HMS Peony

Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Peony, after the flower:

HMS Peony (K40)

HMS Peony was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. In 1943 she was transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy as ΒΠ Σαχτούρης ("BP Sachtouris"), serving throughout World War II and the Greek Civil War. She was returned to the Royal Navy in 1951 and scrapped in April 1952.

Royal Navy

Throughout her Royal Navy career Peony escorted convoys: primarily in home waters, but sometimes in the Mediterranean Sea and to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

From late 1940 to early 1941 she was part of the 10th Corvette Group, Mediterranean Fleet based at Alexandria, with which she escorted numerous convoys to Malta. In February 1941 she was equipped for minesweeping as not enough minesweepers were available. In July 1941 she helped to transport troops to Cyprus. She undertook anti-submarine operations off Cyprus in the following months. Along with the Australian destroyer HMAS Vendetta, three corvettes and two anti-submarine aircraft she attacked a U-boat on 8 October 1941 with, but the U-boat escaped.

SS Ardena (1915)

SS Ardena was a minesweeper and escort vessel built as HMS Peony in 1915.

History

She was built by A McMillan and Son in Dumbarton and launched on 25 August 1915. She entered services as HMS Peony as an Azalea-class sloop, minesweeper.

She was acquired by the London and South Western Railway in 1920, reconstructed and placed on the routes to Cherbourg and Caen which re-opened in July 1921. She was taken over by the Southern Railway in 1923 and remained until sold in July 1934.

She went to Navigation Constantine Toyias, Piraeus. On 18 April 1941, during a convoy escort, she collided with Greek destroyer Leon followed by the explosion of two depth charges. As a result, the stern section of Leon was cut off and two officers were killed.

On 27 September 1943 the passenger ferry, was sunk by a mine off Argostoli, Greece. Seven hundred and twenty Italian prisoners of war and 59 crewmen were killed.

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HMS

HMS or hms may refer to:

Ship names

Organizations

Educational institutions

HMS M30

HMS M30 was a Royal Navy M29-class monitor of the First World War.

The availability of ten 6 inch Mk XII guns from the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships in 1915 prompted the Admiralty to order five scaled down versions of the M15-class monitors, which had been designed to utilise 9.2 inch guns. HMS M30 and her sisters were ordered from Harland & Wolff, Belfast in March 1915. Launched on 23 June 1915, she was completed in July 1915.

Upon completion, HMS M30 was sent to the Mediterranean. Whilst enforcing the Allied blockade in the Gulf of Smyrna, HMS M30 came under fire from the Austro-Hungarian howitzer battery 36 supporting the Turkish, and was sunk on 14 May 1916.

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