Anchusa-class sloop

HMS President on the Thames
Class overview
Name	Flower class, Anchusa type
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Cadmus class
Succeeded by	Kil class
In service	- 1988
In commission	1917
Completed	28
Lost	6
Preserved	1
General characteristics
Type	Convoy escort Q-Ship: ("Warship-Q")
Displacement	1,290 long tons (1,311 t)
Length	250 ft (76.2 m) p/p 262 ft 3 in (79.93 m) o/a
Beam	35 ft (10.7 m)
Draught	11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) mean 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) – 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m) deep
Propulsion	4-cylinder triple expansion engine, 2 boilers, 2,500 hp (1,864 kW), 1 screw
Speed	16 knots (29.6 km/h; 18.4 mph)
Range	Coal: 260 tons
Complement	93
Armament	Designed to mount : 2 × 12-pounder gun 1 × 7.5 in (191 mm) howitzer or 1 × 200 lb stick-bomb howitzer 4 × Depth charge throwers As built: 2 × QF 4 inch Mk IV guns or BL 4 inch Mk IX guns 1 or 2 × 12-pounder guns Depth charge throwers

The twenty-eight Anchusa-class sloops were built under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I as the final part of the larger "Flower class", which were also referred to as the "Cabbage class", or "Herbaceous Borders".

They were single screw fleet sweeping vessels (sloops) with triple hulls at the bow to give extra protection against loss when working.

The Anchusa class of corvettes or convoy sloops were completed in 1917 and 1918. They were a small class of convoy protection ships built to look like merchant ships for use as Q-ships in World War I.

Two members of the Anchusa group, HMS Chrysanthemum and HMS Saxifrage (renamed HMS President in 1922), survived to be moored on the River Thames for use as Drill Ships by the RNVR until 1988, a total of seventy years in RN service. HMS President (1918) was sold and preserved, and is now one of the last three surviving warships of the Royal Navy built during the First World War, (along with the 1914 Light cruiser HMS Caroline in Belfast, and the 1915 Monitor HMS M33 in Portsmouth dockyard).