HMS Southampton dressed overall. | |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Southampton |
Ordered | 17 March 1976 [1] |
Builder | Vosper Thornycroft |
Laid down | 21 October 1976 |
Launched | 29 January 1979 |
Commissioned | 31 October 1981 |
Decommissioned | 12 February 2009 |
Homeport | HMNB Portsmouth |
Identification |
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Motto |
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Nickname(s) | "The Mighty Ninety" (after her pennant number). |
Fate | Sold for scrap |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type 42 destroyer |
Displacement | 4,820 tonnes |
Length | 125 m (410 ft 1 in) |
Beam | 14.3 m (46 ft 11 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 30 knots (56 km/h) |
Complement | 287 |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | Westland Lynx HMA8 |
HMS Southampton was a batch two Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was named after the city of Southampton, England, and built by Vosper Thornycroft, in Southampton. She was the sixth Royal Navy ship to bear the name.
In 1982, Southampton ran over one of the Shambles Buoys off Portland during the final Thursday War intended to prepare her to deploy to the Falklands. The collision sank the buoy and resulted in a period in dry dock for repair. I served onboard from September 1983 and the incident with the Shambles bouy was October/November 1983 after repairs we left for six months deployment as Falklands guard ship. On 3 September 1988, whilst serving on the Armilla Patrol, she was involved in a collision with MV Tor Bay, a container ship in the convoy being escorted through the Straits of Hormuz. Three members of her crew were slightly injured and a 10-metre (33 ft) hole torn in Southampton's hull. The destroyer was returned to the UK aboard a semi-submersible heavy lift ship. [2] [3]
On 3 February 2006, the ship was involved in the seizing of 3.5 tonnes (3.4 long tons ; 3.9 short tons ) of cocaine in the Caribbean. [4]
On 31 July 2008, Southampton was placed in a state of "Extended Readiness" and was decommissioned on 12 February 2009. [5] The ship was auctioned on 28 March 2011 and was later towed from Portsmouth on 14 October 2011 to Leyal Ship Recycling's scrapyard in Aliağa, Turkey. [6]
HMS Invincible was the Royal Navy's lead ship of her class of three light aircraft carriers. She was launched on 3 May 1977 as the seventh ship to carry the name. She was originally designated as an anti-submarine warfare carrier, but was used as an aircraft carrier during the Falklands War, when she was deployed with HMS Hermes. She took over as flagship of the British fleet when Hermes was sold to India. Invincible was also deployed in the Yugoslav Wars and the Iraq War. In 2005, she was decommissioned, and was eventually sold for scrap in February 2011.
HMS Illustrious was a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and was affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty". In 1982, the conflict in the Falklands necessitated that Illustrious be completed and rushed south to join her sister ship HMS Invincible and the veteran carrier HMS Hermes. To this end, she was brought forward by three months for completion at Swan Hunter Shipyard, then commissioned on 20 June 1982 at sea en route to Portsmouth Dockyard to take on board extra stores and crew. She arrived in the Falklands to relieve Invincible on 28 August 1982 in a steam past. Returning to the United Kingdom, she was not formally commissioned into the fleet until 20 March 1983. After her South Atlantic deployment, she was deployed on Operation Southern Watch in Iraq, then Operation Deny Flight in Bosnia during the 1990s and Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000. An extensive re-fit during 2002 prevented her from involvement in the 2003 Iraq War, but she was repaired in time to assist British citizens trapped by the 2006 Lebanon War.
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Media related to HMS Southampton (D90) at Wikimedia Commons