 HMSChatham in harbour, 2010 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Chatham |
| Builder | Swan Hunter,Newcastle, England |
| Laid down | 12 May 1986 |
| Launched | 20 January 1988 |
| Sponsored by | Lady Oswald |
| Commissioned | 4 May 1990 |
| Decommissioned | 8 February 2011 |
| Home port | HMNB Devonport,Plymouth |
| Identification |
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| Motto |
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| Fate | Scrapped October 2013 |
| Badge |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Type 22 frigate |
| Displacement | 5,300 tons |
| Length | 148.1 m (485 ft 11 in) |
| Beam | 14.8 m (48 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 6.4 m (21 ft 0 in) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) (max) |
| Complement | 250 (max. 301) |
| Armament |
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| Aircraft carried | |
HMSChatham was a Batch 3Type 22 frigate of the BritishRoyal Navy. She was decommissioned on 8 February 2011.
Chatham had the rare honour of a motto in English;Up and at 'em, being the rallying cry of theMedway town football and rugby teams.[3] The motto has subsequently been translated back into Latin asSurge et vince.
Chatham joinedOperation Sharp Guard to enforce the embargo against the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Her most notable action was on 1 May 1994 and the capture of theMaltese freighterLido II, which was suspected of smuggling fuel toMontenegro. The British frigate assisted theDutch frigateHNLMS Van Kinsbergen, who had forced the merchant to stop.
Three YugoslavKončar-classmissile boats challenged the NATO operation and one of them attempted to ramChatham. The corvettes were driven off by the actions of the British warship, supported byItalianTornado aircraft which scrambled from an airbase atGioia Del Colle.Lido II underwent repairs after sabotage to the ship's engine room by her crew, before being diverted toItaly. The leaking was contained by an engineering party fromChatham. Seven Yugoslav stowaways were found on board.[4][5]
Under the command ofCaptainChristopher Clayton, she was guardship to theroyal yachtHMY Britannia duringthe withdrawal fromHong Kong in 1997[3] (and served as the control military operations in the months prior tothe handover).
In May 2000,Chatham was part of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) sent to the coast ofSierra Leone to oversee the evacuation of British, EU and Commonwealth nationals as part ofOperation Palliser, under the captaincy ofGeorge Zambellas.
In March 2003,Chatham became the first British warship tofire her guns in anger since theFalklands War, when, as part ofOperation Telic, she engaged targets on theAl-Faw Peninsula of southern Iraq. Approximately 60 rounds were fired at a variety of targets from her 4.5-inch gun. In company withHMS Marlborough,HMS Richmond andHMAS Anzac she remained on station for the following 72 hours at immediate readiness to provide fire support to the troops of theRoyal Marines as they advanced up the peninsula.
Chatham deployed from the UK to thePersian Gulf in January and returned in August. During the deployment, in the run-up to and the conduct of the invasion of Iraq, the ship spent around 90 days at sea continuously at defence watches in the northern part of the Persian Gulf. At times she came very close to hitting mines laid by Iraqi dhows and tugs in the shallow waters to be found in the area.
Chatham hosted filmmakerChris Terrill of theBBC for the television programmeShipmates which charted the life of sailors in the Royal Navy. In the program, he filmedChatham on active service in the Persian Gulf, whilst on an anti-terrorist mission. The show also covered theChatham's humanitarian relief efforts off the coast ofSri Lanka after the December 2004Indian Ocean Tsunami.[6]
On 18 April 2005,Chatham sent a party ashore atAlexandria inEgypt to provide a burial for the recently uncovered remains of thirty British sailors and officers who had died during or after the 1798Battle of the Nile.[7]
On 31 October 2006, she visited the town ofChatham, Massachusetts, on her way toBoston.
In 2008,Chatham was responsible for the capture of six tonnes of the 23-tonne narcotic haul seized by theRoyal Navy between January and August 2008. As of March 2010, she was theNATO flagship for international naval operations againstSomali piracy.[8]
On 17 May 2010,Chatham destroyed twopirate boats in the Somali Basin, forcing the pirates to return in the mother ship to Somalia.[8]
On 20 May 2010Cyclone Bandu disabled a cargo vessel,MV Dubai Moon, and left her drifting off theSomali coast. Before the cargo vessel sank, 23 crew members were rescued by helicopters fromChatham.[9]
As a result of defence cuts, HMSChatham arrived inPlymouth for the last time on 27 January 2011. The ship was decommissioned in February 2011.[10] She was stripped of equipment and laid up at Portsmouth and in July 2013 sold to Turkish company Leyal for scrapping.
In autumn 2013,Chatham was towed to the Leyal shipyard in Turkey on her final voyage for breaking.[11][12]
Chatham was affiliated to a number of military and civil bodies:[13]
Ship's Sponsor: Lady Oswald
Almost all the commanders ofChatham subsequently achievedflag rank includingJames Morse,Ian Forbes,Tony Hogg,Paul Boissier,Christopher Clayton,Martin Connell (Dec 2006 - Jan 2009),Trevor Soar andGeorge Zambellas.
 Royal Navy | |
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 Brazilian Navy |
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 Chilean Navy |
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 Romanian Naval Forces |
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