.jpg) HMSButtercup under Belgian command | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Buttercup |
| Namesake | Buttercup |
| Ordered | 8 April 1940 |
| Builder | Harland & Wolff Ltd.,Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Laid down | 17 December 1940 |
| Launched | 10 April 1941 |
| Commissioned | 24 April 1942 |
| Decommissioned | December 1944 |
| Out of service | 23 May 1941 |
| Reinstated | Returned to the Royal Navy |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1969 |
 Belgium | |
| Name | HMSButtercup |
| Acquired | 23 May 1941 |
| Out of service | Late 1944 |
| Fate | Returned to the Royal Navy |
 Norway | |
| Name | Nordkyn |
| Acquired | 20 December 1944 (bought 1946) |
| Decommissioned | 9 April 1956 |
| Fate | Sold November 1957 |
 Norway | |
| Name | Thoris |
| Owner | Thorendahl Ltd. |
| Acquired | 1957 |
| Fate | Sold and broken up 1969 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Flower-classcorvette |
HMSButtercup (pennant number: K193) was aFlower-classcorvette built for theRoyal Navy. She served during theSecond World War first as part of theRoyal NavySection Belge (RNSB), and then later as part of theRoyal Norwegian Navy. Between 1946 and 1957 she served as HNoMSNordyn. The Norwegian government then sold her and she became thewhalerThoris until she was broken up in 1969.
Buttercup was the first of two corvettes to serve with theRoyal NavySection Belge (RNSB) of theFree Belgian forces, along withHMS Godetia. With the liberation of Belgium in late 1944,Buttercup returned to Royal Navy control.
From 20 December 1944, theRoyal Norwegian Navy borrowedButtercup to replace theCastle-class corvetteHNoMSTunsberg Castle, which had been lost to a mine on 12 December 1944 off the coast of Finnmark.
HNoMSButtercup 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.
WhenButtercup 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 acquiredButtercup in 1946 and on 10 August renamed her HNoMSNordkyn. She served initially as a fisheries protection vessel.
Nordkyn, Kommandor Oscar Hauge, sailed fromTromsø on 28 July 1948 forSvalbard. She was carrying Kaptein Rolf von Krogh on an expedition for the Norsk Polarinstitut. She carried out a hydrographic survey betweenBear Island (Bjørnøya), andSpitsbergen. Between 2 and 9 SeptemberNordkyn served as a base for aCatalina that the Polarinstitut employed for mapping glacier fronts.Nordkyn returned to Tromsø on 18 September.[1]
In 1950Nordkyn was reclassified as a frigate and received the pennant number F309. She was stricken from the Navy list on 9 April 1956 at Horten.
In November 1957 the Norwegian Government soldNordkyn to Thor Dahl A/S,Sandefjord, a whaling company. Her new owners hadFramnæs Mekaniske Værksted rebuild her, renamed herThoris, and employed her as a whaler in the Antarctic where she worked with Thor Dahl's whale factory ship.
Thoris was sold in June 1969 for scrapping at Grimstad.
