HMS Cumberland was a Batch 3 Type 22

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...

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 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 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

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

. Cumberland was decommissioned on 23 June 2011.

History

On commissioning she became part of the Sixth Frigate Squadron. Her first commanding officer was Captain Mike Gregory

Michael Gregory (Royal Navy officer)

Rear Admiral Michael Gregory OBE is a former Royal Navy officer who became Flag Officer Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland.-Naval career:...

. Captain Gregory was previously awarded the OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 for the longest continuously submerged patrol in Royal Navy history.

She spent the winter of 1990-91 as the Royal Navy surface vessel patrolling the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

. She sailed to South Georgia just before Christmas arriving at Grytviken

Grytviken

Grytviken is the principal settlement in the British territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. It was so named in 1902 by the Swedish surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson who found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a...

 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

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 sweeps into the sea. A photograph of the ship with the glacier as a back-drop was taken from the ship's Lynx

Lynx

A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...

 helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

. 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

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 ferry Express Samina

Express Samina

MS Express Samina was a RORO passenger ferry built as MS Corse In 1966 at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St Nazaire, France for Compagnie Generale Transatlantique along with her sister ship MS Comte De Nice. In 1969 she was transferred to Compagnie Generale Transmediterraneenne...

 which ran aground two miles off the island of Paros

Paros

Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...

.

In 2003 Cumberland (in partnership with RFA Wave Knight

RFA Wave Knight (A389)

RFA Wave Knight is a Wave-class fast fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary of the United Kingdom tasked with providing fuel, food, ammunition and other supplies to Royal Navy vessels around the world....

) 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

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

 off Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 from which they seized two tonnes of cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

, 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

Satanism

Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...

 serving in the Royal Navy, was a technician on board the vessel. On 18 May 2006 Cumberland escorted Dee Caffari

Dee Caffari

Denise "Dee" Caffari MBE is a British sailor, and in 2006 became the first woman to sail single-handedly and non-stop around the world "the wrong way"; westward against the prevailing winds and currents...

, sailing Aviva, across the finish-line (at Lizard Point

Lizard Point, Cornwall

Lizard Point in Cornwall is at the southern tip of the Lizard Peninsula. It is situated half-a-mile south of Lizard village in the civil parish of Landewednack and approximately 11 miles southeast of Helston....

) 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

Piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 duties along with 6 other ships as part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2)

Standing NRF Maritime Group 2

Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation standing maritime Immediate Reaction Forces. Prior to 1 January 2005 it was known as Standing Naval Force Mediterranean .SNMG2 is a multinational, integrated maritime force - made up of vessels from various allied nations,...

. 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 Cumberlands launches; 3 pirates died when the Royal Marines returned fire on the dhow

Dhow

Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...

.

During her 2010 deployment 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...

, Cumberland rotated between maritime security patrol duty

Maritime Security Operations

Maritime Security Operations is a term for the actions of modern naval forces to "combat sea–based terrorism and other illegal activities, such as hijacking, piracy, and slavery, also known as human trafficking." Ships assigned to such operations may also assist seafaring vessels in distress...

 and escort duty with the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in support of coalition military operations in Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

. This represented an example of interoperability

Combined operations

In military use, combined operations , also known as joint operations, or interoperability capability, are either operations conducted by forces of two or more allied nations acting together for the accomplishment of a common strategy, a strategic and operational and sometimes tactical cooperation...

 pursuant to the recently-ratified Franco-British defence cooperation treaty.

In February 2011, it was announced that the ship will be scrapped in April of 2011 in a government spending review in order to meet UK government cuts to the MOD

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

.

On 22 February 2011, British Foreign Secretary William Hague

William Hague

William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...

 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

2011 Libyan civil war

The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

. Cumberland entered the Port of Benghazi

Port of Benghazi

The Port of Benghazi is a major seaport in the city of Benghazi, Libya, on the Mediterranean Sea coast within the Gulf of Sidra.-History:A natural seaport, it was founded as Euesperides by the ancient Greeks of Cyrenaica in the 6th Century BC. After passing it to the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III,...

 on 24 February, leaving the same day for Malta

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...

 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

Operation Ellamy

Operation Ellamy was the codename for the United Kingdom participation in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. The operation was part of an international coalition aimed at enforcing a Libyan no-fly zone in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 which stipulated...

, the British role in the coalition action during the 2011 Libyan civil war

2011 Libyan civil war

The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

 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."
Cumberland was transferred to Operation Unified Protector

Operation Unified Protector

Operation Unified Protector was an NATO operation enforcing United Nations Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973 concerning the 2011 Libyan civil war and adopted on 17 February and 17 March respectively...

 under NATO command at the end of March.

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.

Affiliations

Cumberland is affiliated with a number of military and civic bodies:

• The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border)
• County of Cumbria
  Cumbria
  Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
  
  
• Worshipful Company of Glovers
  Worshipful Company of Glovers
  The Worshipful Company of Glovers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Glovers were originally classified as Cordwainers, but eventually separated to form their own organization in 1349. They received a Royal Charter of incorporation in 1639...
  
  
• The Cumberland Association
• The Cumberland Hotel (Marble Arch)
• Pride of Cumbria air ambulance
• Royal Thames Yacht Club
• Batchworth Sea Scouts
• TS John Paul (Sea Cadets)
• TS Rodney (Sea Cadets)
• TS Royalist (Sea Cadets)
• Sedbergh CCF (Combined Cadet Force)
• St Dunstan's CCF
• Roedean School