HMS ''Plym'' (K271) was a

River-class frigate The River class was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. The majority served with the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), with some serving in the other Al ...

that served in 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 ...

between 1943 and 1952. The ship was destroyed in the United Kingdom's first nuclear weapon test,

Operation Hurricane Operation Hurricane was the first test of a British atomic device. A plutonium implosion device was detonated on 3 October 1952 in Main Bay, Trimouille Island, in the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. With the success of Operation H ...

in 1952.

Construction

''Plym'' was built to the

's specifications as a Group II . 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 ...

by Smiths Dock Co. at their yard in

South Bank-on-Tees South Bank is a township in the Redcar and Cleveland borough in North Yorkshire, England on the south bank of the River Tees. It is east of Middlesbrough and south-west of Redcar. The town is served by railway station. The namesake ward had ...

on 1 August 1942 and launched on 4 February 1943. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 16 May 1943 as HMS ''Plym'' (K271) and was named after the

River Plym The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongsi ...

in Devon, England which flows into the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

at Plymouth.

Service history

''Plym'' saw extensive service on

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

convoy escort missions. ''Plym'', along with , and , provided anti-submarine escort to the convoy WS-33 which arrived in South Africa from the United Kingdom on 9 October 1943 with critical reinforcements for service in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Operation Hurricane

''Plym'' was used as the detonation platform for the UK's first

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

. A 25-kiloton

atom bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

was detonated a few seconds before 09:30 local time on 3 October 1952 approximately from the island of Trimouille in the

Monte Bello Islands The Montebello Islands, also rendered as the Monte Bello Islands, are an archipelago of around 174 small islands (about 92 of which are named) lying north of Barrow Island and off the Pilbara coast of north-western Australia. The islands f ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Although data acquisition would have been simplified by detonating the bomb from a tower above the ground or sea surface, it was conducted aboard ''Plym'' in order to simulate the effects of a nuclear weapon being smuggled into a British harbour aboard a ship.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plym (K271), HMS 1943 ships River-class frigates of the Royal Navy