Ekaterini was another great Kavounides ship that seems to have been forgotten by our group which is more fascinated with the Typaldos and Nomikos ships... Ekaterini was originally ordered as a corvette for the French Navy (along with Abelia, Anchusa and one other) but all four were completed for the Royal Navy when the Germans invaded France. She was named Bergamot or K189 (see also her Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bergamot_(K189)).

French.JPG

She was built at Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland and launched on February 15, 1941. She was commissioned on March 14, 1941 and her officers are listed in http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4720.html All the Flower class corvettes are listed in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_class_corvette NB: Four Greek Navy ships were from the Flower class and were used as such by our Navy, Apostolis, Kriezis, Sahtouris and Tombazis.

Bergamot spent a lot of time as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and crossed the Atlantic several times. In fact, she traveled all the way to Murmansk and Archangelsk in northern Soviet Union during the war. After 1943 she was mostly in the Mediterranean Sea and participated in the events of Tobruk, Egypt, and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio!!!

She was a very fine ship of 980 tons and 16 knots with a length of 62.2 m and a width of 10.1 m. Her Miramar entry is listed below

IDNo: 6111660 Year: 1941
Name: BERGAMOT Launch Date: 15.2.41
Type: Patrol frigate Date of completion: 12.5.41
Flag: GBR Keel: 15.10.40
Tons: 940 Link: 1600
DWT: 1180 Yard No: 1100
Length overall: 62.6 Ship Design:
LPP: 57.9 Country of build: GBR
Beam: 10.1 Builder: Harland & Wolff
Material of build: Location of yard: Belfast
Number of screws/Mchy/
Speed(kn): 1T-16
Owner as Completed: Royal Navy
End: 1974
Subsequent History: [O for the French Navy] - 47 SYROS - 51 DELPHINI - 55 EKATERINI
Disposal Data: BU Perama 7.74 [C.Bofaris]
It appears she was decommissioned in October 1945.

She was bought by the Greek Government in March 1946, was named Syros and was modified as a transport ship and then as a passenger ship. Her capacity was increased to 1,082 tons and her speed became 14.6 knots.

Here is an ad of her route to Herakleion, Rethymnon and Souda on May 15, 1947....

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.......and another one to Tenos on August 9, 1947

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The next week she was one of the ships helping in the celebration of Dekapentavgoustos in Tenos

19470814 Tenos.jpg