HMCS SPIKENARD, Flower class corvette, was torpedoed and sunk by U-136 in the mid North Atlantic, during the night of 10 February 1942, while escorting convoy SC-67. Â Of her crew of sixty-five RCN sailors, fifty-seven were killed.
SC-67 departed from Sydney, NS on 2 February 1942 with twenty-two merchant ships. Â The convoy had an all Canadian escort of six corvettes, SPIKENARD was the Senior Officer of the Escort (SOE). Â The night of 10 February, found the convoy and escorts steaming westward in near total blackness when two U-Boats fired torpedoes at the convoy at 2230. Â Two torpedoes struck home at almost the exact same time, one hitting SS Heina, the other striking SPIKENARD. Â The two explosion were almost instantaneous and thought to have been two torpedo hits on the merchant ship by the other escorts and Convoy Commodore.
SPIKENARD was struck below the bridge, killing her officers and destroying her signal/radio equipment. Â Most of her ship’s company was still below decks, trapped. SPIKENARD sank in five minutes taking fifty-seven of her ship’s company with her.
Eight survivors were found in a raft the next day when a search was begun after the other escorts realized that SPIKENARD was missing.
Photo courtesy the Naval Museum of Manitoba.