HMS ''Cleopatra'' (F28) was a
''Leander''-class frigate of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
(RN). ''Cleopatra'' was built at
HMNB Devonport
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roy ...
. She was launched on 21 March 1964, commissioned on 1 March 1966 and decommissioned on 31 January 1992.
Construction
''Cleopatra'' was ordered during 1962 as the 10th ship of the ''Leander''-class.
The ship was
laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
at
Devonport Dockyard on 19 June 1963, was
launched on 21 March 1964 and completed on 4 January 1966.
She commissioned with the
Pennant number
In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...
F28 and International Callsign 'GMLU' on 1 March 1966.
''Cleopatra'' was long
overall
Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers".
Overalls were ...
and
at the waterline, with a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a maximum
draught of .
Displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and Physics
* Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
was standard and full load.
The ship was fitted with Y-100 machinery, built by
Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...
.
Two oil-fired
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
boilers fed steam at and to a pair of double reduction geared
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s that in turn drove two propeller shafts, with the machinery rated at , giving a speed of .
A twin
4.5-inch (113 mm) Mark 6 gun mount was fitted forward. Anti-aircraft defence was provided by a quadruple
Sea Cat
Seacat was a British short-range surface-to-air missile system intended to replace the ubiquitous Bofors 40 mm gun aboard warships of all sizes. It was the world's first operational shipboard point-defence missile system, and was designed so tha ...
surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
launcher on the hangar roof, while two
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models emplo ...
for close-in defence against surface targets. A
Limbo
In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin '' limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Euro ...
anti-submarine mortar was fitted aft to provide a short-range anti-submarine capability, while a hangar and helicopter deck allowed a single
Westland Wasp
The Westland Wasp is a small 1960s British turbine powered, shipboard anti-submarine helicopter. Produced by Westland Helicopters, it came from the same P.531 programme as the British Army Westland Scout, and is based on the earlier piston-e ...
helicopter to be operated, for longer range anti-submarine and anti-surface operations.
As built, ''Cleopatra'' was fitted with a large Type 965 long range air search
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
on the ship's mainmast, with a Type 993 short range air/surface target indicating radar and Type 974 navigation radar carried on the ship's foremast. An MRS3 fire control system was carried over the ship's bridge to direct the 4.5-inch guns, while a GWS22 director for Seacat was mounted on the hangar roof.
The ship had a
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
suite of Type 177 medium range search sonar, Type 162 bottom search and Type 170 attack sonar, together with a Type 199
variable depth sonar
A towed array sonar is a system of hydrophones towed behind a submarine or a surface ship on a cable. Trailing the hydrophones behind the vessel, on a cable that can be kilometers long, keeps the array's sensors away from the ship's own noise sour ...
(VDS).
Operational Service
Upon ''Cleopatra'' commissioning, she was deployed to the
Far East Fleet
The Far East Fleet (also called the Far East Station) was a fleet of the Royal Navy which existed between 1952 and 1971.
During the Second World War, the Eastern Fleet included many ships and personnel from other navies, including those of the ...
, joining the
2nd Destroyer Squadron,
then returned Britain in 1967 where she served as a training ship at
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
for several months before returning to the Far East.
Duties included participation in the
Beira Patrol
The Beira Patrol was a blockade of oil shipments to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) through Beira, Mozambique, resulting from United Nations trade sanctions on Rhodesia.
Background
Rhodesia's government unilaterally declared the former colony's ind ...
, which was designed to prevent oil reaching the landlocked Rhodesia via
Lorenzo Marques (now Maputo) in the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique.
In 1969, ''Cleopatra'' was present at the
Evans-Melbourne collision.
''Cleopatra'' was refitted at Devonport from May to September 1970.
Following work up at Portland in 1971, CLEOPATRA visited the West Indies and USA with HMS ARK ROYAL and RFAs OLMEDA and REGENT. In August 1971 CLEOPATRA deployed to the Far East via South Africa and joined the Singapore-based ANZUK force in December.
In February/March 1972, ''Cleopatra'' took part in escort duties during the
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
and the
Duke of Edinburgh's South East Asia tour.
In 1972, on passage from Singapore to undertake Beira Patrol, HMS ''Cleopatra'' helicopter crash landed into the sea. The helo was hoisted and secured on the ship's starboard side, taken to
RAF Gan
Royal Air Force Station Gan, commonly known as RAF Gan, is a former Royal Air Force station on Gan island, the southern-most island of Addu Atoll, which is part of the larger groups of islands which form the Maldives, in the middle of the Ind ...
in the Maldives, and loaded on to a raft before transport to UK by the RAF. Cleopatra relieved
HMS ''Lowestoft'' on Beira Patrol and 'borrowed' her Wasp helicopter for the remainder of her deployment.
In 1973, ''Cleopatra'' was dispatched to protect British trawlers against the Icelandic Coast Guard in the Second
Cod War
The Cod Wars ( is, Þorskastríðin; also known as , ; german: Kabeljaukriege) were a series of 20th-century confrontations between the United Kingdom (with aid from West Germany) and Iceland about fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each o ...
.
In May 1973 ''Cleopatra'' began a major modernisation at Devonport, becoming the first Leander-class ship to undergo the Batch 2 conversion.
The conversion included the removal and replacement of all the ship's armament. The Mark 6 4.5-in gun mount was replaced by four
Exocet
The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Etymology
The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical director ...
anti-ship missile
An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A good ...
s. The Limbo anti-submarine mortar was removed to give a larger flight deck and the ship's hangar was enlarged to allow a
Westland Lynx
The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led t ...
helicopter to be operated, while two triple STWS torpedo tubes provided short range anti-submarine capability. Anti-aircraft armament consisted of one Seacat launcher mounted forward of the Exocet containers and two more mounted aft on the hangar roof, backed up by two
Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns on the bridge wings. Type 1006 navigation radar replaced the old Type 974 radar, while the MRS3 gun control director as replaced by a GWS22 director for the forward Seacat launcher, with a second Seacat director mounted aft. Type 184M sonar replaced the main hull sonar, while the VDS was removed and its well plated over. Displacement rose to standard and , with speed falling by two knots.
''Cleopatra'' recommissioned after her reconstruction in late 1975 and joined the
4th Frigate Squadron as leader.
In 1977, ''Cleopatra'', like many other Leanders, took part in the
Fleet Review
A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...
of the RN in celebration of
HM the Queen's Silver Jubilee. ''Cleopatra'' was positioned in the middle of HM ships
''Zulu'' and
''Arethusa''.
The National Archives
National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives.
Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...
records that the
Ministry of Defence has a file of details of intelligence collection by ''Cleopatra'' in January to March 1978. She was refitted again at Devonport in 1978.
In 1981, ''Cleopatra'' deployed to the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
,
which still had a large RN presence at the time.
In 1982 ''Cleopatra'' returned to Devonport to be converted to carry the new Type 1031 towed array sonar.
To accommodate the new sonar changes were made to reduce topweight. The forward Seacat launcher and director was removed, as was the long-range Type 965 radar, allowing the ship's
mainmast
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation lig ...
to be replaced by a smaller mast. The Bofors guns were replaced by lighter Oerlikon 20 mm guns while the ship's boats were removed and the Exocet launchers and torpedo tubes lowered. A large cable reel was fitted to the aft end of the flight deck, while the Type 2031 I towed array sonar consisted of an acoustic array of passive hydrophones which were towed on the end of a cable. The electronics needed to extract and display the sonar data was installed in the ship's hangar, which meant that ''Cleopatra'' was no longer able to operate a helicopter.
''Cleopatra'' completed her refit on 10 June 1983, the first ''Leander''-class frigate to be fitted with a towed array.
The ship visited America in January–March 1984,
and in 1985 was leader of the 7th Frigate Squadron.
Further duties were undertaken but by the late 1980s, ''Cleopatra's'' age was beginning to show and her time was coming to an end. On 31 January 1992, ''Cleopatra'' was decommissioned. The following year, ''Cleopatra'' was sold for scrap.
Commanding officers
Notable commanding officers include
J M Webster (1977-1978),
PK Haddacks (1981-1982),
R T Newman (1984-1985) and
James Rupert Fanshawe (1990-1992).
[Royal Navy Senior Appointments, Colin Mackie]
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleopatra (F28)
Leander-class frigates
1964 ships