HMCS Hepatica

There has been only one vessel named Hepatica in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Hepatica  (K159) / Flower-class Corvette

HMS Hepatica was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 12 November 1940 at Quebec City. She arrived at Halifax on 17 November and left on 18 December with convoy HX.97, armed with a dummy 4-inch gun. The real thing was installed, and other deficiencies remedied at Greenock, completing on 6 March 1941. After working up in April, she was commissioned into the RCN and joined EG 4, Greenock.

In June, after brief service as a UK-Iceland escort, she was assigned to Newfoundland Escort Force for the rest of the year, escorting convoys between Iceland and St. John’s. Late in January 1942 she escorted SC 64, the inaugural Newfie-Derry convoy, and for the next three months served on that run. In June she joined the Tanker Escort Force, operating from Halifax, for one round trip to Trinidad and then, late in July, joined Gulf Escort Force as a Quebec-Sydney convoy escort.

In October she was reassigned to Halifax Force escorting Quebec-Labrador convoys, and in December to Western Local Escort Force (WLEF). She was to serve with WLEF for the remainder of the war, from June 1943 as a member of EG W-5 and from April 1944 with W-4. During this period Hepatica had two extensive refits from 11 February to 1 April 1943 and 20 March to 8 June 1944 both at New York. The former refit included the lengthening of her fo’c’s’le, and the latter was followed by three weeks’ workups in Bermuda. She left St. John’s 27 May 1945 as escort to HX.358, and on 27 June was handed over to the RN at Milford Haven. She was broken up at Llanelly, Wales, in 1948.

• Builder: Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing Co. Ltd., Lauzon, QC
• Date laid down: 24 February 1940
• Date launched: 6 July 1940
• Date commissioned: 15 May 1941
• Fo’c’s’le extension completed: New York City, NY, April 1943
• Date paid off: 27 June 1945
• Displacement: 965.2 tonnes
• Dimensions: 62.5 m x 10.1 m x 3.5 m
• Speed: 16 knots
• Crew: 85
• Armament: one 4-inch one 2-pdr., two 20-mm, Hedgehog

Battle honours

• Atlantic 1940-45
• Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942