The first corvettes went into operation in December 1940. The design of these small ocean-going escort ships was based on North Atlantic whalers - a ship that was known to be able to survive rough seas. The corvettes were small - 60m in length, 10 m across the beam, with a 4.5m draught, They weighed only 1200 tons displacement - about one half the size of a destroyer. Their armament was adequate for anti-submarine operations - but not for much else: 1 4 inch cannon, 2 X 2lb or 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, and 75 depth charges. Most importantly. They were small and simple enough in design that many smaller shipyards could built them. In all 340 corvettes were build.

The Corvette Diary of Frank Curry

Frank Curry served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1940 to 1945. He kept a dairy of his experiences on a corvette, HMCS Kamsack. You can read more of Frank's diary at: http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/those-who-served/diaries-letters-stories/second-world-war/curry

What a miserable, rotten hopeless life. I cannot imagine a more miserable existence than this of being caught on a corvette in the Atlantic. An Atlantic so rough that it seems impossible that we can continue to take this unending pounding and still remain in one piece. One's joints ache and ache from the continuous battle of trying to remain upright ... hanging onto a convoy is a fulltime job... mess deck is a terrifying place to venture near, knee-deep in sea-water, tables smashed, clothes floating around in it, breakfast stirred in, the crew in an almost stupor from the nightmarishness of it all. New chaps in our crew are having a horrible time of it, trying to keep going. I am as sick as a dog as I cling to a locker and pen these few words that I hope some day to read again and look back on as one of the most awful experiences of my life. And still we go on hour after hour.