HMS Rothesay (F107)

Saluting the Royal Yacht in the 1960s, before Rothesay's 1966 Seacat/helicopter upgrade - note the 40 mm gun in stern
History
United Kingdom
Class and type:	Rothesay class frigate
Name:	HMS Rothesay
Builder:	Yarrow, Scotstoun
Laid down:	6 November 1956
Launched:	9 December 1957
Commissioned:	23 April 1960
Decommissioned:	March 1988
Identification:	Pennant number: F107
Fate:	Scrapped in 1988
General characteristics
Displacement:	As built: 2,150 tons standard 2,560 tons full load As modified: 2,380 tons standard 2,800 tons full load
Length:	370 ft (110 m)
Beam:	41 ft (12 m)
Draught:	17.3 ft (5.3 m)
Propulsion:	'Y-100 plant Two Babcock & Wilcox boilers Two English Electric steam turbines 2 shafts 30,000 shp
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 × twin 40 mm Bofors gun on STAAG mounting 2 × Limbo A/S mortar Mark 10 12 × 21-in A/S torpedo tubes, 8 fixed and 2 x twin trainable mounts 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 1 × Westland Wasp HAS.1 Helicopter 2 × 8-barrel 3in Knebworth/Corvus chaff countermeasures launchers

HMS Rothesay was the lead ship of the Rothesay or Type 12M class of anti-submarine frigates of the British Royal Navy. She was commissioned in 1960 and scrapped in 1988.

In the spring/summer of 1961 Rothesay was in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was intending to make courtesy calls at ports on the eastern seaboard of the USA but was instead diverted to Bermuda where she was to stay ready to protect British interests in Cuba. On 21 March 1962 she accidentally rammed the Turkish Balao-class submarine TCG Gür in the western Mediterranean (off Gibraltar) during the NATO exercise "Dawn Breeze".

During two visits to the West Indies (7 months and 11 months) she was at Nassau and filmed for three days to get a 30 second showing in the James Bond film Thunderball. A sheet of canvas with a "0" was placed over the "F1" of her pennant number (F107) to read 007. Sean Connery and Claudine Auger came on board.

Between 1966 and 1968 Rothesay was refitted in Rosyth, Among the improvements the 40 mm gun was replaced with Seacat missile system, radar and communication equipment was updated, accommodation improved and perhaps most significantly a helicopter flight deck and hangar were added. Although this required the removal of one of the two triple barrelled anti-submarine mortars, it allowed the Rothesay class to carry the Westland Wasp helicopter which was a huge asset for anti-submarine operations. This modernisation was a vast improvement over the Whitby class and brought the Rothesay class up to the standard of the succeeding Leander-class frigate.