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USS Courage (PG 70)



Courage call sign:
Nan - Dog - Oboe - Nan

ex-HMS Heartsease (K 15)
ex-HMS Pansy

Courage served the Navies of Great Britain and the United States.

British Flower Class Corvette/Temptress Class Patrol Gunboat:

  • Built 1939 as the "Flower Class" corvette HMS Pansy by Harland and Wolff Ltd., Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • Launched 20 April 1940
  • Renamed Heartsease (K 15) and commissioned 4 June 1940
  • Acquired by the U.S. Navy 18 March 1942
  • Commissioned USS Courage (PG-70), 3 April 1942
  • Decommissioned 22 August 1945 at Harwich, England and returned to the Royal Navy 23 August 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 17 September 1945
  • Sold into Merchant service 22 July 1946
  • Acquired in 1951 by Johan C. Giertsen and Co. A/S of Bergen, Norway and renamed Roskva
  • Acquired in 1956 by Statius Jansens Rederi A/S of Bergen and renamed Douglas in 1956
  • Acquired in 1958 by Carrara y Cia of Panama and renamed Seabird in 1958
  • Lost in December 1958 in an air raid North of Celebes when en route from the Philippines for North Celebes with supplies for rebel forces.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1375 t.
  • Length 205'
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 14' 7"
  • Speed 16.5 kts.
  • Complement 90
  • Armament: Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts, two 20mm guns, two depth charge tracks, four depth charge projectors, and one hedgehog depth charge projector
  • Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, one 2,750ihp vertical triple expansion Sunderland Engine Co. steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Flower Class Corvette 168k "Escort Vessel (Corvette) - (Flower Class) - With Extended Forecastle, Increased Sheer, & Fuller Lines Fwd."
    U.S. Navy preliminary design plan, copied from Smith Dock Co., Ltd., Drawing No. 232. This plan, dated April 1941, is for a modification of the British "Flower" class corvette. Scale of the original drawing is not given, but appears to be 1/16" = 1'.
    The original plan is in the 1939-1944 "Spring Styles Book" held by the Naval Historical Center
    U.S. Navy photo S-511-30    		 Naval Historical Center
    USS Courage (PG 70)
    Courage 145k c. 1943
    Moored to a buoy in the Caribbean
    National Archives photo 80-G-451532    		 Rick Davis and John Chiquoine
    Photo added 28 November 2020
    Courage 102k c. 1944
    Greenland
    From the collection of Ira V. Miller    		 Bill Graham
    Courage 99k c. 1944
    Looking aft toward the bow gun and bridge
    Photo by and from the collection of Ira V. Miller
    SS Roskva
    Courage 152k Seen as SS Roskva WRECK Site
    Photo added 28 November 2020
    View the Courage (PG-70)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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