HMS Arrow (F173)
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Arrow |
Builder | Yarrow Shipbuilders |
Laid down | 28 September 1972 |
Launched | 5 February 1974 |
Commissioned | 28 July 1976 |
Decommissioned | 1 March 1994 |
Identification | Pennant number: F173 |
Motto |
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Fate | Sold to Pakistan on 1 March 1994 |
Pakistan | |
Name | PNS Khaibar |
Acquired | 1 March 1994 |
Status | Ship in active service |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type 21 frigate |
Displacement | 3,250 tons full load |
Length | 384 ft (117 m) |
Beam | 41 ft 9 in (12.73 m) |
Draught | 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
Range | 4,000 nmi (7,408 km; 4,603 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
Complement | 177 |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 1 × Westland Wasp helicopter, later refitted for 1 × Lynx |
HMS Arrow was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy.
Arrow was active during the Falklands War of 1982, where she provided naval gunfire support (NGFS) and rescued most of the surviving crew from HMS Sheffield. She was sold to Pakistan on 1 March 1994 and renamed PNS Khaibar.
Background
Built by
Falklands War service
During the 1982 Falklands War, Arrow was the first British ship to see action when she shelled Argentine positions around Port Stanley airfield on 1 May and the first to be hit by an Argentine Air Force aircraft, sustaining several cannon shell hits to her funnel uptake and other parts of the superstructure. She had one casualty from shell splinters.[2]
On 4 May she assisted in extinguishing the fires and evacuating the crew of the Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield, which had been struck by an Exocet missile, rescuing 225 of the 261 surviving crew. Arrow's captain, Commander (later Captain) Paul Bootherstone was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for this action.[3]
On 6 May Arrow shelled Argentine positions around Fox Bay West Falkland.
On the night of 10–11 May, Arrow lay at the northern end of Falkland Sound, the channel which separates West and East Falkland, whilst her sister ship HMS Alacrity transited it from south to north to assess if the channel was mined. Alacrity left the channel just before dawn and Arrow was waiting to accompany her back to the Task Force when the Argentine submarine San Luis, captained by Fernando Azcueta, fired two SST-4 torpedoes at a range of 5000 yards. One did not leave its tube; the other hit the towed Type 182 decoy.[citation needed]
On 28 May, Arrow provided naval gunfire support to the Second Battalion,
Arrow remained in Bomb Alley (San Carlos Water anchorage) longer than any other ship while receiving temporary repairs to hull cracks by having Seadart lifting beams welded to her upper decks.
On passage east toward
She returned home to Devonport Naval Base on 7 July 1982, welcomed home by the Red Arrows display team, with whom she had an association.[6]
Argentine claim
The silhouette of Arrow, along with the date 1 May, was painted on the side of Argentine Air Force Dagger C-412 along with the silhouette representation of HMS Brilliant and the 21 May, implying a successful action against these vessels. These refer to damage which both ships suffered during the conflict, which may not have been caused by this particular aircraft. Arrow was slightly damaged on 1 May 1982, and HMS Brilliant was damaged by cannon fire on 21 May 1982 outside San Carlos Water. The aircraft was still bearing these silhouettes in November 2005 at the multi-national Exercise Ceibo in Argentina.
By the mid-1980s Arrow was suffering from cracking in her hull. Much of this had first arisen during the Falklands conflict, when engineers were obliged to weld steel plates and girders to parts of the ship where cracks were opening up in the aluminium superstructure.[7] After the war, she was taken in for refitting, with a large steel plate being welded down each side of the ship. At the same time modifications were made to reduce hull noise.
In early 1985, Arrow spent 31⁄2 months as Guardship in the West Indies.[8] The vessel continued in service until 1994, and was decommissioned and removed from the fleet on 1 March that year.
In July 1991, Arrow was returning from a deployment to the South Atlantic when it joined a
Following decommissioning Arrow was transferred to
References
- AirForces Monthly Magazine February 2006, page 61.
- ^ "Deaths: Capt Nicholas John (Nick) Barker". Navy News. 1997. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- ^ British ships lost or damaged - Battle Atlas of the Falklands War 1982 by Land, Sea and Air. NavalHistory.net
- ^ "Captain Paul Bootherstone obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 13 March 2001.
- ^ Referenced in this Archived 16 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine report.
- ISBN 978-1591148128. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
- ^ BBC1 Evening News Wednesday 7th July 1982 - HMS Arrow footage is at 23:50
- ^ These facts are fully referenced, with photographs, by the wartime crew at this location Archived 14 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Arrow Homes in from Windies". Navy News. May 1985. p. 15. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ISBN 978-1591148128.
- ^ D-183 PNS Khaibar
- ^ Referenced at this site.
Publications
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Marriott, Leo, 1983. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983, Ian Allan Ltd, Surrey. ISBN 978-0-7110-1322-3