Corvette of the Flower class
| Navy | The Royal Navy |
| Type | Corvette |
| Class | Flower |
| Pennant | K 03 |
| Built by | John Crown & Sons Ltd. (Sunderland, U.K) : N.E. Marine |
| Ordered | 31 Aug, 1939 |
| Laid down | 23 Oct, 1939 |
| Launched | 5 Jun, 1940 |
| Commissioned | 12 Sep, 1940 |
| End service | 24 Mar, 1942 |
| Loss position | |
| |
| History | Ordered for French Navy but taken over with the fall of France.
Transferred to the USN at Hull, England, on 24 March 1942.
Commissioned as USS Surprise (PG-63) on the same day.
USS Surprise was decommissioned by the U.S.N. on 20 August 1945 at Chatham, England and returned to the Royal Navy on 26 August 1945.
Sold into Merchantile service and finally ended up in the Communist Chinese Navy as Lin I.
Commanding Officer:
Lt.Cdr. John Jackson, RNR
8 August 1940 > |
| Career notes | To the United States Navy as USS Surprise |
| Noteable events involving Heliotrope include: 1 Dec, 1940
HMS Heliotrope (Lt.Cdr. J. Jackson, RNR) picks up 32 survivors from the British tanker Appalachee that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-101 about 340 nautical miles west of Bloody Foreland in position 54º30'N, 20º00'W. |
