Fife 1964 HMS - Guided Missile Destroyer

[Woody]

HMS Fife
Guided Missile Destroyer, County Class - D.06
Laid down 31/05/1962 as part of the second order and launched by Fairfield Govan, Yard No 817, on 9/7/1964. Scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey arriving 28/2/2007.
6200t normal; 6800t full load
521ft 6in oa x 54ft x 20ft 6in max
2-shaft COSAG geared steam turbines, 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers plus 4 x G6 gas turbines, 30,000shp + 30,000shp giving 30 knots
4 x 4.5in/45 Mk 6 (2 x 2), 1 Seaslug Mk 2 SAM (1 x 2), 2 Seacat GWS22 SAM (2 x 4), 2 x 20mm (2 x 1) and 1 Wessex Helicopter
Crew 440-471

Completed 21/6/1966
1968 visited Sydney
1/4/1970 left Portsmouth on a World deployment; Morocco, Lagos, Simonstown and a brief spell on the Beira patrol, Maldives, Singapore where she test fired her slug in the South China Seas, Hong Kong, Kobe (Expo 70), Pearl Harbour, Long Beach, Acapulco, Panama Canal, Puerto Rico, Toulon, Malta, Gibraltar and then back to the UK. While in Hawaii she was the last ship to have a Rum issue staged as a funeral at sea with a pipers lament
1975-76 modernised at Portsmouth and fitted with 4 Exocet launchers instead of B Turret
November 1979 awarded the Wilkinson Sword of Peace for her Relief work following Hurricane David in the Caribbean
1979-80 Fleet Training Ship at Portsmouth
July 1980 commenced Refit
March 1983 completed her 2 year refit and now operated a Lynx instead of the Wessex
1986 Refit to a training ship. Her Seaslug was removed and replaced with a classroom and the large magazine converted into a Mess deck for Cadets
September 1986 Dartmouth Training Ship
January 1987 second training deployment took her to Brest with the Intrepid and with Juno visited the Great Lakes
June 1987 Decommissioned
12/8/1987 sold to Chile and commissioned as BLANCO ENCALADA
May 1988 completed a refit and conversion to a Helicopter Carrier with two Cougars
1996 she was fitted with Barak SAMs instead of her Seacat
12/12/2003 Decommissioned
November 2005 sold for scrap


See also viewtopic.php?f=47&t=28666&p=56001&hilit=Fife#p56001
and: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=10258&p=20827&hilit=Fife#p20827

[Dennis Maccoy]

At Portsmouth as Blanco Encalada on 16 Augst 1987, a few days after transfer to Chile. HMS Bristol inboard.

[Deepol]

Another shot of her as Almirante Blanco Encalada.

[Dennis Maccoy]

Fife at the Jubilee Fleet Review on 28 June 1977.