E Coast R.N. Named Ships

[northeast]

Here's an interesting local connection, the photos on the TyneTugs page show her as EASTLEIGH with a wire on a steamer that reads as TAXIARCHIS. There was a vessel of that name wrecked on Lundy Island in 1931 but the background does not suggest that as the location, although EASTLEIGH was based at Bristol from 1924. This leads me to conclude that it's likely to be 'our very own' TAXIARCHIS which carried that name from 1931, and perhaps in a spot of trouble at one of the Bristol Channel ports, her gear seems to match from what we can see of it.
http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=167190&vessel=CALDY

[Hornbeam]

It is indeed a strange twist of fate when Ships built locally travel around the World and end up wrecked locally, I remember her well, she was quite a sight, I was ChEng on TCC No2 which was also Blair Engined and had Left Handed Main Stops which took a bit of getting used too when Main Stops are normally Right Handed (Clockwise To Close) due to a Heat Bridge. The T.E. Itself was a superb piece of Engineering.
As far as I remember those on the Ships Bridge thought that the flashing Belisha Beacon on the Esplanade was a Buoy, some time afterwards a shield was affixed to the Seaward side of the Beacon.
The Tug concerned is a finely proportioned Tug.

[northeast]

As I could only recall TAXIARCHIS as she was high on the beach in the famous 'New Pavilion' photo, I assumed she had been driven over West Scar and up the beach as one event. Only recently I learned that she was high-and-dry on the outer edge of the Scar, as shown in a photo on Wrecksite, and was then brought up to the beach for the purpose of scrapping her.
https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?169462

[Hornbeam]

I always thought like yourself it was the one event and of course with most Greek Shipping losses a whiff of “ It’s an old ship no cargo, it’s an Insurance Job”.
Curious about the wrecking on Lundy Island, was that a previous vessel with the same name?, looking at the photographs the profile of the vessel on the rocks doesn’t look like the vessel on Redcar Beach.
The latest story I have heard was there was a lot of “Fret” about and a Female walking her dog heard a lot of grinding noises coming from the sea which. I can understand if the vessel was doing around 8kts drove across the rocks ripped the bottom out of her and end up quite high up the Beach with the following days wave action pushing her Parallel with the shoreline.
I wonder if there is an accident report on her somewhere.
Still an unforgettable sight/site for any child.
I was always interested in the American Aircraft left on the Island’s in the South Pacific and as a first tripper considered sailing with Bank Line, the downside was you could find yourself wrecked there on a pile of Coral waiting for another Bank Line vessel float by!!

[E28]

An armistice with Turkey was signed on board HMS Agamemnon at Fort Mudros, Lemnos, in the captain's after cabin at 8.45 pm Greenwich time 30th october 1918, effective the 31st, 1 month after that signed with Bulgaria and just prior to that with the Austro Hungarian empire, leaving only the armistice with Germany amongst the Central Powers to conclude hostilities when on 11th november leaving Humber and assorted British warships in the Gulf of IIzmid/t enforcing the Ottoman deal. The demise of each empire would have repurcussions still felt to this day, additionally Russia was divided, the whites needing outside support. Humber remained behind while Mersey and Severn briefly ventured up the Danube before withdrawal and then the trio were towed back to Britain when only Humber was to see further service in 1919 with a tow to north Russia and extensive operations against the reds along the Dvina river with other RN shallow draft gunboats but not shallow enough as the river levels dropped so low she had to land all her guns bar the forward twin 6" which she still mounted. A messy affair which saw all RN warships withdrawn, at least those that were'nt sunk or expended. 1919 was a costly year with the attendant pandemic claiming as many lives the Great War had. This Russian escapade is the reason you may see some dates for the conflict 1914-1919, not 1918.

What can you do with a shallow draft gunboat surplus to requirements, why not convert her into this...

which the Dutch shipbreaker Frank Rijsdijk thought was a grand plan with huge benefits. Firstly she was well maintained, low mileage, well at least using her own machinery which in turn meant she was self propelled, had loads of deck space for landing broken and twisted metal and once the entire 6" gun, magazine/shell rooms were removed a huge capstan was installed whilst the conning tower was a perfect control position and she still floated in shallow water. When and where all this was accomplished is obscure but old Frank knew the ropes, additionally having his thumb in many dykes and British breaking outfits especially Upnor, once he'd fitted a 90 ton crane this well known photo of Humber, where he considerately retained her name, was taken during the salvage of destroyed battleship Bulwark in the Medway july 1935. Her post WW2 history is obscure.

Humber was not the only warship with a crane conversion, here is the US craneship 1, ex battleship Kearsarge BB5...

https://navalhistoria.com/crane-ship-no-1/

We have met four ships named for rivers in recent weeks. Mersey, Severn,Trent, Danube and. No.
There is no river Humber, it is solely an estuary.

[E28]

The options open to the RN post WW2 for a fast effective oceanic anti submarine vessel was fraught with issues, the first being financial. Britain was broke. To counter the increasingly fast and numerous submarines the Soviets could build and in turn deploy extensively needed much more than we had available in the late 1940's.

Let's skip all the toing and froing and get down to the actual outcome where a number of the later war emergency destroyers could be converted utilising their existing machinery, cut down all the superstructure and rebuild as dedicated a/s destroyers, reclassified as frigates. This was the type 15 programme.

Of course we needed to construct new hulls as well. This was a completely new hull form, machinery, weapons, sensors and means of deployment against the new adversary, complementing the type 15's. This new frigate was the type 12, illustrated here in a form many will be familiar with...

Amongst the 3 builders winning contracts for a pair of new type 12's each was Harland & Wolff in Belfast with ship numbers 1472 + 1473, scarceley a yard renowned for constructing such ships for the admiralty but they did not disappoint and 1472 Torquay was first in service on 8 may 1956 beating Cammells name ship Whitby by 2 months. 1473 Blackpool completed the RN's initial six.

Very shortly they would have an additional 3 on their slips, amongst them yard 1590, Berwick. H & W had proved a builder perceived as a commercial specialist could match any of the historic warship builders.

[E28]

In Northern Ireland construction of the type 12 frigate was becoming second nature, here is H & W's ship 1472 Torquay pendant F.43 as built with the skinny upright funnel also utilised in the smaller type 14's ...

the raised forecastle or deckhouse becoming the single instantly recognisable feature and in the pre improved ships housed the generator room between the capstans and fore breakwater, stations 6 - 11 and half, comprising a pair / set of intercooled auxiliary diesel generators of Admralty Paxman type YHAXZ 375 kw @ 900 rpm, dimensions 9' x 5' 8" x 5' 4", weight 7645 lbs each exhausting sideways leaving the buffer and the forecastle party to clean the exhaust stains frequently witnessed.

Construction of 1473 Blackpool impressed more interested parties other than the Admiralty, the next type 12 hull was 1555 for India, Trishul, named for a religious trident and rapid progress was made in the Abercorn yard being launched 18 june 1958 by Mrs Azim Husain with a coconut in a cord bag, albeit 6 weeks late due to a platers strike.

1 day later 1590 was laid down as Berwick with 1591 to follow 10 april '59 as Weymouth. Orders for RN type 12's now totalled 18 hulls with healthy foreign orders achieved amongst a number of ex Empire nations. All employed the same weapons but the most remarkable feature hidden deep within the hull was their machinery, all had 2 sets of the new Anglo Canadian Y.100 steam turbines and its associated plumbing, shared with the Canadians in all their River classes and the RN to Cleopatra, type 14's had 1 set and single screw.

Trishul commissioned in Indian service 13 jan 1960 and was promptly despatched to Portsmouth where upon orders of J N she accompanied the Type 15 Wakeful for the commital of Lady Mountbatten's body 25 february off the Isle of Wight, all film taken of the ceremony at sea is from Trishul. She then sailed for her new home.

Here is Blackpool with new funnel and addition of 12 x 21" anti submarine torpedo tubes with 4 fixed and further aft a rotating pair each sidea loading derrick between, plus the buffer has a job once alongside...well, his forecastle party has.

[Hornbeam]

I joined HMS Eastbourne when new at the Anchorage in Torbay, being of a new design she was not without her problems, we then moved off to do some testing with both Ship and Crew and then into Dartmouth to pick up some “Snotties” and sailed off to show them the new fangled equipment which they may well be using in their future Careers.
Unfortunately the “Pinger” would not fully retract which meant an Emergency Dry Docking at Chatham, she was certainly built for speed but a bit useless against Icelandic Gun Boats.
Eventually the Americans intervened and told us to accept the terms that the Icelanders offered us which were slightly less than those that were offered in the first place. Such is Life.

[Hornbeam]

Further to the above and those who may not know the American intervention was due to the Americans doing a bit of a wobble when Iceland threatened to throw the Allies and their installations particularly RADAR and the following Early Warning Installations off the Island which had been there since WW2, to further add by “Putting Salt into the wound” they also threatened to shake the hand/get into bed with the Devil (Russians) a well used move by others like Malta, India etc etc to get what they want from the West.
The “Settlement” more or less put paid to our Deep Sea Fishing Industry and the loss of jobs attached to same as you know.

[E28]

Berwick was laid down in the Abercorn yard 16 june 1958, the final details being stamped and signed 15 november 1957 in the yard and be the 4th type 12 the Belfast yard would construct. This was now an era of uncertainty in many British yards, losses were frequent with H & W declining prospective buyers advances on a few occasions.

Lady Dunford-Slater named her Berwick 15 december 1959, another late launch, this 3 weeks, due to shipwrights downing tools, then replaced on the same slip 1 march 1960 by ship 1632, the destroyer Kent. Falmouth was launched at Swans on the Tyne same day as Berwick.

Already the type 12 was subject to extensive plans to improve their offensive capabilities with missiles, helicopters, advanced sonars capable of detecting submarines in varying layers by means of towed arrays thereby making them a much more versatile general purpose frigate rather than a specialised anti submarine platform. This was all too late for Berwick and eight of the other type 12's, now designated the modified class to distinguish them from the original half dozen.

Completion was 9 june 1961with trials before hand over and commissioning 28 august when she became a Portsmouth ship with first commission of 19 months in home / med waters as captain of the 5th frigate squadron...

which is denoted on her funnel by the broad black top. The pair of Mk 10 mortars are en echelon with their respective bomb shops either side, loading is horizontal.