HMS Active (F171)

Last updated

HMS Active (F171) at Tampa Bay in 1994.JPEG
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Active
Builder Vosper Thornycroft
Laid down23 July 1971
Launched23 November 1972
Commissioned19 July 1977
Decommissioned23 September 1994
Identification Pennant number: F171
Motto
  • Festina lente
  • (Latin: "Hasten slowly")
FateTransferred to Pakistan Navy
Naval Ensign of Pakistan.svgPakistan
NamePNS Shah Jahan
Acquired23 September 1994
FateSunk as Target on 12 January 2021
General characteristics
Class and type Type 21 frigate
Displacement3,250 tons full load
Length384 ft (117 m)
Beam41 ft 9 in (12.73 m)
Draught19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)
Propulsion
Speed32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Range
  • 4,000 nautical miles at 17 knots (7,400 km at 31 km/h)
  • 1,200 nautical miles at 30 knots (2,220 km at 56 km/h)
Complement177
Armament
Aircraft carried1 × Westland Wasp helicopter, later refitted for 1 × Lynx

HMS Active was a Type 21-classfrigate of the Royal Navy. Built by Vosper Thornycroft, Southampton, England, she was completed with Exocet launchers in 'B' position, the first of the class to be so fitted.

Contents

Royal Navy service

Active participated in the Falklands War, setting out from HMNB Devonport on 10 May 1982 as part of the Bristol Group, reaching the task force on 21 May. Active formed part of the main British Fleet, well east of the Falklands during the day, while escorting supply convoys to San Carlos Water or carrying out shore bombardment missions at night. On the night of 13/14 June, Active shelled on Argentine positions during the Battle of Mount Tumbledown. [1] HMS Active took part in five NGS (naval gun supports) at Bluff Cove, Fitzroy, Berkley Sound, Mount Tumbledown, and Port Stanley. By the mid-1980s, in common with the other surviving Type 21s, Active suffered from hull cracking. When the ship was next refitted steel plating was welded along each side of the ship to repair and reinforce the weak points. At the same time modifications were made to reduce hull noise.

When Hurricane Gilbert struck Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Active, supported by RFA Oakleaf, arrived in the area on 13 September 1988 to provided emergency relief, before leaving seven days later. [2]

Pakistan Navy service

Active decommissioned and was sold to Pakistan on 23 September 1994, being renamed Shah Jahan. Exocet was not transferred to Pakistan and Shah Jahan had her obsolete Sea Cat launcher removed. Signaal DA08 air search radar replaced the Type 992 and SRBOC chaff launchers and 20 mm and 30 mm guns were fitted.

Her flag was sold on the BBC programme Bargain Hunt . Shah Jahan remains in service with the Pakistan Navy. Between 11 and 21 May 2008, Shah Jahan participated in Exercise Inspired Union, a multi-national exercises in the North Arabian Sea. Other Pakistani warships included the frigate Badr and the replenishment tanker Nasr, as well as the Pakistan Air Force explosive ordnance disposal team, and the American destroyers Curts and Ross. [3]

Shah Jahan was sunk as a target on 12 January 2021 as part of a Pakistan Navy live firing exercise. [4] [5]

Civilian connections

Active was the adopted ship of the town of Burnley in Lancashire, North-West England. The ship and its crew were granted the freedom of the town in 1989. Part of the town's inner ring-road between Westgate and the traffic lights at the Church Street junction with Colne Road is called Active Way. One of Active's anchors is displayed at the Anchor Retail Park next to Active Way.

Related Research Articles

Type 22 frigate Class of frigates built for Royal navy

The Type 22 frigate also known as the Broadsword class was a class of frigates built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen were built in total, with production divided into three batches.

HMS <i>Battleaxe</i> (F89)

HMS Battleaxe was a Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was sold to the Brazilian Navy on 30 April 1997 and renamed Rademaker.

Type 21 frigate Class of general purpose frigates built for Royal Navy

The Type 21 frigate, or Amazon-class frigate, was a British Royal Navy general-purpose escort that was designed in the late 1960s, built in the 1970s and served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s.

HMS <i>Amazon</i> (F169)

HMS Amazon was the first Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy. Her keel was laid down at the Vosper Thornycroft shipyard in Southampton, England. The ship suffered a fire in the Far East in 1977, drawing attention to the risk of building warships with aluminium superstructure.

HMS <i>Ambuscade</i> (F172) Royal Navy frigate of the Type 21, Amazon Class

HMS Ambuscade was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland. She was sold to Pakistan in 1993 and is still in service as PNS Tariq.

HMS <i>Arrow</i> (F173) Royal Navy frigate of the Type 21, Amazon Class

HMS Arrow was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Alacrity</i> (F174)

HMS Alacrity was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Avenger</i> (F185)

HMS Avenger was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy. Built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland, she was completed with Exocet launchers in 'B' position.

HMS <i>Sheffield</i> (D80) Type 42 destroyer

HMS Sheffield was a Type 42 guided missile destroyer and the second Royal Navy ship to be named after the city of Sheffield in Yorkshire. Commissioned on 16 February 1975 the Sheffield was part of the Task Force 317 sent to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War. She was struck and heavily damaged by an Exocet air-launched anti-ship missile from an Argentine Super Étendard aircraft on 4 May 1982 and foundered while under tow on 10 May 1982.

HMS <i>Glamorgan</i> (D19)

HMS Glamorgan was a County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy with a displacement of 5,440 tonnes. The ship was built by Vickers-Armstrongs in Newcastle Upon Tyne and named after the Welsh county of Glamorgan.

<i>Leander</i>-class frigate Class of frigate in the Royal Navy

The Leander-class, or Type 12I (Improved) frigates, comprising twenty-six vessels, was among the most numerous and long-lived classes of frigate in the Royal Navy's modern history. The class was built in three batches between 1959 and 1973. It had an unusually high public profile, due to the popular BBC television drama series Warship. The Leander silhouette became synonymous with the Royal Navy through the 1960s until the 1980s.

HMS <i>Andromeda</i> (F57)

HMS Andromeda was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built at HM Dockyard Portsmouth. She was launched on 24 May 1967 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 2 December 1968. She took part in the Falklands War and was sold to India in 1995, for use as a training ship, being renamed INS Krishna. She was finally decommissioned in May 2012.

HMS Minerva (F45) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. The ship commissioned in 1966 and took part in the Beira Patrol and Second Cod War during the 1970s and the Falklands War in 1982. Charles, Prince of Wales served aboard the ship in the 1970s. Between these major engagements, the frigate patrolled British territorial waters and took part in NATO and British military exercises. Minerva was decommissioned in 1992 and sold for scrap.

HMS <i>Achilles</i> (F12)

HMS Achilles was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Yarrow at Glasgow. She was launched on 21 November 1968 and commissioned on 9 July 1970. She was sold to Chile in 1991 and served in the Chilean Navy as Ministro Zenteno. She was washed away from her berth at Talcahuano by a tsunami following the February 2010 Chile earthquake, and ran aground on the coast a few kilometres to the north. She was scuttled the following month by the Chilean Navy as a danger to navigation.

HMS <i>Plymouth</i> (F126)

HMS Plymouth was a Royal Navy Rothesay-class frigate. In 1982, Plymouth was one of the first Royal Navy ships to arrive in the South Atlantic during the Falklands War.

HMS <i>Apollo</i> (F70)

HMS Apollo was a batch 3B broadbeam Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was, like the rest of the class, named after a figure of mythology. Apollo was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders of Scotstoun. She was launched on 15 October 1970 and commissioned on 28 May 1972, making her the penultimate Leander.

HMS <i>Danae</i> (F47)

HMS Danae was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was, like the rest of the class, named after a figure of mythology. Danae was built by Devonport Dockyard. She was launched on 31 October 1965 and commissioned on 10 October 1967.

HMS <i>Yarmouth</i> (F101)

HMS Yarmouth was the first modified Type 12 frigate of the Rothesay class to enter service with the Royal Navy.

PNS <i>Tippu Sultan</i> (D-185)

PNS Tippu Sultan (DDG-185), a Tariq-class destroyer, served in the Pakistan Navy after it was acquired in 1994. Her design was based on the British Type 21 frigate, and previously served in the Royal Navy as HMS Avenger as a general purpose frigate.

PNS <i>Shah Jahan</i> (D-186)

PNS Shah Jahan (DDG-186) was a Tariq-class destroyer in service with the Pakistan Navy since being recommissioned in 1994. Based on the British design, Type 21 frigate, she previously served in the Royal Navy as HMS Active as a general purpose frigate.

References

  1. ↑ Marriott 1983, p. 104.
  2. ↑ Roberts, John (2009). Safeguarding the Nation: The Story of the Modern Royal Navy. Naval Institute Press. ISBN   978-1591148128.
  3. ↑ Lt. (j.g.) Bryan Boggs, USN (6 June 2008). "USS Curts, Pakistani Navy Participate in Officer Exchange Program". NNS080602-12. Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  4. ↑ "Pakistan sinks another former Royal Navy frigate in live-fire drill". defbrief.com. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "Sad farewell to Burnley's adopted ship HMS Active sunk in Pakistan navy drill". Burnley Express . 21 January 2021.

Publications

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.