| Navy | The Royal Navy |
| Type | Corvette |
| Class | Flower |
| Pennant | K 51 |
| Built by | Charles Hill & Sons Ltd. (Bristol, U.K.) : Richardson, Westgarth & Clark |
| Ordered | 21 Sep 1939 |
| Laid down | 28 Oct 1940 |
| Launched | 26 Jul 1941 |
| Commissioned | 4 Nov 1941 |
| End service | |
| History | Commisioned as Protea into the south African Navy 4 October 1947. |
Commands listed for HMS Rockrose (K 51)
Please note that we're still working on this section.
| Commander | From | To | |
| 1 | Lt.Cdr. John Dudley Birch, RNR | 6 Aug 1941 | 6 Jul 1942 |
| 2 | Lt. Edward John Binfield, RNR | 6 Jul 1942 | 16 Oct 1943 |
| 3 | T/Lt. Henry James Makepeace, RNR | 16 Oct 1943 | 8 Jul 1945 |
| 4 | T/Lt. Edward Alexander King, RNVR | 8 Jul 1945 | 11 Jan 1946 |
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Noteable events involving Rockrose include:
8 Oct 1942
HMS Rockrose (Lt. E.J. Binfield, RNR) picks up 42 survivors from the American merchant Chickasaw City that was torpedoed and sunk the previous day by German U-boat U-172 about 85 nautical miles south-south-west of Cape town, South-Africa in position 34°15'S, 17°11'E.
HMS Rockrose also picks up 28 survivors from the Panamanian merchant Firethorn that was also torpedoed and sunk the previous day by the same U-boat but about 60 nautical miles north-west of Cape town in position 34°13'S, 17°21'E.
10 Oct 1942
HMS Rockrose (Lt. E.J. Binfield, RNR) picks up 5 survivors from the Greek merchant Pantelis that was torpedoed and sunk two days earlier by German U-boat U-172 about 40 nautical miles south-west of Cape town, South Africa.
29 Oct 1942
The British merchant Ross is torpedoed and sunk of Cape Agulhas, South Africa in position 38°51'S, 21°40'E by German U-boat U-159. 39 survivors were later picked up by HMS Rockrose (Lt. E.J. Binfield, RNR).