Narcissus was constructed at Lewis’s shipyard in Aberdeen in April 1941, with the express purpose of joining the Battle of the Atlantic as a convoy escort.

Apart from three annual refits and a rearmament at Govan, Fort William and Troon, she escorted merchant ships continuously for three years.

During the course of these convoys, she expended countless depth charges against under-water contacts and picked up survivors from several Allied ships.

In March 1943, she took part in the rescue of survivors of the destroyer HMS Harvester, which had been torpedoed and sunk by U-432 during the passage of convoy HX 228.

After the first frantic months of re-supply convoy duties across the English Channel, she acted as a local escort for the South-western Approaches.