French corvette Aconit Aconit ( formerly HMS " Aconite " ) was one of the nine s lent by the Royal Navy to the " Force Navales Françaises Libres " ( Free French Naval Forces ) . During World War II , she escorted 116 convoys , spending 728 days at sea . She was awarded the " Croix de la Libération " and the " Croix de Guerre " 1939 – 1945 , and was cited by the British Admiralty . < br > From 1947 to 1964 she was used as whaling ship for three different companies . War service . Early history 1941 - 42 . " Aconite " was built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd at Troon in Scotland , and was commissioned on 19 July 1941 , under " Lieutenant de vaisseau " Levasseur . She was attached to the Free French Naval Forces on 23 July 1941 , and assigned to the Clyde escort group on 17 August 1941 , joining the Newfoundland Forces . " Aconit " took a very active part in the Battle of the Atlantic for two years , protecting convoys sailing from Newfoundland to the U . K . via Iceland . She also took part to the operations in Saint - Pierre - et - Miquelon between 10 and 27 December 1941 . In 1942 " Aconit " , with three other FNFL corvettes , was assigned to Escort Group B - 3 of the Mid - Ocean Escort Force and served with this group for the rest of the campaign . Finest hour 1943 . On 10 and 11 March 1943 , " Aconit " , one of eight warships escorting a large convoy HX228 , destroyed two German submarines , " U - 444 " ( Oberleutnant Albert Langfeld ) and " U - 432 " ( Kapitänleutnant Hermann Eckhardt ) . On Tuesday 9 March the convoy was five days out from Newfoundland . At 0800 a plane from a U . S . carrier sighted a U - boat ahead . At 1500 , the carrier was short on fuel and had to turn back . At 1930 , an ammunition ship had been hit and on a second ship SS " Andrea F . Luckenbach " , men were taking to the boats . " Harvester " , a " Havant " - class destroyer , under Commander Andre Tait DSO hunted " U - 444 " by sweeping through the lumbering convoy . A corvette was detailed to rescue survivors as the underwater search went on . Hours passed as the destroyer remained in the attack area . At midnight , astern of the convoy , silently moving up to regain station " U - 444 " was surfaced and going at top speed after the convoy . After the U - boat dived , " Harvester " raced over dive position and forced her to surface by depth charge attacks . Circling at speed " Harvester " searched and spotted the U - boat 500 yards ahead . Making revs for the destroyer rammed " U - 444 " , disabling herself in the process . From astern " Aconit " sighted " U - 444 " as " Harvester " broke free and closed to make her own ramming attack . " Harvester " , dead in the water , picked up one survivor and " Aconit " another four . Commander Tait ordered " Aconit " to rejoin convoy HX228 and with only the damaged starboard propeller shaft turning , " Harvester " limped behind at . At 0400 on 10 March , 50 survivors of SS " William C . Gorgas " ( a Liberty ship sunk by " U - 757 " ) were sighted and rescued . During the morning of 11 March , " Harvester " ' s remaining shaft broke . A signal was made to " Aconit " " Am stopped . Stand by me " . At 1100 " Harvester " was hit by the first torpedo from " U - 432 " . As the officers and crew prepared to abandon ship in the middle of the intensely cold Atlantic , a second torpedo was fired . The captain , seven officers , 136 ratings and 39 survivors were lost . " Aconit " returned to the scene and forced " U - 432 " to surface , then sank her with artillery fire and ramming . During the day , the French corvette picked up 60 survivors from " Harvester " , including 12 survivors from the " William C . Gorgas " . " Aconit " also captured 12 survivors from " U - 432 " , including the second officer . The senior surviving officer of " Harvester " , Lieutenant J L Briggs ( who had been gunnery control officer ) interviewed the second - in - command of " U - 432 " , who had launched both torpedoes : " Why did you need to fire the second torpedo so shallow ? What did you want to do , kill as many as you could ? " The " oberleutnant " replied " didn ' t think you were sinking fast enough . " To the war ' s end 1943 - 45 . From 1 to 12 April , " Aconit " undertook repairs in Glasgow . On 21 April 1943 , at Greenock , General Charles de Gaulle came aboard and awarded the corvette and her commander the " Croix de la Libération " . Under major repairs from 1 September to 10 October 1943 , her commander was replaced by " Lieutenant de vaisseau " Le Miller . She rejoined the Battle of the Atlantic , attacking a German submarine on 13 December 1943 . " Aconit " spent the first months of 1944 in Casablanca and Gibraltar , and on 5 June 1944 she escorted the convoy U - 3 from Torbay to France , coming under attack from German airplanes . During the Normandy landings , she was attached to the 108th escort group , along with Free French ships " Aventure " , " Escarmouche " and " Renoncule " . She last fired in anger on 11 April 1945 . On 18 April , she undertook minor repairs , and returned to escorting convoys in May , until 5 June 1945 , the official date for the end of naval operations in European waters . Post war . " Aconit " was briefly used by the French naval school , before being given back to the Royal Navy on 30 April 1947 and renamed HMS " Aconite " . In July 1947 the boat was sold to United Whalers , London , for whaling purposes . Rebuilt as buoy boat ( towing vessel ) by Harland & Wolff , Belfast , she was delivered in November as Terje 11 to serve the whaling factory " Balaena " . The company used a second corvette as " Terje 10 " ( the former HMS " Chrysanthemum " , K195 ) In summer 1951 she was converted in a whale catcher with an ice strengthened bow and worked with " Balaena " until the company gave up whaling at the end of the 1959 / 1960 season . In August 1960 the scottish company Christian Salvesen , with still five former Flower corvettes in service , purchased " Terje 11 " and renamed the whale catcher Southern Terrier . She worked three seasons with the whaling factory " Southern Harvester " . She became chartered for her last catching season 1963 / 1964 by Anders Jahre ´s A / S Kosmos and worked for the factory ship " Kosmos IV " , the former German " Walter Rau " . Laid up in Norway 1964 she was sold for scrapping to Belgium , where she arrived in January 1967 . Legacy . In honour of this unit , three French warships have since been named " Aconit " including the modern stealth frigate " Aconit " .