RN Frigates: Rothesay and Whitby Class Type 12

[Brian James]

Rothesay or Type 12 ASW Frigate HMS Londonderry pictured c1964.

[jbryce1437]

A lovely view of Londonderry, thanks Brian. I was due to fly out to Singapore and fetch her back from the far east in 1972, but a guy off the Exmouth volunteered to go as his brother was onboard. I ended up on Exmouth in his place, which suited me find and I had another couple of years day running out of Portland and back to Pompey most weekends, where I was living in married quarters.

Jim

[Brian James]

Type 12 or Rothesay Class ASW Frigate HMS Londonderry pictured in September 1961.

[timlewin]

the type 12s went on to "father" the Leanders, perhaps the most successful frigate design of the era?

[Pelican]

H.M.S. LONDONDERRY

This extensive library of photographs have been kindly provided by the ship's company and families of H.M.S. Londonderry to record a memorable 1st commission 1960 -1962.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... NuY0luRVBR

"They were all posted and sit on, the HMS LONDONDERRY - FIRST COMMISSION (1960-1962) website, compiled and maintained by Clive(Chas) WATTS - ex HMS GANGES webmaster. (https://www.hmslondonderry.org/ will get you there)... A happy band of brothers whose '60th COMMISSIONING CELEBRATIONS' were fouled by CORONAVIRUS this last July. We'd got a lot planned - Never got there though. Still - the memories are there and Chas's website refreshes us when we need it.

It was a fantastic commission, our Home leg took us into the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Davis Straits, Greenland ending with a jolly in NY.. Our 'foreign leg was - based in West Indies - and three 'Island trips', then through Panama up to Vancouver via a variety of places up East coast of USA plus a 'down the West coast of South America calling in a few places, up and around the bottom and up the East coast of South America, through Panama again. All in one year on the 'foreign leg'. Yep those memories and many. My BEST EVER ship and Commission without any doubt."

[timlewin]

a very fine view of Londonderry, bows on making a high speed turn, all I can say is it must be lunchtime.....

[Pelican]

I presented Tenby's deck plate to the RNLI station at Tenby in South Wales which made them happy, the head of the station was ex-Andrew and actually trained in Tenby earlier in life.

Attached file is From Tim.

[Brian James]

Rothesay Class ASW Frigate HMS Brighton pictured on the Clyde c1962.

[Pelican]

HMS Tenby Type 12 antisubmarine frigate.

After my 18 months in Mauritius the Navy decided I should go to sea. June 1966 to July 67. Tenby was part of the Dartmouth training squadron, so we would have groups of midshipmen / cadets on board for training. Not only Royal Navy but a multitude of other nations. Two trips around the Med all the usual port of calls. Cant remember them all but what I do sounds like a Mediterranean cruise you see advertised today. Claim to Fame. James Bond and “You Only Lived Twice” We filmed the burial sequence you see at the start of the film. Needless to say no Bond and no Girls came on board, just the film crew and extras and I was not part of the burial party. In 67 over to Canada and the US. After a very rough crossing we arrived at St Johns Newfoundland. Cold place if your under age to drink. On the crossing we were meant to have gunnery practice to help break up the icebergs that were drifting south into the shipping lanes. We developed a few cracks in the hull in the rough weather so that was on hold. The word was “fire the 4.5 and forecastle falls off”. But not so good at the stern for me with all the pitching the fuel oil venting pipes started to siphon fuel oil all over the deck. All department had to turn to to help clean up, we used the fire hoses with detergent instead of foam. We put into 5 ports in Canada and then New York. Visited the world fair EXPO 67 in Montreal and then, in New York an American WAVE took pity on me after visiting the ship and seeing the size of the mess and that we still had hammocks. I will leave it there not to swing the lamps to much. Left the Tenby to go back to Collingwood for my LREMs course.

By John Atkison.

[Brian James]

Rothesay or Type 12M Class ASW Frigate HMS Brighton.