War service
Early history 1941-42
''Aconite'' was built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd at Troon in Scotland, and was commissioned on 19 July 1941, under ''Lieutenant de vaisseau'' Jean Levasseur ( fr). She was attached to the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL) on 23 July 1941, and assigned to the Clyde escort group on 17 August 1941, joining the Newfoundland Forces. ''Aconit'' took a very active part in the1943
On 10 and 11 March 1943, ''Aconit'', one of eight warships escorting a large convoy Convoy HX 228, HX228, destroyed two German submarines, and . On Tuesday 9 March the convoy was five days out from Newfoundland. At 0800 a plane from a U.S. carrier sighted a U-boat ahead. At 1500, the carrier was short on fuel and had to turn back. At 1930, an ammunition ship had been hit and on a second ship SS ''Andrea F. Luckenbach'', men were taking to the boats. In response the escort leader, , hunted ''U-444'' by sweeping through the lumbering convoy. A corvette was detailed to rescue survivors as the underwater search went on. Hours passed as the destroyer remained in the attack area. At midnight, astern of the convoy, silently moving up to regain station ''U-444'' was surfaced and going at top speed after the convoy. After the U-boat dived, ''Harvester'' raced over dive position and forced her to surface by depth charge attacks. Circling at speed ''Harvester'' searched and spotted the U-boat 500 yards ahead. Making revs for the destroyer rammed ''U-444'', disabling herself in the process. From astern ''Aconit'' sighted ''U-444'' as ''Harvester'' broke free and closed to make her own ramming attack. ''Harvester'', dead in the water, picked up one survivor and ''Aconit'' another four. Commander Tait ordered ''Aconit'' to rejoin convoy HX228 and with only the damaged starboard propeller shaft turning, ''Harvester'' limped behind at . At 0400 on 10 March, 50 survivors of SS ''William C. Gorgas'' (a Liberty ship sunk by ''U-757'') were sighted and rescued. During the morning of 11 March, ''Harvesters remaining shaft broke. A signal was made to ''Aconit'' "Am stopped. Stand by me". At 1100 ''Harvester'' was hit by the first torpedo from ''U-432''. As the officers and crew prepared to abandon ship in the middle of the intensely cold Atlantic, a second torpedo was fired. The captain, seven officers, 136 ratings and 39 survivors were lost. ''Aconit'' returned to the scene and forced ''U-432'' to surface, then sank her with artillery fire and ramming. During the day, the French corvette picked up 60 survivors from ''Harvester'', including 12 survivors from the ''William C. Gorgas''. ''Aconit'' also captured 12 survivors from ''U-432'', including the second officer. The senior surviving officer of ''Harvester'', Lieutenant J L Briggs (who had been gunnery control officer) interviewed the second-in-command of ''U-432'', who had launched both torpedoes: "Why did you need to fire the second torpedo so shallow? What did you want to do, kill as many as you could?" The ''oberleutnant'' replied "didn't think you were sinking fast enough."To the war's end 1943-45
From 1 to 12 April, ''Aconit'' undertook repairs in Glasgow. On 21 April 1943, at Greenock, General Charles de Gaulle came aboard and awarded the corvette and her commander the ''Ordre de la Libération, Croix de la Libération''. Under major repairs from 1 September to 10 October 1943, her commander was replaced by ''Lieutenant de vaisseau'' Le Miller. She rejoined the Battle of the Atlantic, attacking a German submarine on 13 December 1943. ''Aconit'' spent the first months of 1944 in Casablanca and Gibraltar, On 6th March 1944 there was an incident at Gibraltar between the French corvette Aconit and the Italian Cruiser Guisseppi Garibaldi, involving French insults to the Italian Flag and vice versa. On 5 June 1944 she escorted the convoy U-3 from Torbay to France, coming under attack from German airplanes. During the Normandy landings, she was attached to the 108th escort group, along with Free French ships ''Aventure'', ''Escarmouche'' and ''Renoncule''. She last fired in anger on 11 April 1945. On 18 April, she undertook minor repairs, and returned to escorting convoys in May, until 5 June 1945, the official date for the end of naval operations in European waters.Post war
''Aconit'' was briefly used by the French naval school, before being given back to the Royal Navy on 30 April 1947 and renamed HMS ''Aconite''. In July 1947 the ship was sold to United Whalers, London, for whaling purposes. Rebuilt as buoy boat (towing vessel) by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, she was delivered in November as ''Terje 11'' to serve the whaling factory ''Balaena''. The company used a second corvette as ''Terje 10'' (the former ) In summer 1951 she was converted in a whale catcher with an ice strengthened bow and worked with ''Balaena'' until the company gave up whaling at the end of the 1959/1960 season. In August 1960 the Scottish company Christian Salvesen, with still five former Flower corvettes in service, purchased ''Terje 11'' and renamed the whale catcher ''Southern Terrier ''. She worked three seasons with the whaling factory ''Southern Harvester''. She became chartered for her last catching season 1963/1964 by Anders Jahre's A/S Kosmos and worked for the factory ship ''Kosmos IV'', the former German ''Walter Rau''. Laid up in Norway 1964 she was sold for scrapping to Belgium, where she arrived in January 1967.Legacy
In honour of this unit, three French warships have since been named ''Aconit'' including the modern stealth frigate .See also
* List of escorteurs of the French NavyNotes
Sources
* *External links