Anchusa class sloop
HMS President on the Thames
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Flower class, Anchusa type |
| Operators: |
 Royal Navy
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| Preceded by: | Cadmus class |
| Succeeded by: | Kil class |
| In service: | - 1988 |
| In commission: | 1917 |
| Completed: | 28 |
| Preserved: | One |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Convoy escort Q-Ship: ("Warship-Q") |
| Displacement: | 1,290 long tons (1,311 t) |
| Length: | |
| Beam: | 35 ft (10.7 m) |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: | 4-cylinder triple expansion engine, 2 boilers, 2,500 hp (1,864 kW), 1 screw |
| Speed: | 16 knots (29.6 km/h; 18.4 mph) |
| Range: | Coal: 260 tons |
| Complement: | 93 |
| Armament: |
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The twenty eight Anchusa class sloops were built under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I as the final part of the larger "Flower class", which were also referred to as the "Cabbage class", or "Herbaceous Borders".
They were single screw fleet sweeping vessels (sloops) with triple hulls at the bows to give extra protection against loss when working.
The Anchusa class of corvettes or convoy sloops were completed in 1917 and 1918. They were a small class of convoy protection ships built to look like merchant ships for use as Q-ships in World War I.
Two members of the Anchusa group, HMS Chrysanthemum and HMS Saxifrage (renamed HMS President in 1922), survived to be moored on the River Thames for use as Drill Ships by the RNVR until 1988, a total of seventy years in RN service. HMS President (1918) was sold and preserved, and is now one of the last three surviving warships of the Royal Navy built during the First World War, (along with the 1914 Light cruiser HMS Caroline in Belfast, and the 1915 Monitor HMS M33 in Portsmouth dockyard).
These ships were Q-ships, which were disguised as normal mercantile shipping within convoys. Six ships were ordered on 1 January 1917:
Two more ships were ordered on 15 January 1917:
Twenty more ships were ordered on 21 February 1917:
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