Two of MAYFLOWER’s crew clear ice and snow from the forward gun deck.

HMCS MAYFLOWER commissioned into the RCN on 28 November 1940.

MAYFLOWER along with sister corvette HMCS HEPATICA left Halifax on 9 February 1941 without their 4in. guns, due to a shortage of weapons. In place of the gun barrel a wood post was mounted, so the enemy could not tell that the corvettes were missing their forward gun.  On arrival in the UK, one of the wooden guns had warped during the crossing, prompting a signal from the Senior Officer ashore asking if the two Canadian corvettes “had clubbed the enemy” on the way over.

The gun barrel in this photo appears to be over-sized for a corvette and may be MAYFLOWER’s “toy” gun.

Roger Litwiller Collection. photo courtesy Ralph O’Brien, RCNVR. (RTL -ROB042)