Built as a patrol vessel under yard No.984 by Hall Russell at Aberdeen for the Royal Navy.
July 1975 ordered.
11 June 1978 keel laid down.
27 February 1979 launched under the name HMS ALDERNEY P278, one of the Island class patrol ships.
Displacement 925 ton standard, 1.250 ton full load. Dim. 59.6 x 10.4 x 4.3m. (draught).
Two Ruston Paxman 12-RK3 CM diesel engines, 4.380 bhp., one pitch propeller, speed 16 knots.
Range 7.000 miles by a speed of 12 knots. Bunker capacity 210 ton.
Fitted out for bunkering on the high seas.
Armament 1 – 40mm Bofors MK 3 gun, 2 – FN 7.62mm MG.
Crew 39.
06 October 1979 commissioned, building cost £3 million.
Based at Rosyth, Scotland.
The class was designed along the lines of a deep sea trawler, but with bilge keels, stabilisers and a water ballast arrangement to damp down their motion in heavy weather.
The class has a square stern and is flush-decked, with a rising bow.
Carried two Avon Sea Rider semi-rigged craft for boarding purposes.
04 July 1981 the ALDERNEY had to deal with one of the most dramatic fishery incidents since the Cod Wars when she tried to escort an offending French trawler into Grimsby.
The French fishing vessel headed for Boulogne, threatening ALDERNEY’s boarding party with knives and acetylene torches. In the ensuing sea chase, the trawler collided with another French fishing vessel, tried to ram HMS ALDERNEY, and eventually hit the warship while cutting across her bow.
Doing more damage to itself than the British warship, the trawler at last gave up and agreed to be towed into Grimsby, where she landed a £6.796 fine plus £2.000 for the damage to the ALDERNEY.
1995 Transferred from Rosyth to Portsmouth, with the other vessels of her class.
1998 She saved the two men crew of a yacht 25 miles west of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.
31 October 2001 paid off, and sold to Bangladeshi Navy. The same day commissioned in the Bangladesh Navy and renamed BNS KAPATAKHAYA P912.
Sailed from Portsmouth on 20 November 2001 and via Tangier, Morocco, Suez Canal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Raysut, Oman and Colombo, Sri Lanka for bunkers and showing their flag she arrived on 06 January 2002 at Mongla, Bangladesh.
2007 Still in service with the Bangladesh Navy as a patrol boat.
(One of her sisters the HMS GUERNSEY is on a Guernsey stamp issued in 2003.)
Alderney 1990 37p sg A46 scott 59.
Source: Log Book. http://www.navynews.co.uk/articles/2004 ... 012901.asp and some other web sites.