History
In August 2001 she visited Archangel, Russia for the 60th-anniversary of the first WWII Arctic Convoys. In company with Russian warships Zadorniy and Alexander Otrakovski. [3] On 28 August 2001, as part of the same goodwill visit, Campbeltown laid a wreath in the Barents Sea close to where Russian submarine Kursk was lost on 12 August 2000. [4]
Campbeltown's last deployment was a seven-month tour from 2007 to 2008 in the Persian Gulf, where she operated in support of Operation Calash, a Counter Piracy and counter smuggling operation within the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and North Indian Ocean and Operation Telic, the security of Iraqi Territorial Seas. [5] In early 2004 the vessel was deployed as part of NATO's Standing Naval Force Atlantic. HMS Campbeltown entered refit in September 2008.
The ship's bell of the first HMS Campbeltown, a Second World War Town-class destroyer famous for her role in the St. Nazaire Raid, was loaned from Campbelltown, Pennsylvania to the current Campbeltown for the duration of her Royal Navy service. [6]
Decommissioning
The Royal Navy announced in March 2011 that Campbeltown would be decommissioned on 7 April 2011. She paid a final visit to her namesake town of Campbeltown, Argyll in March 2011 where a series of ceremonies, including a town centre parade by the ship's crew, took place to commemorate the end of the ship's active service. [7] Campbeltown made her final entrance to Plymouth on 31 March 2011 before decommissioning in a traditional ceremony on 7 April 2011. [8] She was laid up at Portsmouth and in July 2013 sold to Turkish company Leyal for demolition. She was towed from Portsmouth to Turkey on 15 Oct 2013, arrived Aliağa on 29 Oct 2013 and was fully recycled by the 14th March 2014. [9]
The ship's bell has now been returned to Campbelltown, Pennsylvania. [10] The ship's bell made specifically for the next HMS Campbeltown, a Type 31 frigate, was given to Campbeltown, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland and will be displayed in the town's museum until the new ship is commissioned.
Campbelltown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,616 at the 2010 census. It is located east of Hershey at the intersection of U.S. Route 322 and Pennsylvania Route 117 and is located in the Harrisburg metropolitan area.
HMS Ocean was a Landing Platform Helicopter, formerly the UK's helicopter carrier and the fleet flagship of the Royal Navy. She was designed to support amphibious landing operations and to support the staff of Commander UK Amphibious Force and Commander UK Landing Force. She was constructed in the mid-1990s by Kvaerner Govan on the River Clyde and fitted out by VSEL at Barrow-in-Furness prior to trials and subsequent acceptance in service. Ocean was commissioned in September 1998 at her home port HMNB Devonport, Plymouth.
HMS Edinburgh was a Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy. Edinburgh was built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead. She was launched on 14 April 1983 and commissioned on 17 December 1985. The largest of the Type 42 destroyers, Edinburgh was known as the "Fortress of the Sea". Edinburgh was the last of the Type 42 destroyer to serve in the Royal Navy and was decommissioned on 6 June 2013.
HMS Nottingham was a batch two Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy, named after the city of Nottingham, England. She was launched on 18 February 1980, and commissioned on 8 April 1983 as the sixth warship to bear the name.
HMS Montrose was the eighth of the sixteen-ship Type 23 or Duke class of frigates, of the Royal Navy, named after the Duke of Montrose. She was laid down in November 1989 by Yarrow Shipbuilders on the Clyde, and was launched on 31 July 1992 by Edith Rifkind, wife of Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary of State for Defence. She was commissioned into service in June 1994.
The third and current HMS Argyll is a Type 23 Duke-class frigate. She is currently the oldest serving Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy. Like all of her class she is named after a British dukedom, in this case that of Argyll. HMS Argyll was laid down in March 1987 by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Glasgow, and launched in 1989 by Lady Wendy Levene, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Paviors. She was commissioned in May 1991. Argyll is currently based at HMNB Devonport.
HMS Cornwall was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was the first Batch 3 to be built, and the last to decommissioned. Cornwall was based at HMNB Devonport in Devon, England, part of the Devonport Flotilla.
USS Buchanan (DD-131), named for Franklin Buchanan, was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy.
HMS Iron Duke is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy, and the third ship to bear the name.
HMS Westminster is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy, and the second ship to bear the name. She was launched on 4 February 1992 and named after the Dukedom of Westminster.
HMS Richmond is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 6 April 1993 by Lady Hill-Norton, wife of the late Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Hill-Norton, and was the last warship to be built by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders. She sailed from the builders on the River Tyne in November 1994. She is named for the Dukedom of Richmond.
HMS Portland is a Type 23 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She is the eighth ship to bear the name and is the fifteenth and penultimate ship of the 'Duke' class of frigates, and is named for the currently extinct title of the Dukedom of Portland, and more particularly for the third Duke, who was Prime Minister.
HMS St Albans is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She is the sixth ship to bear the name and is the sixteenth and final ship in the 'Duke' class of frigates. She is based in Devonport, Plymouth.
Almirante Williams is a Type 22 frigate in service with the Chilean Navy. It entered service with the British Royal Navy in 1988 with the name HMS Sheffield, and served with the Royal Navy until 2002. Initially it was meant to be called Bruiser, but was named Sheffield in honour of the previous Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. In 2003, the vessel was acquired by the Chilean Navy and renamed Almirante Williams.
HMS Cumberland was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was launched in 1986 and commissioned on 10 June 1989. The frigate was on station during the First Gulf War and was part of the Devonport Flotilla based at Devonport Dockyard. Cumberland was decommissioned on 23 June 2011.
The River class is a class of offshore patrol vessels built primarily for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. A total of nine were built for the Royal Navy (RN), four Batch 1 and five Batch 2. One Batch 1 (HMS Clyde), which was the Falklands guard ship, was decommissioned and transferred at the end of its lease to the Royal Bahrain Naval Force.
Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Campbeltown, after Campbeltown in Scotland, with a third announced:
HMS Campbeltown was a Town-class destroyer of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was originally US destroyer USS Buchanan, and was one of 50 obsolescent U.S. Navy destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940 as part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Campbeltown became one of the most famous of these ships when she was used in the St Nazaire Raid in 1942.
HMS Severn is a River-class offshore patrol vessel of the Royal Navy. Named after the River Severn, the ship is the first to bear the name in 56 years. She was built by Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton, England, to serve primarily as a fishery protection unit within the United Kingdom's waters along with her two sister ships Mersey and Tyne. All three were commissioned into service in 2003 to replace the five older Island-class patrol vessels. The ship was decommissioned in 2017, but the Government decided to recommission her as part of Brexit preparedness. She returned to service in 2020 and was recommissioned into the Royal Navy on 28 August 2021.
United Kingdom
