KD Hang Tuah

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Mermaid.

KD Hang Tuah
KD Hang Tuah catches the morning sunlight while moored alongside at Pulau Labuan on 15 September 2007
History
Ghana
NameBlack Star
BuilderYarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun
Yard number2284
FateOrder canceled after Kwame Nkrumah deposed in February 1966
United Kingdom
Launched29 December 1966
RenamedHMS Mermaid
Commissioned16 May 1973
FateTransferred to Royal Malaysian Navy in April 1977
Malaysia
NameKD Hang Tuah
NamesakeHang Tuah
AcquiredApril 1977
Decommissioned2018
StatusRetired as 2018 and turned into a museum ship[1]
General characteristics
Type
Type 61 frigate
Displacement2,300 long tons (2,337 t) standard
Length103.5 m (339 ft 7 in)
Beam12.2 m (40 ft 0 in)
Draught4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
Propulsion8 × 16-cylinder ASR1 diesels, 14,400 shp (10,738 kW), 2 shafts
Speed24 knots (28 mph; 44 km/h)
Complement210
Sensors and
processing systems
  • Plessey AWS1 air search radar
  • Decca 45 radars
  • Graseby Type 170B
  • Type 174 hull mounted sonar
  • UA-3 EW intercept
Armament
Aviation facilitiesHelicopter landing platform

KD Hang Tuah is a frigate formerly operated by the Royal Malaysian Navy from 1977 until 2018. She is now a museum ship. She was built in the United Kingdom, originally for the Ghana Navy, but was launched and completed as a private venture, before being purchased by the Royal Navy in 1972. She served for five years as HMS Mermaid (F76) before being purchased by Malaysia, where she replaced another ex-British frigate also called Hang Tuah. She became a training ship in 1992 and was refitted to replace obsolete weapons and machinery.

Development

Hang Tuah was a singleton vessel, originally built for

GBP 5 million. Yarrow decided that the best course was to complete the ship in the hope that she could be sold to another navy; she was launched without any ceremony in December 1966.[2]

The frigate was completed in June 1968 and kept at anchor for several years awaiting a buyer. In 1971, the newly elected

Portsmouth Dockyard and then to Chatham Dockyard, to be refitted to bring her up to operational standards.[3]

Design

The hull and machinery of the ship were based on the British

Type 61 frigates, but modified to suit the requirements of the Ghana Navy. The hull was flush decked; the large quarterdeck could be used to land a helicopter but there were no facilities to operate one. The exhausts from the eight diesel engines
were trunked into a single streamlined funnel.

There were extra accommodation areas in the

QF 4 inch Mk 16 dual-purpose guns, there were four single Bofors 40 mm guns around the upper superstructure, and a Squid anti-submarine mortar mounted aft in a well. Sonar Types 170 and 176 were carried as was a Plessey AWS-1 radar on the foremast and a navigational radar forward of this on a platform.[4]

The ship had a displacement of 2,300 tons as standard, had a maximum speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) and a complement of 177 officers and men in Royal Navy service.[5]

Royal Navy service

She was

Saigon
.

Returning to home waters in 1976,[6] Mermaid was deployed to protect British trawlers off Iceland during the Third Cod War. After a previous ramming incident with the Icelandic gunboat ICGV Óðinn on 12 March, she suffered heavy collision damage on 6 May during aggressive manoeuvring with the patrol boat ICGV Baldur.[7] During a NATO exercise on 20 September 1976, she was involved in a collision with the minesweeper HMS Fittleton that resulted in the Fittleton's sinking and the deaths of 12 personnel, mainly RNR members.[8]

Mermaid's last task before being

paid off was to conduct trials on a moving target indication system that enabled radar to pick out targets moving against the clutter generated by the surface of the sea. Her Royal Navy career of only five years ended in early 1977. She was the last British warship to operate twin 4-inch guns, which had been in service for well over thirty years.[9]

Royal Malaysian Navy service

In April 1977 she was transferred to the Royal Malaysian Navy and commissioned at Southampton on 22 July,[10] and named Hang Tuah after a legendary 15th century Malaccan warrior and Laksamana (admiral). She replaced another Hang Tuah, the ex- HMS Loch Insh, a Loch-class frigate. Although Mermaid took her predecessor's name, the Malaysian Navy retained the British pennant number F76.[11] For a number of years she served as the flagship of the Royal Malaysian Navy after joining Rahmat as the two major assets of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

Hang Tuah became a

Lumut naval base, where she celebrated her 40th anniversary.[13] Hang Tuah was retired in 2018 and turned into a museum ship.[14]

References

  1. ^ "Museum Ship of the Navy - Malaysian Defence".
  2. ^ Marriott, p. 102
  3. ^ Marriott, p. 103
  4. ^ Marriott pp. 102-103
  5. ^ Marriott p. 104
  6. ^ Marriott, p. 103
  7. ISBN 978-1848320437
    .
  8. ^ "Royal Navy casualties, killed and died, 1970-79". Naval-history.net. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  9. ^ Marriott, p. 103
  10. ^ "Ships Monthly". 11–13. 1977: 19. Retrieved 29 September 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ^ Marriott, p. 103
  12. ^ Baker 1998, p. 499.
  13. ^ Abas, Marhalim (8 April 2017). "Armada 2017". www.malaysiandefence.com. Malaysian Defence. Retrieved 2 October 2017. KD Hang Tuah, the grand dame of the fleet will also see its 50th-anniversary [s/b 40th anniversary?] celebrations held at the same time.
  14. ^ "KD Hang Tuah to be turned into naval museum | New Straits Times". 21 November 2018.

Publications
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