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Royal Navy - Guided Missile FrigateF 85 HMS Cumberland |
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sorry, no insignia |
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Type,
class: Guided Missile Frigate; Type 22 / Broadsword class
- Batch 3 Builder: Yarrow Shipbuilders, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. STATUS: Awarded: 1984 Laid down: October 12, 1984 Launched: June 21, 1986 Commissioned: June 10, 1989 Decommissioned: June 23, 2011 Fate: sold for scrap Homeport: - Namesake: - Ships Motto: JUSTITIA TENAX (tenacious of justice) Technical Data: see INFO > Broadsword / Type 22 class Guided Missile Frigate |
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ship images |
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HMS Cumberland
was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was
launched in 1986 and commissioned on 10 June 1989. The frigate was
on station during the First Gulf War and was part of the Devonport
Flotilla based at Devonport Dockyard. Cumberland was decommissioned
on 23 June 2011.
History:
On commissioning
she became part of the 8th Frigate Squadron. Her first commanding
officer was Captain Mike Gregory. Captain Gregory, a submariner, was
previously awarded the OBE for the longest continuously submerged
patrol in Royal Navy history.
The ship's first
two deployments were to the US and Canada, in 1989 and 1990
respectively. The first in 1989 called at both Fort Lauderdale and
Baltimore where the ship became the focus of an anti-nuclear protest
over suspicions that the ship carried nuclear weapons. In 1990, she
again crossed the Atlantic to visit New York, before sailing North
to the St Lawrence Seaway with a brief stop in Montreal followed by
a 10-day visit to Toronto. This was followed by an unscheduled 24
hour stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia to repair some ship equipment
damaged in bad weather, and then a visit to St Johns, Newfoundland.
She spent the
winter of 1990-91 as the Royal Navy surface vessel patrolling the
Falkland Islands. She sailed to South Georgia just before Christmas
arriving at Grytviken on 22 December. She sailed along the coast of
South Georgia and returned to Grytviken on Christmas Eve. On
Christmas Day she hosted the soldiers of the South Georgia garrison
aboard for Christmas Day lunch of venison. The stag had been shot
the day before by a sniper from the garrison; part of the garrison's
duties being to control the deer population on the Island. While in
South Georgia the ship manoeuvred into Cumberland Bay where a
glacier sweeps into the sea. A photograph of the ship with the
glacier as a back-drop was taken from the ship's Lynx helicopter.
Ice was collected from the glacier and kept in the ship's freezers
for use at cocktail parties during the return leg of her patrol.
On 26 September
2000, Cumberland worked with local fishermen to aid the rescue of
survivors of the Greek ferry Express Samina which ran aground two
miles off the island of Paros.
In 2003
Cumberland embarked two teams from M Squadron, Special Boat Service
(SBS) and (in partnership with RFA Wave Knight) seized 3.6 tonnes of
cocaine in the mid-Atlantic as part of an anti-drug operation. In
October 2005 she intercepted and boarded a speedboat in the
Caribbean Sea off Nicaragua from which they seized two tonnes of
cocaine, and detained four suspects. The cocaine was estimated to
have a street value of £200 million.
During this time
Chris Cranmer, the first registered Satanist serving in the Royal
Navy, was a technician on board the vessel. On 18 May 2006
Cumberland escorted Dee Caffari, sailing Aviva, across the
finish-line (at Lizard Point) as she became the first woman to sail
single-handedly non-stop around the world "the wrong way" (against
the prevailing wind and tide).
Cumberland
completed an 18-month refit in 2008.
In October 2008,
Cumberland was assigned to anti-piracy duties along with 6 other
ships as part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2). As part of
her duties in SNMG2, on 11 November 2008, Cumberland went to the aid
of a Danish vessel that had come under attack from pirates. The
pirates opened fire on two of Cumberland's launches; 3 pirates died
when the Royal Marines returned fire on the dhow.
During her 2010
deployment to the Persian Gulf, Cumberland rotated between maritime
security patrol duty and escort duty with the French nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in support of coalition military
operations in Afghanistan. This represented an example of
interoperability pursuant to the recently ratified Franco-British
defence co-operation treaty.
In February
2011, it was announced that the ship would be scrapped in April 2011
in a government spending review to meet UK government cuts to the
MOD.
Libya
operations:
On 22 February
2011, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that
Cumberland, while transiting the Mediterranean on her return to the
UK for decommissioning, would be redeployed to Libyan waters where
she will assist in Operation Deference, the evacuation of British
citizens and other nationals affected by the 2011 Libyan civil war.
Cumberland entered the Port of Benghazi on 24 February, LS (SEA)
Kieran Woodward became the first person to step foot on Libyan soil
armed with only his bare fists and a rigging set. 35 Royal Marines
armed to the teeth then followed. The ship left the same day for
Malta with an international collection of passengers that included
British, European and American nationals. and rescued 454 people,
including 129 British Nationals, and transferred them to the safety
in Malta. All European Union citizens were entitled to rescue by the
Cumberland, but needed to carry a passport or other document that
could serve as proof of nationality; would-be passengers were
advised to telephone the British embassy in Malta.
In March 2011,
Cumberland took part in Operation Ellamy, the British role in the
coalition action during the 2011 Libyan civil war by enforcing a
naval blockade. The life of the Cumberland has been extended so that
the UK "armed forces remain equipped to protect in this conflict."
“Since frigates
HMS Westminster and Cumberland began enforcing the United Nations
Resolution with other Allied naval forces on Friday [18 March 2011],
the dictator's ships had shown "a very marked reluctance" to leave
their bases... As well as ensuring arms do not slip through the
naval cordon drawn across the Gulf of Sirte, both ships are using
their surveillance suites to monitor activities along the Libyan
coast, providing vital intelligence for the overall mission. Both
frigates remain on station off the Libyan coast in full defence
posture - defence watches, anti-flash, upper deck guns manned.”
Cumberland was
transferred to Operation Unified Protector under NATO command at the
end of March.
Decommissioning and disposal:
On 18 April 2011
Cumberland made her final entry into her base-port of Devonport from
an intense and successful patrol involving oil production protection
in the Gulf, counter-piracy operations, evacuating refugees from
Libya and enforcing an arms embargo against the country's ruler. The
ship was decommissioned under the Strategic Defence and Security
Review, with a decommissioning ceremony taking place on 23 June. She
was laid up at Portsmouth and in July 2013 sold to Turkish company
Leyal for demolition.
source: wikipedia |
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