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HMS Chatham (F87)
Encyclopedia
HMS Chatham (F87) was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate
of the British Royal Navy
. She has the rare honour of a motto in English; Up and at 'em, being the rallying cry of the Medway town football and rugby teams. The motto has subsequently been translated back into Latin as Surge et vince. She was decommissioned on 9 February 2011.
to enforce the embargo against the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Her most remarkable action was the capture of the Maltese freighter
Lido II, suspected of smuggling fuel to Montenegro
. The British frigate was assisting the Dutch
frigate HMNLS Van Kinsberger
, who stopped the merchant, when three Yugoslav corvettes of the Koncar class
challenged the NATO operation and one of them tried to ram HMS Chatham. The corvettes were eventually scared off by the reaction of the British warship, supported by Italian
Tornado
aircraft which scrambled from an airbase at Gioia Del Colle
. The Lido II underwent repairs before being diverted to Italy
, because of sabotage to the ship's engine room by her crew. The leaking was contained by an engineer party from HMS Chatham. Seven Yugoslav stowaways were found on board by Leading Marine Engineering Mechanic Smith.
Under the command of Captain
Christopher Clayton
, she was guardship to the royal yacht
HMY Britannia
during the withdrawal from Hong Kong
in 1997 (and served as the control military operations in the months prior to the handover). In May 2000, Chatham was part of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) sent to the coast of Sierra Leone
to oversee the evacuation of British, EU and Commonwealth nationals as part of Operation Palliser
, under the captaincy of George Zambellas
.
In March 2003 Chatham became the first British warship to fire her guns in anger
as part of Operation Telic
when she engaged targets on the Al-Faw Peninsula
of southern Iraq. Approximately 60 rounds were fired at a variety of targets from her 4.5" gun. In company with HMAS Anzac
she remained on station for the following 72 hours at immediate readiness to provide fire support to the troops of the Royal Marines
as they advanced up the peninsula.
Chatham deployed from the UK to the Persian 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 in 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 the BBC
for the television programme Shipmates which charted the life of ordinary sailors in the Royal Navy. In the program Chatham was filmed on active service in the Persian Gulf, whilst on an anti-terrorist mission. The show also covered the Chathams humanitarian relief efforts off the coast of Sri Lanka
after the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004.
On 18 April 2005, Chatham sent a party ashore at Alexandria
in Egypt
to provide a burial for the recently-uncovered remains of thirty British sailors and officers who had died during or after the Battle of the Nile
in 1798.
On 31 October 2006, she visited the town of Chatham, Massachusetts
, on her way to Boston.
In 2008 Chatham was responsible for the capture of six tonnes of the 23-tonne narcotic haul seized by the Royal Navy
between January and August 2008. As of March 2010, she was the NATO flagship for international naval operations against Somali piracy. On 17 May 2010, Chatham destroyed two pirate boats in the Somali Basin, forcing the pirates to return in the mother ship to Somalia.
On 20 May 2010 Cyclone Bandu disabled a cargo vessel, MV Dubai Moon
, and left her drifting off the Somali
coast. Before the cargo vessel sank, 23 crew members were rescued by helicopters from HMS Chatham. Due to the recent defence cuts, HMS Chatham arrived in Plymouth
for the last time on the 27th of January. The ship was decommissioned in February 2011.
Ship's Sponsor: Lady Oswald
Type 22 frigate
The Type 22 Broadsword class is a class of frigate built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen of the class were built in total, with production divided into three batches. With the decommissioning of HMS Cornwall on 30 June 2011, the final Type 22 of the Royal Navy was retired from service...
of the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. She has the rare honour of a motto in English; Up and at 'em, being the rallying cry of the Medway town football and rugby teams. The motto has subsequently been translated back into Latin as Surge et vince. She was decommissioned on 9 February 2011.
History
HMS Chatham joined Operation Sharp GuardOperation Sharp Guard
Operation Sharp Guard was a multi-year joint naval blockade in the Adriatic Sea by NATO and the Western European Union on shipments to the former Yugoslavia. Warships and maritime patrol aircraft from 14 countries were involved in searching for and stopping blockade runners.The operation began on...
to enforce the embargo against the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Her most remarkable action was the capture of the Maltese freighter
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
Lido II, suspected of smuggling fuel to Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
. The British frigate was assisting the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
frigate HMNLS Van Kinsberger
Kortenaer class frigate
The Kortenaer class was a class of frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy. They were built to be a general purpose frigate; able to combat all surface, submarine and aircraft targets. Like some of the other frigates of the 1970s and 1980s, they featured a COGOG propulsion system...
, who stopped the merchant, when three Yugoslav corvettes of the Koncar class
Končar class fast attack craft
The Končar class is a class of fast attack craft that was built for the SFR Yugoslav Navy in the late 1970s. Following the break-up of Yugoslavia one craft went to the Croatian Navy whilst the remaining five went to the Montenegro Navy...
challenged the NATO operation and one of them tried to ram HMS Chatham. The corvettes were eventually scared off by the reaction of the British warship, supported by Italian
Italian Air Force
The Italian Air Force has gone under different names in different periods:*Regia Aeronautica , from 1923 to June 1946*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, the air force of Italian Social Republic during World War II...
Tornado
Panavia Tornado
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...
aircraft which scrambled from an airbase at Gioia Del Colle
Gioia del Colle
Gioia del Colle is a town and comune in the province of Bari, Apulia, Italy. The town is located on the Murge plateau at 360 metres above sea level.- History :...
. The Lido II underwent repairs before being diverted to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, because of sabotage to the ship's engine room by her crew. The leaking was contained by an engineer party from HMS Chatham. Seven Yugoslav stowaways were found on board by Leading Marine Engineering Mechanic Smith.
Under the command of Captain
Captain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
Christopher Clayton
Christopher Clayton
Rear Admiral Christopher Hugh Trevor Clayton is a former Royal Navy officer who served as a Lynx helicopter pilot during the Falklands War. He went on to become a senior naval officer, commanding ships during the Hong Kong handover ceremony and 2003 invasion of Iraq and later serving high-level...
, she was guardship to the royal yacht
Royal Yacht
A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head...
HMY Britannia
HMY Britannia
Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former Royal Yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She was the 83rd such vessel since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. She is the second Royal yacht to bear the name, the first being the famous racing cutter built for The Prince of Wales...
during the withdrawal from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
in 1997 (and served as the control military operations in the months prior to the handover). In May 2000, Chatham was part of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) sent to the coast of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone Civil War
The Sierra Leone Civil War began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front , with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia , intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government...
to oversee the evacuation of British, EU and Commonwealth nationals as part of Operation Palliser
Operation Palliser
Operation Palliser was a British Armed forces operation in Sierra Leone in 2000 under the command of Brigadier David Richards.Initially, its scope was limited to evacuation of non-combatants only....
, under the captaincy of George Zambellas
George Zambellas
Vice Admiral George Michael Zambellas DSC, was Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces from June 2007 until September 2008 and is currently Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Chief of Staff to Navy Command Headquarters, and Chief Naval Warfare Officer.-Life:...
.
In March 2003 Chatham became the first British warship to fire her guns in anger
Fire in anger
"Fire in anger" is a phrase used in military contexts to describe the use of a projectile weapon to deliberately cause damage or harm to an opponent, as opposed to training exercises or warning shots. For example, Napier of Magdala Battery "never fired a shot in anger"; the battery never engaged in...
as part of Operation Telic
Operation Telic
Operation TELIC was the codename under which all British military operations in Iraq were conducted between the start of the Invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 and the withdrawal of the last remaining British forces on 22 May 2011...
when she engaged targets on the Al-Faw Peninsula
Al-Faw Peninsula
The Faw peninsula is a marshy region adjoining the Persian Gulf in the extreme south-east of Iraq, between and to the south-east of the cities of Basra and Abadan ....
of southern Iraq. Approximately 60 rounds were fired at a variety of targets from her 4.5" gun. In company with HMAS Anzac
HMAS Anzac (FFH 150)
HMAS Anzac is the lead ship of the Anzac class frigates in use with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy . Entering service in 1996, the frigate operated as part of the INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce in 1999. In 2003, she was involved in the Battle of Al Faw, and became the...
she remained on station for the following 72 hours at immediate readiness to provide fire support to the troops of the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
as they advanced up the peninsula.
Chatham deployed from the UK to the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
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 in 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 the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
for the television programme Shipmates which charted the life of ordinary sailors in the Royal Navy. In the program Chatham was filmed on active service in the Persian Gulf, whilst on an anti-terrorist mission. The show also covered the Chathams humanitarian relief efforts off the coast of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
after the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004.
On 18 April 2005, Chatham sent a party ashore at Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to provide a burial for the recently-uncovered remains of thirty British sailors and officers who had died during or after the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
in 1798.
On 31 October 2006, she visited the town of Chatham, Massachusetts
Chatham, Massachusetts
Chatham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 6,625 at the 2000 census...
, on her way to Boston.
In 2008 Chatham was responsible for the capture of six tonnes of the 23-tonne narcotic haul seized by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
between January and August 2008. As of March 2010, she was the NATO flagship for international naval operations against Somali piracy. On 17 May 2010, Chatham destroyed two pirate boats in the Somali Basin, forcing the pirates to return in the mother ship to Somalia.
On 20 May 2010 Cyclone Bandu disabled a cargo vessel, MV Dubai Moon
MV Dubai Moon
MV Dubai Moon was a cargo ship which sank on May 21, 2010 due to strong waves caused by a tropical storm. The ship was carrying vehicles in the Gulf of Aden when she was struck by Cyclone Bandu, which pushed it off the track. The ship sent a distress call which was picked by Royal Navy frigate HMS...
, and left her drifting off the Somali
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
coast. Before the cargo vessel sank, 23 crew members were rescued by helicopters from HMS Chatham. Due to the recent defence cuts, HMS Chatham arrived in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
for the last time on the 27th of January. The ship was decommissioned in February 2011.
Affiliations
Chatham is affiliated to a number of military and civil bodies:Ship's Sponsor: Lady Oswald
- 3 Regiment, Army Air Corps
- Medway CouncilMedwayMedway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
- Worshipful Company of Merchant TaylorsWorshipful Company of Merchant TaylorsThe Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors is one of the 108 Livery Companies of the City of London.The Company, originally known as the Guild and Fraternity of St...
- Chatham Dockyard Historic TrustChatham Historic DockyardChatham Historic Dockyard is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent, England.Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres and was one of the Royal Navy's main facilities for several hundred years until it was closed in 1984. After closure the dockyard was...
- Chatham Dockyard Historic Society
- Royal Naval Association, Chatham
- TS Cornwallis (Medway Town Sea Cadet Unit)
- TS Anson (Dartford and Crayford Sea Cadet Unit)
- TS Sirius (Hayes, Harlington and Southall Sea Cadet Unit)
- 5th Littlehampton Sea Scouts
- 5th Medway Scouts
- King's School Rochester CCF Unit
- Prior Park School (Bath) CCF Unit