| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | HMS Cordella |
| Builder: | Clelands Shipbuilding Company, Wallsend |
| Acquired: | by STUFT, April 1982 |
| Commissioned: | April 1982 |
| Decommissioned: | August 1982 |
| Fate: |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Mine countermeasures vessel |
| Tonnage: | 1,238 tons |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: | Lt Cdr M.C.G. Holloway [1] |
| Operations: | Falklands War |
HMS Cordella was a Royal Navy auxiliary mine countermeasures vessel that served during the Falklands War as part of 11th MCM Squadron.
F/V Cordella was a 1,238 ton fishing trawler built in 1973 by Clelands Shipbuilding Company at Wallsend, England.
Cordella was one of five Hull-based trawlers that were taken up from trade by the Royal Navy in 1982 for service as naval trawlers (auxiliary MCM vessels) during the Falklands War. The trawlers were fitted with Oropesa towed minesweeping equipment and Extra Deep Armed Team Sweep (EDATS) equipment at HMNB Rosyth and crewed by Royal Navy personnel prior to operational deployment. [2] [3]
During night of 10 June 1982, Cordella supported her sister ship HMS Pict while the latter influence swept Berkeley Sound. No mines were found thus reducing the risk to ships engaging in naval bombardment of Argentine positions. [2]
During nights of 12, 13, and 14 June, she conducted covert operations resupplying SAS and SBS patrols deployed variously along the coast. [3] Following the Argentine surrender Cordella and the other four ships of the 11 MCM cleared the minefields off Port Stanley.
After the war she returned to the United Kingdom and returned to her peacetime role as a fishing vessel.
She returned to the Falkland Islands in the early 1990s and was used as a Fishery Protection vessel under charter to the Falkland Islands Government, occasionally making trips to patrol South Georgia waters too.
In 2000 Cordella was sold to a Latvian owner as F/V Olga. Renamed as F/V Gideon, she was lost off Newfoundland in 2005. [4]
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
This is a list of the naval forces from the United Kingdom that took part in the Falklands War. For a list of naval forces from Argentina, see Argentine naval forces in the Falklands War.
HMS Cardiff was a British Type 42 destroyer and the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named in honour of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.
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.
RFA Diligence was a forward repair ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Launched in 1981 as a support ship for North Sea oil rigs, she was chartered by the British government to support naval activities during the 1982 Falklands War and was later bought outright as a fleet maintenance vessel. She gave assistance to the damaged USS Tripoli and Princeton in the 1991 Gulf War, and to Sri Lanka after the 2005 tsunami. She typically had deployments of 5-8 years in support of the Trafalgar-class submarine on duty east of Suez, with a secondary role as a mothership for British and US minesweepers in the Persian Gulf. Until 2016 Diligence was set to go out of service in 2020. However in August 2016, the UK Ministry of Defence placed an advert for the sale of RFA Diligence. The option for the delivery of future operational maintenance and repair capability for the RFA remain under consideration.
The Armilla patrol was the name of the Royal Navy's permanent presence in the Persian Gulf during the 1980s and 1990s.
This article describes the composition and actions of the Argentine naval forces in the Falklands War. For a list of naval forces from the United Kingdom, see British naval forces in the Falklands War.
HMS Argonaut (F56) was a Leander-class frigate that served with the Royal Navy from 1967 to 1993. She took part in the Falklands War in 1982, sustaining damage and casualties in action.
HMS Charybdis (F75) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). She was built by the Harland & Wolff company of Belfast, and was the last ship to be built there for British naval forces until RFA Fort Victoria of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, was launched in 1990. Charybdis was launched on 28 February 1968 and commissioned on 2 June 1969. Her nickname was the "Cherry B".
Standing Royal Navy deployments is a list of operations and commitments undertaken by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy on a worldwide basis. The following list details these commitments and deployments sorted by region and in alphabetical order. Routine deployments made by the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines and their location of operations is classified.
The Ton class were coastal minesweepers built in the 1950s for the Royal Navy, but also used by other navies such as the South African Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. They were intended to meet the threat of seabed mines laid in shallow coastal waters, rivers, ports and harbours, a task for which the existing ocean-going minesweepers of the Algerine-class were not suited.
HMS Brocklesby is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the British Royal Navy, her primary purpose is to find and neutralise sea mines using a combination of; Sonar, Mine Clearance Divers and the Seafox remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The Class are the largest warships of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) construction, which gives the vessels a low magnetic signature. In addition to her Mine Counter-Measures activities, Brocklesby acts as an offshore patrol vessel, undertaking coastal patrol and fisheries protection duties.
The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a branch of the Royal Navy active during both the First and Second World Wars. The RNPS operated many small auxiliary vessels such as naval trawlers for anti-submarine and minesweeping operations to protect coastal Britain and convoys.
Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built to naval specifications, others adapted from civilian use. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust vessels designed to work heavy trawls in all types of weather, and had large clear working decks. A minesweeper could be created by replacing the trawl with a mine sweep. Adding depth charge racks on the deck, ASDIC below, and a 3-inch (76 mm) or 4-inch (102 mm) gun in the bow equipped the trawler for anti-submarine duties.
An armed yacht was a yacht that was armed with weapons and was typically in the service of a navy. The word "yacht" was originally applied to small, fast and agile naval vessels suited to piracy and to employment by navies and coast guards against smugglers and pirates. Vessels of this type were adapted to racing by wealthy owners. The origin of civilian yachts as naval vessels, with their speed and maneuverability, made them useful for adaptation to their original function as patrol vessels. In the United States Navy armed yachts were typically private yachts expropriated for government use in times of war. Armed yachts served as patrol vessels during the Spanish–American War and the World Wars. In the latter conflicts, armed yachts were used as patrol vessels, convoy escorts, and in anti-submarine duties. In the United States, yachts were purchased from their owners with the owners given an option to repurchase their yacht at the close of hostilities.
The 11th Mine Countermeasures Squadron was a unit of the British Royal Navy during the Falklands War of 1982.
The Overseas Patrol Squadron is a front-line squadron of the Royal Navy with responsibility for patrolling the UK's Extended Fisheries Zone, both at home and around British Overseas Territories. The squadron, with headquarters at HMNB Portsmouth, is equipped with four of the River-class patrol vessels: HMS Forth, HMS Medway, HMS Trent, and HMS Tamar; with a fifth, HMS Spey, to join once it's completed working up.
826 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm aircraft squadron formed during World War II which has been reformed several times since then until last disbanded in 1993.
Junella was a fishing trawler, best known for her service with the Royal Navy during the Falklands War. She was built in 1975 for J Marr & Son, a Hull-based fishing company. On 11 April 1982 she was taken up from trade by the British government and commissioned into the Royal Navy. She was fitted with Second World War era minesweeping gear at Rosyth Dockyard, manned by Royal Navy sailors and allocated to the 11th Mine Countermeasures Squadron. She sailed on 26 April but was unable to commence sweeping until after the 14 June Argentine surrender. In the meantime she was utilised to transfer troops and stores between ships and landed special forces troops at San Carlos. Demining operations commenced on 21 June. Junella returned to the United Kingdom on 11 August, carrying a defused Argentine mine.
