Bell of the corvette

The Flower class corvette was designed by William Reed of Smith's Dock Co. near Middlesbrough, Yorkshire and inspired by his firm's 1936 whaler, Southern Pride. The Canadian naval staff was impressed with the ship's design, particularly its short length. It would allow safe navigation on the St. Lawrence canal system, as many ships had to be built in the Great Lakes shipyards. The corvette was originally designed as a coastal escort, but the shortage of ocean escorts forced her into the latter role during the worst years of the war.

Commissioned at Quebec City, Quebec, on 27 May 1944, the Flower-class corvette HMCS St. Lambert arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 19 June and sailed for examinations in Bermuda in July 1944.

Returning to the East Coast in August, HMCS St. Lambert was assigned to Escort Group C-6, Londonderry, Northern Ireland and departed St. John's, Newfoundland, on 18 September to join Convoy HX.358 for her passage there. She served on North Atlantic convoys for the remainder of her career, leaving St. John's on May 27, 1945 as an escort for convoy HX.358, the last HX convoy of the war.

She left Londonderry in June 1945 for her final trip home and was decommissioned on July 20 and placed on standby at Sorel, Quebec, for disposal. Sold in 1946 to be transformed into a merchant ship, she became the Panamanian Chrysi Hondroulis , and in 1955 the Greek Loula . Finally, under the name of Stefanos III , she was lost on March 14, 1964 west of Rhodes, Greece.

- Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co, Quebec

- Set-up date: July 8, 1943

- Launch date: November 6, 1943

- Displacement: 986.6 tons

- Dimensions: 63.5 m x 10.1 m x 2.9 m

- Speed: 16 knots

- Crew: 85

- Armament: one 4-inch (102 mm) gun, one 2-pound (0.9 kg) gun, two 20 mm (2 x I) guns, one Hedgehog mortar and depth charges