Built as a fleet tanker by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders, Wallsend-on-Tyne for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), U.K.
07 March 1973 Launched under the name RFA GOLD ROVER (A 271) one of the Rover Class.
Displacement 4.700 light, 11.522 ton full load. Dim. 140.6 x 19.2 x 7.3m.
Powered by 2 SEMT-Pielstick 16 PA4 185 diesels, 15.360 hp, one shaft, speed 19 knots.
One bowthruster. Range 15.000 miles by 15 knots.
Cargo capacity 6.600 tons fuel oil.
Armament 2 Oerlikons 20mm, 2 – 7.62mm MGs.
Helicopter platform for Westland Sea King HAS Mk5 or HC Mk4 helicopter.
Complement 55 including 18 officers.
22 March 1974 commissioned.
She is a single hulled small fleet tanker, special designed to replenish HM ships at sea with fuel and fresh water. The class has a limited dry cargo and refrigerated store.
She can under all conditions supply the HM warships when underway.
The class had no hangar but a helicopter platform; the platform is served by a store lift to enable stores to be transferred at sea by vertical lift.
Took not part in the Falkland War in 1982.
Participated in the 1986 Jamaican flood relief operations.
January 2000 after she broke down off Lizard Point she was towed back to Devonport by two RMAS tugs.
GOLD ROVER entered refit in the middle of 2013 GOLD ROVER departed her home port for her last operational deployment in 2014.
Between 12 and 16 October 2015 GOLD ROVER and HMS LANCASTER participated the bicentennial anniversary commemorations of Napoleon's arrival on Saint Helena after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, and subsequent surrender to British forces.
In 2015, she participated in Operation UNITAS.
GOLD ROVER entered Portsmouth for the final time on 22 February 2017, bowing out after 43 years of active service. On the 29 August 2017 the Defence Equipment Sales Authority (DESA) invited expressions of interest from companies interested in receiving an invitation to tender in respect to the proposed sale for the sole purpose of recycling of the former RFA ship.
Tristan da Cunha 2003 sg?, scott? 2018 £1.60 sg?, scott?
St Helena 2011 35p sg?, scott?
Source Jane’s 2003/04 Some web-sites and Wikipedia.
RFA GOLD ROVER was the last of five Rover-class ships built for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
In recent times, the Rovers have spent the bulk of their time south of the Equator, providing fuel for Royal Navy vessels on patrol in the South Atlantic. RFA GOLD ROVER visited Tristan many times over the years she was in service, including a visit with HMS SOUTHAMPTON 30 October 2007 and a visit 16 December 2007 having been tasked to urgently resupply drugs and medical stores to the island after 271 members of the islands population suffered a viral infection, which depleted stocks to a dangerous level. After several other visits her arrival with HMS PORTLAND in 2017 was to be her last as the oldest vessel in Naval Service was due to be decommissioned the following month, 43 years after first pumping oil into the tanks of a Royal Navy warship.
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