UBS Mayu

HMS Fal in July 1943
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Fal
Namesake:	River Fal
Builder:	Smiths Dock Company, South Bank-on-Tees, UK
Laid down:	20 May 1942
Launched:	9 November 1942
Commissioned:	2 July 1943
Fate:	transferred to Burmese Navy
Burma/Myanmar
Name:	HMBS Mayu (later UBS Mayu, UMS Mayu)
Namesake:	Mayu River
Acquired:	25 May 1947
Commissioned:	25 May 1947
Decommissioned:	28 September 1979
Fate:	Museum ship
General characteristics
Class and type:	River-class frigate
Displacement:	1,460 long tons (1,483 t) standard 2,170 long tons (2,205 t) full load
Length:	283 ft (86 m) p/p 301 ft 3 in (91.82 m) o/a
Beam:	36 ft 6 in (11.13 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m) 13 ft (4.0 m) full load
Propulsion:	Reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp (4,101 kW) 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shafts 440 long tons (447 t) oil fuel
Speed:	20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Range:	7,200 nmi (13,300 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h)
Complement:	177 Officers & enlisted
Armament:	2 × QF 4 in (100 mm) Mark XIX on single mounts CP Mk. XXIII 4 × 40 mm Bofors A/A on single mounts Mk. VII 1 × Hedgehog 24 barrel A/S projector up to 150 depth charges

UBS Mayu was the first flagship of the Burmese Navy. She was commissioned on 25 May 1947 and saw 32 years of active service during which she participated in many counter-insurgency campaigns, safeguarding Myanmar's territorial waters, and also served as training ship for the officers and ratings of Myanmar (Burma) Navy. The ship had been built as River-class frigate HMS Fal for the British Royal Navy during World War II and was transferred to the Burmese government in 1947 on loan, and permanently in 1948. She was decommissioned in 1979 and was converted to a museum ship.

HMS Fal was a River-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built for anti-submarine warfare and convoy escort duty in the Second World War. Her keel was laid down on 20 May 1942 in the United Kingdom. She was first commissioned by the Royal Navy on 2 July 1943.

After working up, Fal served for a time in the North Atlantic, before moving to Freetown for service on the West African convoy route between Lagos, Takoradi and Freetown. By this stage of the Atlantic campaign the U-boat threat had been diminished, and Fal's work was routine, seeing no enemy action. At the end of hostilities she was at Simonstown, and was transferred to the Far East, stationed at Rangoon.

She was handed over by the British Government to the Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 25 May 1947 on loan to Burma.

General Aung San accepted the transfer of the ship on behalf of the Government of Burma. During his acceptance speech, he renamed her to HMBS Mayu, after Mayu River in Arakan state to honour officers and men of Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who fought against Imperial Japanese forces at the river during the Second World War. Lieutenant Commander Khin Maung Bo was the first commanding officer of HMBS Mayu. She took part in a 25 gun salute along with HMS Birmingham on 4 January 1948 to mark Burma's independence from the British colonial rule.

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Wikipedia