HMS Bergamot
Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Bergamot after the bergamot flower.
References
HMS Bergamot (1917)
HMS Bergamot was an Anchusa-class sloop of the Royal Navy, which had a short career during World War I. Built by Armstrong Whitworth, the ship was laid down on 1 January 1917, launched on 5 May, and commissioned on 14 July.
Four weeks later, on 13 August 1917, under the command of Lieut-Commander Percy T. Perkins, she was sunk in the Atlantic 70 nautical miles (130 km) north-west of the harbour of Killybegs by the German submarine U-84, commanded by Walter Rohr.
His war diary describes how he sighted a lone merchant ship, with no defensive armament (an unusual sight by 1917). HMS Bergamot evidently sighted the U-boat's periscope, as she began to zig-zag at high speed. The U-84 fired one torpedo — which hit on the port side — and HMS Bergamot broke in half and sank in 4 minutes. Surfacing, the U-84 sighted an unusually large number of crew (70) and pieces of wood floating. The U-boat's log identifies the possibility of the Bergamot being a "trap ship". One of the indicators being the narrow beam in relation to the length of the ship, a sure sign of a warship.
HMS Bergamot (K189)
HMS Bergamot was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy.
Construction
She was laid down at Harland and Wolff in Belfast on 15 October 1940 and launched on 15 February 1941. Her commissioning followed on 12 May of the same year. Her pennant number was K189.
Royal Navy wartime service
Her main duty was as a convoy escort and in this capacity she crossed the Atlantic - North and South - several times, escorting convoys to and from the United Kingdom.
On two occasions Bergamot was involved in Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union, once to Murmansk and once to Archangel. Most notably she took part in convoy PQ 18, sailing all the way from Loch Ewe in Scotland to Russia, subjected for days on end to attacks by German aircraft.
She sailed from Liverpool with the convoy which initiated the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1943. From then on the Mediterranean was her home: escorting supplies to Tobruk; being involved in the invasions at Salerno in September 1943 and Anzio in January 1944; she was also present when the Italian fleet surrendered to the Allies.
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