HMS ''Buttercup'' (

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

: K193) was a built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. She served during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

first as part of the Royal Navy ''Section Belge'' (RNSB), and then later as part of the

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy () is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for navy, naval operations of Norway, including those of the Norwegian Coast Guard. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 i ...

. Between 1946 and 1957 she served as HNoMS ''Nordyn''. The Norwegian government then sold her and she became the

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

''Thoris'' until she was broken up in 1969.

Belgian service

''Buttercup'' was the first of two corvettes to serve with the Royal Navy ''Section Belge'' (RNSB) of the

Free Belgian forces The Free Belgian forces (, ) were soldiers from Belgium and its colonies who fought as part of the Allied armies during World War II, after the official Belgian surrender to Nazi Germany. It is distinct from the Belgian Resistance which exist ...

, along with . With the liberation of Belgium in late 1944, ''Buttercup'' returned to Royal Navy control.

Norwegian service

From 20 December 1944, the

borrowed ''Buttercup'' to replace the

Castle-class corvette The Castle-class corvette was an ocean going convoy escort developed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It was the follow-on to the , and designed to be built in shipyards that were producing the Flowers. The Castle-class was a ...

HNoMS ''Tunsberg Castle'', which had been lost to a mine on 12 December 1944 off the coast of Finnmark. HNoMS ''Buttercup'' served from 15 February 1945 until 8 May as part of the Liverpool Escort Force. As part of "Group B2" she participated in two westbound and two eastbound allied transatlantic convoys. None of these was attacked by enemy forces and all the convoys arrived at their destinations. When ''Buttercup'' got back to Liverpool on 6 May she was ordered to Rosyth to prepare to sail for Norway. She sailed on 13 May 1945 for Oslo carrying the Chief of Staff of the Navy High Command and other naval officers. She arrived at Oslo on 15 May. The Norwegian Government acquired ''Buttercup'' in 1946 and on 10 August renamed her HNoMS ''Nordkyn''. She served initially as a fisheries protection vessel. ''Nordkyn'', Kommandor Oscar Hauge, sailed from

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

on 28 July 1948 for

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

. She was carrying Kaptein Rolf von Krogh on an expedition for the Norsk Polarinstitut. She carried out a hydrographic survey between Bear Island (Bjørnøya), and

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

. Between 2 and 9 September ''Nordkyn'' served as a base for a Catalina that the Polarinstitut employed for mapping glacier fronts. ''Nordkyn'' returned to Tromsø on 18 September.''The Polar Record'', Vol. 5, Issue 39, January 1950, p.453. In 1950 ''Nordkyn'' was reclassified as a frigate and received the pennant number F309. She was stricken from the Navy list on 9 April 1956 at Horten.

Whaler

In November 1957 the Norwegian Government sold ''Nordkyn'' to Thor Dahl A/S,

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...

, a whaling company. Her new owners had Framnæs Mekaniske Værksted rebuild her, renamed her ''Thoris'', and employed her as a whaler in the Antarctic where she worked with Thor Dahl's whale factory ship.

Fate

''Thoris'' was sold in June 1969 for scrapping at Grimstad.

Citations

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buttercup, HMS 1941 ships Ships built in Belfast Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Navy World War II corvettes of the United Kingdom

Buttercup ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed worldwide, primarily in temperate an ...

World War II corvettes of Norway Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Norwegian Navy Fishing vessels of Norway Whaling ships Ships built by Harland and Wolff