HMS Marigold (K87)

HMS Marigold was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy.

Career
Marigold was launched from the yards of Hall, Russell & Company, of Aberdeen, Scotland on 16 November 1940. She went on to have an eventful career in a number of the theatres of the Second World War.

Timeline
7 May 1941 she picked up 19 survivors from the torpedoed British merchant SS Ixion 200 mi south west of Reykjavík, Iceland.

16 November 1941 she engaged U-433 which sank at 2155hrs, after a sustained attack with depth charges and gunfire in the Mediterranean, 25 nmi east of Gibraltar. Marigold picked up a number of survivors and took them to Gibraltar.

''U-Boat Sunk. The Admiralty is now able to announce that a German U-boat has been destroyed by the corvette H.M.S. Marigold (Lieutenant J. Renwick, R.N.R.) in the area in which H.M.S. Ark Royal had been torpedoed only two days before. As this U-boat was patrolling in the same waters it is practically certain that it was concerned in the attack on H.M.S. Ark Royal. H.M.S. Marigold attacked with depth charges. These forced the U-boat to the surface and it was at once engaged by gun- fire from the corvette. The crew of the U-boat took to the water as their vessel sank. Thirty-four survivors were picked up and are prisoners of war. H.M.S. Marigold was built by Hall, Russell and Co., of Aberdeen. U-BOAT SUNK PROBABLE ATTACKER OF ARK ROYAL.'' The Times November 21st 1941

''I had completed my watch on the Asdic set, and gone down to our sleeping quarters to turn in, when I heard the rumble of exploding depth-charges and the bark of gunfire somewhere near at hand, on our starboard beam. All the rest of the watch were fast asleep, so I just settled down on my bunk and waited for the “action stations” alarm bells to ring out, but they remained silent. We had already spent too many hours watch-keeping on the long voyage out not to take advantage of a little shut-eye when the opportunity came along. Feeling very tired and sleepy, I rolled into my bunk, and was soon fast asleep. On being awakened to take over Asdic watch again, I was informed that during the night, HMS Marigold had made contact with a U-boat and had engaged her with all she had. The striking power of the Marigold’s guns and depth charges had made short work of the enemy submarine. She proved to be the U-433, en route to join up with the Italian submarine fleet, the idea being to boost their dwindling morale. On picking up no less than 40 survivors, the Marigold left the search group and returned to Gibraltar with her prisoners.'' Bill Harcus - corvette HMS Samphire

15 June 1942 she picked up 41 survivors from the British merchant SS Etrib, 20 survivors from the Norwegian tanker SS Slemdal and 29 survivors from the British merchant SS Thurso that had been torpedoed and sunk by U-552 380 mi West of Corunna, Spain.

13 November 1942 she rescued 81 survivors from the British merchant SS Maron which had been torpedoed and sunk by U-81 off Oran, Algeria.

Sinking
In the late evening of 9 December 1942 HMS Marigold was escorting convoy KMS.3Y, off Algiers, Algeria. The convoy was attacked in the late evening by three S.79 VTBs of the 105º Gruppo AS (105th Torpedo group) led by Capt. Urbano Mancini. Marigold was hit by a torpedo at around 1515 hours and sank a short time later with 40 of her crew killed. Lt. James Alexander Smith Halcrow, RNR (age 35) had been her commanding officer since 25 April 1942 and was among those lost.