. From 24 January 1945, she was stationed at Iceland. She was returned to the Royal Navy on 23 August 1945, after the end of the war.[6]

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German submarine U-100 (1940)

German submarine U-100 (1940)

German submarine U-100 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.

German submarine U-103 (1940)

German submarine U-103 (1940)

German submarine U-103 was a Type IXB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that operated during World War II. She was one of the most successful boats in the entire war, sinking 237,596 gross register tons (GRT) of Allied shipping in 11 patrols, in a career lasting more than four years.

Rockall

Rockall

Rockall is an uninhabitable granite islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United Kingdom claims that Rockall lies within its territorial sea and is part of its territory, but this claim is not recognised by Ireland. It and the nearby skerries of Hasselwood Rock and Helen's Reef are the only emergent parts of the Rockall Plateau. The rock was formed by magmatism as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province during the Paleogene.

Convoy SC 7

Convoy SC 7

SC 7 was the code name for a large Allied World War II convoy of 35 merchant ships and six escorts, which sailed eastbound from Sydney, Nova Scotia, for Liverpool and other United Kingdom ports on 5 October 1940. While crossing the Atlantic, the convoy was intercepted by one of the first Kriegsmarine submarine wolfpacks. During the ensuing battle, the escort was completely overwhelmed and 20 of the 35 cargo vessels were sunk and 2 more damaged, with 141 lives lost. The disastrous outcome of the convoy demonstrated the German submarines' potential of being able to work more efficiently using wolfpack tactics and the inadequacy of British anti-submarine tactics at the time.

SS Carsbreck

SS Carsbreck

The SS Carsbreck was a British cargo steamship. She was sunk while carrying supplies to the UK in the Second World War.

Hunt-class destroyer

Hunt-class destroyer

The Hunt class was a class of escort destroyer of the Royal Navy. The first vessels were ordered early in 1939, and the class saw extensive service in the Second World War, particularly on the British east coast and Mediterranean convoys. They were named after British fox hunts. The modern Hunt-class GRP hulled mine countermeasure vessels maintain the Hunt names lineage in the Royal Navy.

Destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or battle group and defend them against powerful short-range attackers. They were originally developed in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.

HMS Tetcott (L99)

HMS Tetcott (L99)

HMS Tetcott was a Type II British Hunt-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was the only Royal Navy ship to be named after the Tetcott fox hunt.

Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey, North Wales, is the largest island in the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man. The term Manx Sea may occasionally be encountered.

Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an island country in North America and part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is the world's largest island. It is one of three countries that form the Kingdom of Denmark, the others being Denmark and the Faroe Islands; the citizens of all these countries are citizens of Denmark and of the European Union. The capital of Greenland is Nuuk.

Argentina

Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world. It shares the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. Argentina is a federal state subdivided into twenty-three provinces, and one autonomous city, which is the federal capital and largest city of the nation, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and a part of Antarctica.

Iceland

Iceland

Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which is home to about 36% of the population. Iceland is the largest part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that rises above sea level, and its central volcanic plateau is erupting almost constantly. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence keep summers chilly, and most of its islands have a polar climate.

Mercantile service

She was put up for disposal and was sold into civilian service on 22 July 1946. She was renamed Roskva in 1951, Douglas in 1956 and finally Seabird in 1958.

A Norwegian crew took her to the Far East as Douglas.[7] In the latter part of 1957 a Chinese-Indonesian businessman, A.P. Lim, engaged her and her Norwegian captain to smuggle raw rubber from Sumatra to Johor on the Malay Peninsula[8] and later to Singapore.[9] Lim's client was the PRRI ("Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia") right-wing rebel movement,[8] which was smuggling rubber out of Sumatra to fund its rebellion against the Indonesian government of President Sukarno.

Early in 1958 Indonesian forces defeated the PRRI in its main strongholds and ports on Sumatra, reducing its rebellion to a residual guerilla war. However, the PRRI was allied with the Permesta rebel movement in North Sulawesi, which was supported by Taiwan. In December 1958 Douglas, now renamed Seabird, smuggled a cargo of small arms, ammunition and M20 recoilless rifles from Taiwan[10] to Bolaang Bay on the coast of Minahasa.[11] There she began to load a cargo of copra,[11] which Permesta was smuggling out of Minahasa to fund its rebellion. However, before she could start her voyage the Indonesian Air Force found Seabird and sank her.[11]

Seabird was announced missing in December 1958[3] and a month later she was declared lost in the Celebes Sea, with the cause of her loss officially declared as "unknown".[12]

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Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 475,807.63 km2 (182,812 mi.2), including adjacent islands such as the Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, Enggano, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung and Krakatoa archipelago.

Johor

Johor

Johor, also spelled as Johore, is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the northwest. Johor shares maritime borders with Singapore to the south and Indonesia to both the west and east. Johor Bahru is the capital city and the economic centre of the state, Kota Iskandar is the seat of the state government, and Muar serves as the royal town of the state. The old state capital is Johor Lama. As of 2020, the state's population is 4.01 million, making it the second most populated state in Malaysia. Johor has highly diverse tropical rainforests and an equatorial climate. The state's mountain ranges form part of the Titiwangsa Range, which is part of the larger Tenasserim Range connected to Thailand and Myanmar, with Mount Ophir being the highest point in Johor. While its state capital, Johor Bahru, which is located within Iskandar Malaysia development corridor, is one of the most densely populated and fastest-growing urban areas in Malaysia.

Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and the southernmost tip of Myanmar (Kawthaung). The island country of Singapore also has historical and cultural ties with the region. The indigenous people of the peninsula are the Malays, an Austronesian people.

Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia

Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia was a revolutionary government set up in Sumatra to oppose the central government of Indonesia in 1958.

Sukarno

Sukarno

Sukarno or Soekarno was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.

Permesta

Permesta

Permesta was a rebel movement in Indonesia that was declared on 2 March 1957 by civil and military leaders in East Indonesia. Initially the center of the movement was in Makassar, which at that time was the capital of the province of Sulawesi. However, support for the movement in South Sulawesi gradually dissipated, forcing the headquarters to move to Manado in North Sulawesi.

North Sulawesi

North Sulawesi

North Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the Minahasa Peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia. It borders the Philippine province of Davao Occidental and Soccsksargen regions of the Philippines to the north, the Maluku Sea to the east, Gorontalo and Celebes Sea to the west and the Gulf of Tomini to the southwest. With the outlying island of Miangas to its north, it is the northernmost province of Indonesia. The province's area is 14,500.28 square kilometres (5,598.59 sq mi), and its population was 2,270,596 according to the 2010 census; this rose to 2,621,923 at the 2020 Census, while the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 2,659,543.

M20 recoilless rifle

M20 recoilless rifle

The M20 recoilless rifle is a U.S. 75 mm caliber recoilless rifle T21E12 that was used during the last months of the Second World War and extensively during the Korean War. It could be fired from an M1917A1 .30 caliber machine gun tripod, or from a vehicle mount, typically a Jeep. Its shaped charge warhead, also known as HEAT, was capable of penetrating 100 mm of armor. Although the weapon proved ineffective against the T-34 tank during the Korean War and most other tanks, it was used primarily as a close infantry support weapon to engage all types of targets including infantry and lightly armored vehicles. The M20 proved useful against pillboxes and other types of field fortifications.

Bolaang Mongondow Regency

Bolaang Mongondow Regency

Bolaang Mongondow Regency is a regency of North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, situated on the island of Sulawesi. The principal town lies at Kotamobagu, which is now administratively separated from the regency, the administrative centre of which is now at the town of Lolak. The Regency covers an area of 2,871.65 km2, and had a population of 213,484 at the 2010 Census and 248,751 at the 2020 Census.

Copra

Copra

Copra is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copra is rich in lauric acid, making it an important commodity in the preparation of lauryl alcohol, soaps, fatty acids, cosmetics, etc. and thus a lucrative product for many coconut-producing countries. The palatable oil cake, known as copra cake, obtained as a residue in the production of copra oil is used in animal feeds. The ground cake is known as coconut or copra meal.

Indonesian Air Force

Indonesian Air Force

The Indonesian Air Force sometimes shortened as IDAF / IdAF, is the aerial branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. The Indonesian Air Force is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia and is headed by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Its order of battle is split into three Air Operations Commands. Most of its airbases are located on the island of Java. The Indonesian Air Force also has its ground force unit, called Air Force Quick Reaction Force Command (Kopasgat). The corps is also known as the "Orange Berets" due to the distinctive color of their service headgear.

Celebes Sea

Celebes Sea

The Celebes Sea, or Sulawesi Sea, of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi's Minahasa Peninsula, and on the west by northern Kalimantan in Indonesia. It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 mi (840 km) east-west and has a total surface area of 110,000 square miles (280,000 km2), to a maximum depth of 20,300 feet (6,200 m). South of the Cape Mangkalihat, the sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea.

Source: "HMS Heartsease (K15)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, December 23rd), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Heartsease_(K15).

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References
  1. ^ a b McCluskie, Tom (2013). The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff. Stroud: The History Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780752488615.
  2. ^ Colledge & Warlow 2006, p. 159.
  3. ^ a b c d e Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2012). "HMS Heartsease (K 15)". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  4. ^ Kindell, Don. "Convoy SC.7". Arnold Hague Convoy Database.
  5. ^ Dymond, S.P. "Operational History Commissioning". HMS Tetcott 1941 – 1957. Holsworthy Museum. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008.
  6. ^ "Courage PG-70". US Naval Ships History. historycentral.com.
  7. ^ Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 27.
  8. ^ a b Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 28.
  9. ^ Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 29.
  10. ^ Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 157.
  11. ^ a b c Conboy & Morrison 1999, p. 158.
  12. ^ King, Ian M (23 February 2012). "Flower Class (1940) Corvette UK Built Ships". Britain's Navy Fighting Ships Operations History. Ian M King.
Sources
External links

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