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![]() SAS Protea at Cape Town in 2011 | |
Class overview | |
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Operators | ![]() ![]() |
Cost | £1.25 million |
In commission | UK: 1966-2001; South Africa: 1972-present |
Completed | 5 |
Active | 1 |
Retired | 4 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Deep ocean hydrographic survey vessel |
Displacement | 2,800 tons (originally 2,733 tons) |
Length | 260 ft (79 m) |
Beam | 50 ft (15 m) |
Draught | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h) |
Range | 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) |
Boats & landing craft carried |
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Complement | Generally a Commander (X)(H) in command (though sometimes a Captain RN), with 12-15 officers and 104-106 ratings, 1 NAAFI canteen manager, 1 laundryman |
Aircraft carried | 1 × Westland Wasp helicopter from 829 Naval Air Squadron |
Aviation facilities |
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Notes | 1 × Land Rover (with garage, forward) |
The Hecla class formed the backbone of the Royal Navy's ocean survey fleet from the mid-1960s.
The hull design was based on that of the RRS Discovery and the Hecla class were built to commercial standards costing £1.25 million each. They carried two small survey craft, a launch, a Land Rover and a Wasp helicopter, for which there was a flight deck and hangar. They were chiefly funded from the Polaris Submarine Ballistic Nuclear Missile programme, with their major task to carry out regular oceanographic observations essential for the Polaris submarines to hide in thermal layers.
Besides the strengthened hull for work in ice and the provision of air conditioning necessary for work in all climates, they had modifications particular for a scientific vessel: wet and dry laboratories; a survey chartroom and photographic darkroom; oceanographic winches for deep seawater analysis and coring; stabilisers and a bow thruster, which enabled the ship to maintain her position when stopped for scientific observations. All 4 Royal Navy vessels were fitted with an Inertial Navigation System for mid-Ocean positioning. 'Drift' was corrected by taking satellite fixes from the Transit Doppler Sat Nav. Each vessel, due to their requirement to operate mid-Ocean, was equipped with a sick bay with a 2-bed ward and an operating theatre with X-Ray machine. Every vessel carried a Surgeon-Lieutenant and Leading Medical Assistant. In the 80's and 90's, 'Hecla' and 'Hecate' were equipped to make Gravity Free Air Anomaly observations over the mid-Atlantic ridge for the US Department of Defence 'Nav Star' GPS constellation of satellites.
Name | Pennant No. | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Status |
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HMS Hecla | A133 | Blythswood Shipbuilding, Scotstoun | 6 May 1964 | 21 December 1964 | 9 September 1965 | Sold to private interests and renamed SV Bligh, 1997 |
HMS Hecate | A137 | Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun | 26 October 1964 | 31 March 1965 | 20 October 1965 | Broken up at Pipavav, 1994 |
HMS Hydra | A144 | 14 May 1964 | 14 July 1965 | 4 May 1966 | Sold to Indonesian Navy in 1986 and renamed KRI Dewa Kembar | |
HMS Herald | A138 | Robb Caledon, Leith | 9 November 1972 | 4 October 1973 | 22 November 1974 | Sold to private interests and renamed SV Somerville, 2001 Broken up at Alang, 2004 |
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SAS Protea | A324 | Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun | 20 July 1970 | 14 July 1971 | 23 May 1972 | Active in service |
The first three ships, HMS Hecla, HMS Hecate and HMS Hydra, were ordered in the early 1960s to replace the aging survey ships HMS Scott and HMS Shackleton.
A fourth ship, HMS Herald was ordered in the early 1970s. Apart from HMS Hecate, they all saw service as hospital ships in the Falklands War, while Herald and Hecla also served in the Gulf War and the former as a temporary Antarctic Patrol Ship in 1991 and 1992. Hecate saw service as the temporary Antarctic Patrol Ship in 1982 after being painted grey and fitted with AA guns in Gibraltar. Hecate was the first Royal Navy vessel to visit South America following the Falklands conflict. During the conflict, Hecla, commanded by Captain Geoffrey Hope RN, with Lt. Cdr. Ward as XO, ferried Argentinian prisoners of war to Montevideo. Being the first vessel of the conflict to be in the glare of the world media, she gained a high public profile out of proportion to her ambulance ship role. Hydra was also outfitted as an ambulance ship whereas Herald was equipped as a casualty reception station on a par with SS Uganda.
A fifth Hecla-class vessel, SAS Protea (A324) was ordered by the South African Navy and commissioned on 23 May 1972. As of 2017, Protea remains in service. [1]
Hydra was sold to Indonesia Navy in 1986 and renamed KRI Dewa Kembar-932. As of 2017, Dewa Kembar remains in service.
Hecate decommissioned in 1990 and was broken up, while Herald was finally decommissioned in 2001, and was replaced the same year by HMS Echo.
Hecla was paid off in 1997 and sold to an Irish private company, renamed MV Blythe, to be replaced by HMS Scott. In 1969, commanded by Captain David Haslam (who retired after 10 years as Hydrographer in 1985), she landed a party who hoisted the Union Flag on Rockall, which significantly extended the UK's territory.
The first three ships in the class were named for the three paddle-wheel Hydra-class sloops, two of which (Hydra and Hecate) were fitted out as survey ships from around 1860.
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HMS Scott is an ocean survey vessel of the Royal Navy, and the only vessel of her class. She is the third Royal Navy ship to carry the name, and the second to be named after the Antarctic explorer, Robert Falcon Scott. She was ordered to replace the survey ship HMS Hecla.
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HMS Hecla was the lead ship of the Hecla class, an oceangoing survey ship type in the Royal Navy. She was ordered in the mid-1960s, along with her sister ships HMS Hecate and HMS Hydra. A fourth ship, HMS Herald, was completed in the early 1970s. The ship served for thirty years in this role, and various others, before finally being replaced by HMS Scott in 1997. Hecla was sold to private interests, being renamed "Bligh" after Vice-Admiral William Bligh. After this, the vessel was used in a hydrographic survey of Irish waters, and was based in Waterford, Ireland.
HMS Hecate (A137) was a Royal Navy deep ocean survey vessel of the Hecla class. She was present at the "presentation of fleet colours" review in Torbay on 29 July 1969. The ship was decommissioned in 1990.
HMS Herald was a Hecla-class ocean survey ship that served with the Royal Navy during both the Falklands War and Gulf War.
HMS Hydra was a Royal Navy deep ocean hydrographic survey vessel, the third of the original three of the Hecla class. The ship was laid down as yard number 2258 on 14 May 1964 at Yarrow Shipbuilders, at Scotstoun on the River Clyde and launched on 14 July 1965 by Mary Lythall, wife of the then Chief Scientist, Basil W Lythall CB (1919–2001). She was completed and first commissioned on 4 May 1966 and, as the replacement for the survey ship HMS Owen, her commanding officer and many of her ship's company formed the first commission of HMS Hydra. She was decommissioned and sold to the Indonesian Navy in 1986 and renamed KRI Dewa Kembar ; she was still in service in 2019.
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SAS Protea is a survey vessel of the South African Navy, part of the Hecla-class survey vessels built for the British Royal Navy. Protea was the fifth Hecla-class vessel and was commissioned on 23 May 1972