HMS ''Mohawk'' was a 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 ...

in service from 1963. She was named after a tribe of Native Americans located in southeast

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and

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. ''Mohawk'' was scrapped in 1983.

Design and construction

The Tribal-, or Type 81-class, frigates were developed in the mid-1950s as a General Purpose frigate, capable of use in both anti-submarine and anti-aircraft duties in a full-scale war, while serving for Cold War policing duties in peace-time, in particular to replace the old s serving in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

. The Tribals were

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

, with a beam of . The ship's hull had a draught of , with the propeller increasing overall draught to .

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. Propulsion was by a single-shaft

Combined steam and gas Combined steam and gas (COSAG) is a propulsion system for ships using a combination of steam turbines and gas turbines to power the shafts. A gearbox and clutches enable either of the engines or both of them together to drive the shaft. It has t ...

(COSAG) arrangement, effectively half of the powerplant of the s. A single Babcock & Wilcox boiler fed steam at and to a geared steam turbine rated at , which could be supplemented by a Metrovick G-6

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

rated at to reach top speed, with the gas turbine also allowing the ship to get underway quickly in an emergency, without having to wait to raise steam. Speed was about using both steam and gas turbine power, and on steam power alone. The ships were fitted with two QF 4.5-in (113 mm) Mark 5 guns, salvaged from scrapped

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

destroyers, mounted fore and aft. It was intended to fit two

Seacat Seacat may refer to: * Seacat missile, a short-range surface-to-air missile system * SeaCat (1992–2004), ferry company formerly operating from between Northern Ireland, Scotland and England * The Sea-Cat, an imaginary monster from Flann O'Brien' ...

anti-aircraft missile launchers, but these were not ready in time, and ''Gurkha'' completed with two

40 mm Bofors Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

guns instead, with Seacat replacing the Bofors guns on refit. For anti-submarine and anti-ship duties, a hangar and flight deck for 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 was fitted, while a

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anti-submarine mortar provided close-in anti-submarine armament. ''Mohawk'' 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, we ...

on a lattice foremast, with a Type 993 short range air/surface target indicating radar and Type 978 navigation radar also fitted. An MRS3 fire control system was carried to direct the 4.5-inch guns. 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 navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...

suite of Type 177 medium range search sonar, Type 162 bottom search and Type 170 attack sonar. The ship had a crew of 253 officers and other ranks. ''Mohawk'' was built by

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...

, of

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

, at a cost of £4,705,000. She 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 ...

on 23 December 1960, was launched on 5 April 1962 and commissioned on 29 November 1963. Her construction had been disrupted by a labour dispute.

Operational Service

In 1965, ''Mohawk'' deployed to the

. She joined 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 ...

, intended to enforce an oil blockade of Rhodesia, in 1966. The following year, ''Mohawk'' deployed to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and 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 Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, becoming the

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

guardship in 1968. By 1969, ''Mohawk'' had returned to the West Indies. ''Mohawk'' underwent a conversion to accommodate her planned utilisation as a training ship. The refit entailed the removal of ''Mohawk''s aft 4.5-inch gun and the conversion of her hangar to a classroom, but the process was abandoned. In 1973, ''Mohawk'' and the destroyer relieved the destroyer and frigate in the Far East Squadron. ''Mohawk'' contributed to the Beira Patrol before returning to Britain in 1973. Later that year she embarked on a tour of the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

coast. She was called onto assist in the search for , a fishing vessel that went missing in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

. In 1974, ''Mohawk'' served in the West Indies and the Mediterranean. In 1977, ''Mohawk'' joined Naval On-call Force of the Mediterranean (NAVOCFORMED), a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

multi-national squadron. Later that year, ''Mohawk'' formed part of a task force designated "Group 6", led by the cruiser , that toured the Middle and Far East. During the group's return journey the following year, ''Mohawk'' suffered hull damage in the port of

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...

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after slipping her moorings early. In 1979, ''Mohawk'' was reduced to the reserve and allocated to the Standby Squadron. After being placed on the disposal list in 1981. ''Mohawk'' was sold for scrap and broken up at Cairnryan.Colledge & Warlow (2010), p. 265

Notes

Publications

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohawk Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness Tribal-class frigates 1962 ships