View source for HMS Heartsease (K15)

{{Short description|Flower-class corvette}}
{{other ships|HMS Heartsease}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country= United Kingdom
|Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
|Ship name= HMS ''Heartsease''
|Ship ordered= 19 September 1939
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=*[[Harland and Wolff]], [[Belfast]],
*[[Northern Ireland]]
|Ship yard number=1063<ref name=Tom>{{cite book|last1=McCluskie|first1=Tom|title=The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff|date=2013|publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud|isbn=9780752488615|page=148}}</ref>
|Ship laid down= 14 November 1939
|Ship launched= 20 April 1940
|Ship completed=4 June 1940<ref name=Tom/>
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned= 4 June 1940
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned= 3 April 1942
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
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|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship identification= [[Pennant number]]: K15
|Ship fate=*Transferred to the [[United States Navy|US Navy]] 3 April 1942
|Ship homeport=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country= United States
|Ship flag= {{USN flag|1943}}
|Ship name= USS ''Courage''
|Ship acquired= 18 March 1942
|Ship commissioned= 3 April 1942
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned= 22 August 1945
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
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|Ship reinstated=
|Ship identification= [[Hull number]]: PG-70
|Ship fate=*Returned to Royal Navy 23 August 1945
|Ship homeport=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=title
|Ship country= United Kingdom
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
|Ship name= HMS ''Heartsease''
|Ship recommissioned= 23 August 1945
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=*Sold into merchant service 22 July 1946
|Ship renamed=*''Roskva'' from 1951
*''Douglas'' from 1956
*''Seabird'' from 1958
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship identification=
|Ship fate=*Sunk by [[Indonesian Air Force]] December 1958
|Ship homeport=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship class= {{sclass2|Flower|corvette}}
|Ship displacement= {{Convert|925|LT|t|0}}
|Ship length= {{convert|208|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{convert|33|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught= {{convert|11|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship propulsion=*Two [[fire-tube boiler]]s,
*one 4-cycle [[Marine steam engine#Triple or multiple expansion|triple-expansion steam engine]],
*generating {{convert|2750|hp|abbr=on}}
|Ship speed= {{convert|16|kn}}
|Ship range= {{convert|3500|nmi}} at {{convert|12|kn}}
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|Ship complement= 85
|Ship time to activate=
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|Ship armament=
*1 × [[BL 4 inch Mk IX naval gun|4-inch BL Mk.IX gun]]
*2 × [[Vickers .50 machine gun|0.5-inch (12.7 mm)]] twin machine guns
*2 × 0.303-inch (7.7-mm) [[Lewis gun|Lewis machine guns]]
*2 × stern [[depth charge]] racks with 40 depth charges
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'''HMS ''Heartsease''''' was a {{sclass2|Flower|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 [[Materiel|''matériel'']]. The [[Indonesian Air Force]] intercepted and sank her off the coast of [[Minahasa]] in [[North Sulawesi]] in December 1958.

==Construction and commissioning==
''Heartsease'' was originally to have been named HMS ''Pansy'', but the name was changed prior to her launch.{{sfn|Colledge|Warlow|2006|p=159}} She was ordered on 19 September 1939 and [[Keel laying|laid down]] at the yards of [[Harland and Wolff]], [[Belfast]], Northern Ireland, on 14 November 1939. She was [[Ship naming and launching|launched]] on 20 April 1940 and [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] into service on 20 April 1940.<ref name=UBoat>{{cite web
|url=http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4801.html
|title=HMS Heartsease (K 15)
|date=1995–2012
|last=Helgason
|first=Guðmundur
|website=German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net
|access-date=9 August 2012
}}</ref>

==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]] {{GS|U-100|1940|2}} west of Ireland.<ref name=UBoat/> On 15 October she rescued nine survivors from the British merchant {{SS|Thistlegarth}} which had been sunk by {{GS|U-103|1940|2}} {{convert|45|nmi|km}} west-north-west of [[Rockall]].<ref name=UBoat/> She was then called to the assistance of the inbound [[Convoy SC 7]], which had come under attack from a U-boat [[Wolfpack (naval tactic)|wolfpack]] and was sustaining heavy losses. On arrival ''Heartsease'' was assigned to escort the damaged {{SS|Carsbreck}} into port.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/sc/index.html?sc.php?convoy=7!~scmain |last=Kindell |first=Don |work=Arnold Hague Convoy Database |title=Convoy SC.7}}</ref> On 23 December she collided with the {{sclass2|Hunt|destroyer}} {{HMS|Tetcott|L99|6}} in the [[Irish Sea]]. Both ships were saved and towed into port. A subsequent enquiry placed the blame on the captain of ''Heartsease''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hmstetcott.com/comm.php |last=Dymond |first=S.P. |work=HMS Tetcott 1941 – 1957 |title=Operational History Commissioning |publisher=Holsworthy Museum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724084040/http://www.hmstetcott.com/comm.php |archive-date=24 July 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

===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''.<ref name=UBoat/> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.historycentral.com/NAVY/PF/Courage.html |title=Courage PG-70 |work=US Naval Ships History |publisher=historycentral.com}}</ref>

==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''.{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=27}} 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]]{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=28}} and later to Singapore.{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=29}} Lim's client was the [[Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia|PRRI]] ("Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia") right-wing rebel movement,{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=28}} 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 rifle]]s from Taiwan{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=157}} to [[Bolaang Mongondow Regency|Bolaang Bay]] on the coast of [[Minahasa]].{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=158}} There she began to load a cargo of [[copra]],{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=158}} 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.{{sfn|Conboy|Morrison|1999|p=158}}

''Seabird'' was announced missing in December 1958<ref name=UBoat/> and a month later she was declared lost in the [[Celebes Sea]], with the cause of her loss officially declared as "unknown".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.britainsnavy.co.uk/FF/Flower%20Class%20(1940)%20SL%20Ships.htm |last=King |first=Ian M |title=Flower Class (1940) Corvette UK Built Ships |work=Britain's Navy Fighting Ships Operations History |publisher=Ian M King |date=23 February 2012}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* {{Cite Colledge2006}}
* {{cite book |last1=Conboy |first1=Kenneth |last2=Morrison |first2=James |title=Feet to the Fire CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957–1958 |year=1999 |location=Annapolis |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute|Naval Institute Press]] |isbn=1-55750-193-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Coy |first=Peter |title=The Echo of a Fighting Flower |date=December 2006 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=aWyCp-L6HUEC&q=HMS+Heartsease&pg=PA25 |page=25 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=9781847539472 }}

==External links==
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4801.html HMS ''Heartsease'' at Uboat.net]
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/PG/PG-70_Courage.html Hyperwar: USS ''Courage'' (PG-70)]

{{Flower class corvette|original}}
{{December 1940 shipwrecks}}
{{1958 shipwrecks}}

{{coord missing|Indian Ocean}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heartsease, HMS}}
[[Category:Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:Temptress-class gunboats]]
[[Category:Ships built in Belfast]]
[[Category:World War II corvettes of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1940 ships]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in December 1940]]
[[Category:Guided Democracy in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1958]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Corvettes sunk by aircraft]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Celebes Sea]]
[[Category:Ships built by Harland and Wolff]]