PLYMOUTH HMS 1961

[shipstamps]

Built as an anti-submarine frigate by HM Dockyard, Devonport, England, for the Royal Navy.
01 July 1958 laid down.
20 July 1959 launched under the name HMS PLYMOUTH one of the Rothesay class. Nancy Viscountess Astor performed the launching ceremony.
Displacement 2.380 ton standard, 2.800 tons full load. Dim. 112.8 x 12.5 x 5.3m. (draught)
Powered by two Admiralty Standard Range double-reduction geared turbines, 30.000 shp, two shafts, speed 30 knots. Steam was supplied by two Babcock and Wilcox boilers.
Armament 2 – 4.5 inch, 1 – 40mm AA guns, 2 three barreled Limbo anti-submarine mortars, 12 – 21 inch torpedo’s (later removed).
Crew 235.
11 May 1961 commissioned.

She was commissioned for General Service Commission on Home/East of Suez.
June 1961 sailed from Devonport as Leader of the 29th Escort Squadron, based at Singapore.
Between 1964 and 1966 spent 13 months East of Suez, was used in the Beira patrols after 1965. When Ian Smith unilateral declared independence of Rhodesia. When sanctions were imposed on the country, special the importing of oil from South Africa via Mozambique ports this patrols took place.
She intercepted in April 1966 the Greek registered oil tanker JOANNA V during one of this patrols.
Between 1966 and 1969 an extensive refit in Chatham, facilities provided for operating a Wasp helicopter.
1971 Got a 5 month refit in Devonport.
July 1972 sailed from Devonport for the West Indies and U.S.A.
1974 Refitted at Gibraltar, under the “Conveyer-belt system”.
22 July 1975 sailed from Plymouth for a 9-month employment in the Indian Ocean and the Far East.
1977 She was present at Spithead for the Silver Jubilee Fleet review.
30 May 1978 she co-ordinated the destruction of the remains of the Greek tanker ELENI V loaded with 16.000 tones of oil after a collision during fog in the North Sea with the French bulker ROSELINE she was cut in two on 06 May 1978 off the Norfolk coast. The after section was towed to Rotterdam, but the fore section drifted away and sank. It was refloated and towed to a sandbank off Lowestoft, after pumping out the remaining oil, she was towed to sea. In a position 26 miles off Lowestoft Navy divers with the use of two tons of explosives blew her up.
07 September 1978 she arrived Chatham for a major refit. October 1980 she carried out sea trials after the refit.

Participated in the 1982 Falkland Conflict, sailing with RFA TIDEPOOL and the County class destroyer HMS ANTRIM to South George with Royal Marines and SAS on board. She then provided naval gunfire bombardment during the retaking of the island, and it was in her wardroom that Lieutenant Commander ASTIZ signed the surrender document on 20 March 1982.
HMS PLYMOUTH was then assigned to provide cover for the aircraft carriers and amphibious vessels and was the first vessel to enter San Carlos Water. On 21 May she came to the assistance of the bomb-damaged Leander-class frigate HMS ARGONAUT.
She was attacked on 08 June by five Mirage aircraft. Although she managed to destroy two and damage another two, four bombs and numerous shells hit PLYMOUTH. One shell hit her flight deck, detonating a depth charge and starting a fire.
Another bomb entered her funnel and failed to explode, while the other two destroyed her anti-submarine mortar but also failed to explode. Five men were injured in the attack and HMS AVENGER assisted in putting the fires out.
She underwent emergency repairs from the STENA SEASPREAD, before rejoining the fleet. After the surrender of Stanley, PLYMOUTH was the first ship to enter Stanley Harbour.
She left the Falklands with the County-class destroyer HMS GLAMORGAN on 21 June, and returned to Rosyth on 14 July, where she underwent full repairs. She had steamed 34.000 miles, fired over ninehunderd 4.5-inch shells and destroyed 5 enemy aircraft.
On 11 March 1984 she collided with the German frigate BRAUNSCHWEIG.
1986 She suffered a fire in her boiler room killing two people and requiring repairs at Rosyth.
28 April 1988 decommissioned, as the last Type 12 frigate in service.
It was likely that PLYMOUTH would have eventually been sunk at sea as a missile or torpedo target, or failing that been sold for breaking up.
However a dedicated group of volunteers, including Dr. David Owen a former Devonport MP, campaigned to have her preserved for public display. She was opened to the public on an experimental basis for one year at Trinity Pier, Milbay Docks, Plymouth.
June 1990 she was bought by the Warship Preservation Trust, and towed to Glasgow for the “Glasgow 1990’s celebration”.
In 1991 she was taken to Cammel Lairds for brief repairs before she was put on permanent display at Birkenhead.

Source: mostly copied from W.P. Vol 50 page 90/91. Devonport built warships since 1860 by K.V. Burns.
The World Navies.
Falkland Is SG1072/5 Sth Georgia & San Is SG?

HMS Plymouth is in Birkenhead Docks waiting to be scrapped.An e-petition has been drawn up to try and save her at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32526

[aukepalmhof]

The 65p stamp depicts a Westland Wasp with HMS PLYMOUTH.
The Wasp was the first helicopter in the world to be specifically designed to operate from frigate sized warships, and the Wasp from HMS PLYMOUTH working with the aircraft from HMS BRILLIANT, HMS ANTRIM and HMS ENDURANCE, was key in the recapturing of South Georgia on April 25th 1982.
Their tasks included the landing of a section of Royal Marines to harry the enemy and an air attack on the submarine SANTE FE, ultimately leading to her loss and the Argentine surrender. Prior to 1987, a distinctive red-nosed WASP helicopter was an annual sight in the skies over the Antarctic and South Georgia when they were embarked in HMS ENDURANCE.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands 2009 65p sg?, scott?

Source: South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands Post.

August 2014 She is now underway towed by the tug AMBER 11 to a scrapyard in Turkey.
07 September 2014 arrived at Aliaga, Turkey for demolition.