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HMS Plymouth (F126)

HMS Plymouth underway.jpg
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
Name: HMS Plymouth
Builder: Devonport Dockyard
Laid down: 1 July 1958
Launched: 20 July 1959
Commissioned: 11 May 1961
Decommissioned: 28 April 1988
Identification: Pennant number: F126
Fate: Scrapped October 2014
General characteristics
Class and type: Rothesay-class frigate
Displacement:
  • 2,150 tons standard
  • 2,560 tons full load
Length: 370 ft (110 m)
Beam: 41 ft (12 m)
Draught: 17.3 ft (5.3 m)
Installed power: 30,000 shp (22,000 kW)
Propulsion:
Speed: 30 knots (56 km/h)
Range: 400 tons oil fuel, 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement: 152, later 225, modified to 235
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • Electronics (as built):
  • Radar Type 293Q target indication
  • Radar Type 277Q height finding
  • Radar Type 275 fire control on director Mark 6M
  • Radar Type 974 navigation
  • Type 1010 Cossor Mark 10 IFF
  • Sonar Type 174 search
  • Sonar Type 162 target classification
  • Sonar Type 170 attack
  • Electronics (as modified):
  • Radar Type 993 target indication
  • Radar Type 903 fire control on director MRS3
  • Radar Type 978 navigation
  • Type 1010 Cossor Mark 10 IFF
  • Sonar Type 177 search
  • Sonar Type 162 target classification
  • Sonar Type 170 attack
Armament:
  • Armament (as built):
  • 1 × twin 4.5in gun Mark 6
  • 1 × 40 mm Bofors gun Mark 7
  • 2 × Limbo A/S mortar Mark 10
  • 12 × 21-in A/S torpedo tubes (removed or never shipped)
  • Armament (as modified):
  • 1 × twin 4.5in gun Mark 6
  • 1 × Sea Cat GWS-20 SAM
  • 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns
  • 1 × Limbo A/S mortar Mark 10
  • 2 × 8-barrel 3in Knebworth/Corvus countermeasures launchers
Aircraft carried: Wasp helicopter

HMS Plymouth was a Royal Navy Rothesay-class frigate. In 1982, Plymouth was one of the first Royal Navy ships to arrive in the South Atlantic during the Falklands War.

Named after the English city of Plymouth, she was commissioned in 1959. Plymouth was one of 12 ships built in the new Rothesay class; which began replacing the ageing Whitby (Type 12s) in the mid 1950s. Plymouth was built at the Devonport Dockyard, in her namesake city of Plymouth. She was launched by Viscountess Astor on 20 July 1959.

Plymouth served between 1963 and 1964 as the leader of the 22nd Escort Squadron and leader of the 29th Escort Squadron from 1964 to 1966 in Singapore and Australia.

In 1966 under the command of Captain Thomas Fanshawe Plymouth was assigned to the Beira Patrol. On 4 April she intercepted the oil tanker Joanna V, but declined the use of force for diplomatic reasons she failed to prevent the ship from reaching Beira, raising concerns that its 18,700 tons of petroleum could then be sent by pipeline to the rebel British colony of Rhodesia.

In 1970 Plymouth took part in the Cook Bicentennial celebrations held in Sydney Harbour. After a spell inside a floating dock in Singapore, to clean and repaint her hull, the ship sailed across the Indian Ocean for a six-week stint on the Beira Patrol.

Back in the UK, Plymouth visited various ports around the country including Stornoway and Middlesbrough as part of a Royal Navy recruitment drive.


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