HMS Chatham (F87)

HMS Chatham in harbour, 2010
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Chatham
Operator:	Royal Navy
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Laid down:	12 May 1986
Launched:	20 January 1988
Sponsored by:	Lady Oswald
Commissioned:	4 May 1990
Decommissioned:	9 February 2011
Homeport:	HMNB Devonport, Plymouth
Identification:	Pennant number: F87 International callsign: GABL
Motto:	"Up and at 'em" Latin: Surge et vince
Status:	Scrapped October 2013
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Type 22 frigate
Displacement:	5,300 tons
Length:	148.1 m (485 ft 11 in)
Beam:	14.8 m (48 ft 7 in)
Draught:	6.4 m (21 ft 0 in)
Propulsion:	2 × Rolls-Royce Marine Spey gas turbines (high speed) 2 × Rolls Royce Tyne gas turbines (cruising) 2 shafts driving variable-pitch propellers with COGAG (Combined gas and gas) gearbox, allowing all four engines to provide power to the drive train.
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (cruise) 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) (max)
Complement:	250 (max. 301)
Armament:	2 × Sea Wolf anti-air system (Total of 72 Sea Wolf missiles) 2 × Quad Harpoon missile launchers (total of 8 Harpoons) 2 × triple Magazine launched anti-submarine torpedo tubes (total of 36 torpedoes) 1 × 4.5-inch (114 mm) Mk.8 gun 2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns 1 × Goalkeeper CIWS NATO Seagnat decoy launchers
Aircraft carried:	2 x Lynx Mk.8 helicopters (but only 1 Lynx in peace time). Armed with 4 × Sea Skua anti-ships missiles 2 × Sting Ray anti-submarine torpedoes 2 × Mk 11 depth charges 2 × machine guns

HMS Chatham was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She has the rare honour of a motto in English; Up and at 'em, being the rallying cry of the Medway town football and rugby teams. The motto has subsequently been translated back into Latin as Surge et vince. She was decommissioned on 9 February 2011.

Chatham joined Operation Sharp Guard to enforce the embargo against the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Her most remarkable action was the capture of the Maltese freighter Lido II, suspected of smuggling fuel to Montenegro, on 1 May 1994. The British frigate was assisting the Dutch frigate HMNLS Van Kinsbergen, who stopped the merchant, when three Yugoslav corvettes of the Končar class challenged the NATO operation and one of them tried to ram Chatham. The corvettes were eventually driven off by the reaction of the British warship, supported by Italian Tornado aircraft which scrambled from an airbase at Gioia Del Colle. Lido II underwent repairs before being diverted to Italy, because of sabotage to the ship's engine room by her crew. The leaking was contained by an engineer party from Chatham. Seven Yugoslav stowaways were found on board.

Under the command of Captain Christopher Clayton, she was guardship to the royal yacht HMY Britannia during the withdrawal from Hong Kong in 1997 (and served as the control military operations in the months prior to the handover). In May 2000, Chatham was part of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) sent to the coast of Sierra Leone to oversee the evacuation of British, EU and Commonwealth nationals as part of Operation Palliser, under the captaincy of George Zambellas.