| abstract | - The Flower-class corvette (also referred to as the Gladiolus-class) was a British class of 267 corvettes used during World War II, specifically with the Allied navies as anti-submarine convoy escorts during the Battle of the Atlantic. The generic term "Flower" is derived from the Royal Navy's use of flower names for ships of this class. The majority served during World War II with the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Several ships built largely in Canada were transferred from the RN to the United States Navy (USN) under the lend-lease program, seeing service in both navies. Some corvettes transferred to the USN were manned by the US Coast Guard. The vessels serving with the US Navy were known as Action-class patrol gunboats. Other Flower-class corvettes served with the Free French Naval Forces, the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Hellenic Navy, the Royal New Zealand Navy and, immediately post-war, the South African Navy. After World War II many surplus Flower-class vessels saw use in non-Allied navies the world over, as well as civilian use. is the only member of the class to be preserved as a museum ship.
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