HMS Sheffield (F96)

The Chilean Navy's Almirante Williams
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Sheffield
Namesake:	Sheffield
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Laid down:	29 March 1984
Launched:	26 March 1986
Commissioned:	26 July 1988
Decommissioned:	5 November 2002
Identification:	Pennant number: F96
Motto:	Deo Adjuvante Labor Proficit (Latin: "With God's help our labour is successful")
Nickname(s):	Shiny Sheff
Fate:	Sold to Chile
Chile
Name:	Almirante Williams
Commissioned:	4 September 2003
Identification:	Pennant number: FF-19
Status:	In active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Type 22 frigate
Displacement:	5,300 tons
Length:	148.1 metres (486 ft)
Beam:	14.8 metres (49 ft)
Speed:	33 kilometres per hour (21 mph) cruise 56 kilometres per hour (35 mph) sprint
Complement:	250
Sensors and processing systems:	In Chilean Navy service 1 × Marconi Type 967M air/surface search 1 × ELTA EL/M-2238 air search 2 × ELTA EL/M-2221GM fire-control
Electronic warfare & decoys:	In Chilean Navy service Terma SKWS
Armament:	In Royal Navy service 2 × 6 GWS25 Seawolf SAM Launchers 4 × 1 Exocet SSM launchers 2 × Twin 30 mm AA 2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns 4 × 7.62mm GPMG In Chilean Navy service 1 × Otobreda 76 mm 2 × GAM-BO1 guns 4 × Harpoon Barak 1 surface-to-air missile
Aircraft carried:	As Sheffield: Lynx Mk.8 helicopter; As Almirante Williams: Eurocopter Dauphin helicopter

In Chilean Navy service

HMS Sheffield was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. She was originally intended to be named Bruiser but was named Sheffield in honour of the previous Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. Entering service in 1988, Sheffield served with the Royal Navy until 2002. In 2003, she was sold to the Armada de Chile and renamed Almirante Williams.

Sheffield was launched on 26 March 1986, by Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom, and named by Mrs Susan Stanley, wife of the then Armed Forces Minister. The ship was commissioned at Hull on 26 July 1988. Several crewmen of the previous Sheffield were at the launch. A specially minted Sheffield coin was placed in the keel at the keel-laying ceremony on 29 March 1984.

In late 1998, Sheffield provided assistance after Hurricane Georges, visiting the island of St Kitts and also saved a Honduran woman who had been swept out to sea from her home by the force of Hurricane Mitch.

Sheffield attended the August Bank Holiday 28–30 August 1999 Navy Days at HMNB Devonport, berthed with Sutherland, Somerset, Monmouth, Montrose, Manchester, Illustrious, Campbeltown, Trafalgar, Triumph and RFA Argus.