Dates: 1940 - 1945
HMS Candytuft (K.09), a "Flower"-class corvette, was laid down in 1940 at Grangemouth, Scotland, by the Grangemouth Dry Dock Co.; launched on 8 July 1940; and commissioned in the Royal Navy soon thereafter. The United States Navy acquired her on 4 March 1942 under reverse lend lease; renamed her Tenacity (PG-71); and placed her in commission at New York on 11 June 1942.
After serving in the Caribbean under the Commandant, Caribbean Sea Frontier, Tenacity was transferred early in September to Vice Admiral Ingram’s South Atlantic Force, later redesignated the 4th Fleet. She arrived at Trinidad, British West Indies, on 7 September and, for the next 17 months, plied the waters along the coast of Brazil escorting convoys to various Brazilian ports, notably Recife and Bahia.
Late in January 1944, the gunboat was detached from the 4th Fleet, departed Trinidad, and headed north to Charleston, S.C. She left that port on 24 March and steamed north for duty in the northwestern Atlantic. Tenacity reported at Boston on 28 March and joined Task Force 24, a surface force which patrolled and escorted ships between ports in waters from Boston in the west and Greenland in the east. For the remainder of her naval service, Tenacity visited ports such as Argentia and St. Johns in Newfoundland, Grondal and Narsarssuak in Greenland, and Boston, Mass. She protected ships and convoys, stood plane guard station for aircraft flying antisubmarine patrol, and conducted her own patrols against U-boats.
With the end of the war in Europe on 9 May 1945, Tenacity was no longer needed to fight submarines in the Atlantic. Since ships of her type were not the variety needed in the war still being waged against Japan, it was determined that Tenacity and her sister-ships should be returned to Great Britain. She departed Boston harbor for the last time on 1 August and, after a brief stop at Ponta Delgada in the Azores, arrived in England on 14 August. Tenacity was placed out of commission on 22 August and transferred back to Great Britain four days later. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 17 September 1945.
