Chilean frigate Almirante Williams (FF-19)

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The Chilean Navy's Almirante Williams
History
United Kingdom
NameSheffield
NamesakeSheffield
BuilderSwan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Laid down29 March 1984
Launched26 March 1986
Commissioned26 July 1988
Decommissioned5 November 2002
IdentificationPennant number: F96
Motto
  • Deo Adjuvante Labor Proficit
  • (Latin: "With God's help our labour is successful")
Nickname(s)Shiny Sheff
FateSold to Chile
Chile
NameAlmirante Williams
Commissioned4 September 2003
IdentificationPennant number: FF-19
StatusIn active service
General characteristics
Class and typeType 22 frigate
Displacement4,900 tons
Length148.2 m (486 ft 3 in)
Beam14.7 m (48 ft 3 in)
Draught6.4 m (21 ft 0 in)
Speed
  • 33 kilometres per hour (18 kn; 21 mph) cruise
  • 56 kilometres per hour (30 kn; 35 mph) sprint
Complement250
Sensors and
processing systems
  • In Chilean Navy service
  • 1 × Marconi Type 967M air/surface search
  • 1 × ELTA EL/M-2238 air search
  • 2 × ELTA EL/M-2221GM fire-control
Electronic warfare
& decoys		In Chilean Navy service Terma SKWS
Armament
  • In Royal Navy service
  • 2 × 6 GWS25 Seawolf SAM Launchers
  • 4 × 1 Exocet SSM launchers
  • 2 × Twin 30 mm AA
  • 2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns
  • 4 × 7.62 mm GPMG
  • In Chilean Navy service
  • 1 ×
    Otobreda 76 mm
  • 2 × GAM-BO1 guns
  • 4 × Harpoon
  • Barak 1 surface-to-air missile
Aircraft carried
  • As Sheffield: Lynx Mk.8 helicopter;
  • As Almirante Williams:
    Eurocopter Dauphin
    helicopter

Almirante Williams is a Type 22 frigate in service with the Chilean Navy. It entered service with the British Royal Navy in 1988 with the name HMS Sheffield, and served with the Royal Navy until 2002. Initially it was meant to be called Bruiser, but was named Sheffield in honour of the previous Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. In 2003, the vessel was acquired by the Chilean Navy and renamed Almirante Williams.

History

Sheffield was launched on 26 March 1986, by Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom, and named by Mrs Susan Stanley, wife of the then Armed Forces Minister. The ship was commissioned at Hull on 26 July 1988. Several crewmen of the previous Sheffield were at the launch. A specially minted Sheffield coin was placed in the keel at the keel-laying ceremony on 29 March 1984.

In late 1998, Sheffield provided assistance after

St Kitts and also saved a Honduran woman who had been swept out to sea from her home by the force of Hurricane Mitch.[1][2]

Sheffield attended the August Bank Holiday 28–30 August 1999 Navy Days at HMNB Devonport, berthed with Sutherland, Somerset, Monmouth, Montrose, Manchester, Illustrious, Campbeltown, Trafalgar, Triumph and RFA Argus.

Sheffield at HMNB Devonport Navy day, 1999.

May 2000 saw Sheffield deployed on an eight-week deployment into the

St. Petersburg in Russia. Sheffield visited Kotka in Finland before Klaipėda in Lithuania, as the first major British warship to visit the city. Sheffield returned home on 26 July.[3]

8 February 2001 saw Sheffield, under Commander

RFA Gold Rover.[5]

5 February 2002 saw Sheffield deployed to the

Commodore Angus Somerville. Tuesday 26 February saw Sheffield assist the Spanish submarine Siroco, whilst participating in the exercise DOGFISH 2002. The submarine needed medicines for a sailor whilst in the Ionian Sea.[7]

On 11 October 2002 Sheffield visited Kingston upon Hull one last time so that she could be visited by the people of her namesake city of Sheffield.[8]

Sheffield was decommissioned on 4 November 2002.

Wilkinson Sword of Peace along with Ocean), the Strategic Defence Review
of 1998 (updated 2001) saw the end of her career with the Royal Navy.

Chilean service

For other ships with the same name, see Chilean ship Almirante Williams.

Sheffield was acquired by Chile on 5 September 2003 and renamed Almirante Williams in honour of Vice Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo, who was Commander of the Chilean Fleet at the beginning of the War of the Pacific.[12]

Since its commissioning, Williams has served as part of the Chilean Fleet, where after various modernization projects carried out in the country, it serves as the flagship of this naval force.[12]

She received a major refit in 2008, which saw her weapons fit change to:

  • 1 x
    76mm gun
  • 2 x 20mm Oerlikon cannon
  • 8 x Harpoon anti-ship missiles
  • 2 x
    Barak 1
    point defence systems
  • 2 x triple 324mm ASW torpedo tubes
  • Embarkation of 1 x SH-32 Cougar ASW helicopter[12]

The new equipment was retrieved from decommissioned County-class destroyers.[citation needed]

The main roles of this unit, with its base port in Valparaíso, are the search and attack of submarines, surface combat and support in the event of catastrophes and emergencies. It also has the capacity to transport a Cougar helicopter.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ "HMS Ocean returns from trials in the west indies". Royal Navy. 11 December 1998.
  2. ^ "Sir Tristram – finally home after hurricane relief operations". Royal Navy. 17 December 1998.
  3. ^ "HMS Sheffield returns from the Baltic sea". Royal Navy. 25 July 2000.
  4. ^ "HMS Sheffield bound for the Caribbean". Royal Navy. 7 February 2001.
  5. ^ "HMS Sheffield deployment update". Royal Navy. 20 June 2001.
  6. ^ "HMS Sheffield to take over role as NATO flagship". Royal Navy. 7 February 2002.
  7. ^ "HMS Sheffield Lynx helps Spanish submarine". Royal Navy. 28 February 2002.
  8. ^ "HMS Sheffield's farewell visit". BBC. 11 October 2002.
  9. ^ "Withdrawal from service of HMS Sheffield". Royal Navy. 9 October 2002.
  10. ^ "HMS Sheffield is decommissioned at Devonport". Royal Navy. 12 November 2002.
  11. ^ "HMS Sheffield is decommissioned". BBC. 4 November 2002.
  12. ^ a b c d Chilean Navy, FF-19 "Almirante Williams", retrieved 7 December 2023

References

  • HMS Sheffield Type 22 Frigate (Batch 2A) guide. Directorate of Public Relations (Royal Navy). Printed in UK for HMSO by Roman Press Ltd, Bournemouth. Crown Copyright 1994, London.
  • Devonport Navy Days guide 1999

Further reading

  • Lofthouse, Alistair (1998). Shiny Sheff – The Story of Sheffield's Fighting Ships. Northern Map Distributors.
    ISBN 1-901587-03-7
    .     .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Sheffield (F96).
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