Manufacturer nationality:Great Britain
Category:
ASM Escort
Displacement :1,370 standard t.
Dimensions :
Length :90.90m
Width :11.12m
Draught :3.91m
Drive :2
4-cylinder triple expansion steam engines developing 5,500 hp and driving 2 shafts.
Speed :20 knots.
Autonomy:
12,970 km at 12 knots.
Armament(s)...
2 single 101.6 mm guns, 2 "Pompom" of 2 single and 2
20 mm AA guns (later replaced by 10 20 mm AA guns),
1 Hedgehog and ASM grenades.
Crew: 107 officers and sailors.
The limits of the Flowers being obvious, the British Navy quickly began to study a larger model of "corvette with two propellers" which gave rise to the River class (the term "frigate" did not officially reappear until 1942). These buildings were 28.30 m longer than the Flowers, which made a huge difference in terms of nautical value, fuel capacity, installed power and armament. Fifty-seven units were launched in Britain between 1942 and 1944, seventy in Canada and eleven in Australia.
They had a tall, high forecastle and a low quarterdeck , intended to receive the equipment of the ASM grenades and the devices of minesweeping which encumbered too many escorts at that time. They were the first ships to standard deploy the Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar which, combined with a new sonar, allowed for faster and more precise attacks. Originally mounted quite forward, the Hedgehog was very exposed, but on later ships the system was split into two twelve-bomb launchers mounted one deck higher aft of the forward 101.6mm gun. The greater range of the Rivers demanded a greater capacity of ASM grenades; they could carry up to two hundred, while for the Flower the maximum was seventy.
Although their hull is not based on that of a merchant ship, the Rivers were built to merchant ship standards, which accelerated their production. They had a flat transom, which not only largely removed the complex curvature of traditionally shaped sterns, but also improved the hydrodynamic characteristics of the hull. It should be noted that more than half of the Rivers were made in Canada (and a number of others in Australia), because one tends too easily to forget the remarkable contribution that the shipyards and the navy of this country made to the Allied victory in the Atlantic. Most Canadian-built vessels were fitted with a 101.6 mm twin-barrel mount forward and a single 12-piece rear.