Built as a frigate by Vosper Thornycroft Ltd., Woolston, U.K., for the Royal Navy.
06 November 1969 laid down.
26 April 1971 launched under the name AMAZON, a type 21 frigate, seven sisters. The AMAZON was the lead ship of the class.
Displacement 2.750 tons standard, 3.350 tons full load. Dim. 117.0 x 12.7 x 4.4m. (draught).
Powered by COGOG (Combined Gas Turbines), 2 Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines, 56.000 shp., two Rolls-Royce Tyne gas turbines, 8.500 shp, two shafts, speed 32 knots. Cruising speed 17 knots on the two Tyne gas turbines.
Range 3.500 miles by 18 knots.
Armament 1 – 4.5 inch, 2 – 20mm Oerlikon guns. One quadruple Seacat SAM launcher.
One Wasp helicopter.
Crew 177.
11 May 1974 commissioned, building cost £14 million.
1977 When in the Far East she got a fire under the floor of the central controlroom, after the fire was extinguished it was found that the aluminum ladders had melted. The class did have an aluminum superstructure and there was a great risk, during a fire the complete superstructure would melt down.
All her sisters were used in the Falkland War, but the AMAZON at that time was in the Persian Gulf and did not take part in the war.
End March 1983 the AMAZON got a crack in her aluminum superstructure; water was penetrating in the engineroom. She had to go to Flaslane for repairs and refit arrived there 08 August 1983.
18 January 1985 recommissioned. Fitted out with four MM38 Exocet SSM launchers, and 1 Lynx helicopter replaced the Wasp.
The Isle of Man stamp shows the AMAZON when she visited the island in 1989 as escort to MHY BRITANNIA, which had brought Queen Elizabeth II to the island for an official visit. She is shown against the backdrop of Onchan Head.
30 September 1993 decommissioned, and the same date sold to the Pakistan navy.
Her Exocet and Seacat launchers removed, replaced by Chinese LY60N missile launcher and SRBOC chaff launchers. Additional 20mm and 30mm guns fitted.
Renamed PNS BABUR (F182). Named after Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the founder of the Moughai dynasty which ruled the Indian subcontinent for nearly three centuries.
2008 In service
Isle of Man 1993 1p sg539, scott 531.
South Georgia 25p sg?
Source: The World’s Navies. Watercraft Philately CD-Rom. http://hms-amazon-f169.wikiverse.org/