HMS Dumbarton Castle (P265)

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HMS Dumbarton Castle (P265) was an offshore patrol vessel of the British Royal Navy. Her main role was the protection of the offshore assets of the United Kingdom, including oil and gas installations and fisheries out to the Template:Convert limit.

She spent much of her time deployed in the South Atlantic as guard ship, patrolling around the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, alternating with her sister ship Template:HMS. Her long association with the Falkland Islands resulted in the ship's company being given permission to add her name to the roll of honour written in white rocks on the hillside opposite Stanley in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Design and construction

The Template:Sclass2 was designed for fisheries protection and oilfield patrol duties in the United Kingdom's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). They were a follow-on to the interim Template:Sclass2 which had been ordered in 1975 when the EEZ was extended to 200 miles, and as a result of initial experience with the Islands, was considerably longer in order to improve seakeeping in heavy seas, with the extra length giving greater speed from the same power as the Islands and allowing a large helicopter deck to be fitted.<ref name="brownp135-6">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="conways47p537">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Dumbarton Castle was Template:Convert long overall and Template:Convert between perpendiculars, with a beam of Template:Convert and a draught of Template:Convert. Displacement was Template:Convert standard and Template:Convert full load. The ship was powered by two Ruston 12RK 320 DM diesel engines rated at Template:Convert (with a maximum sustained power of Template:Convert, driving two shafts fitted with controllable pitch propellers. This gave a speed of Template:Convert. The ship had a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name="cf98p944">Template:Harvnb</ref>

The ship was initially armed with a single Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun,<ref name="jfs85p628">Template:Harvnb</ref> although by 1990 this had been replaced by an Oerlikon 30 mm gun on a DS30B mount.<ref name="cf90p716">Template:Harvnb</ref> The main armament was supplemented by two 7.62 mm machine guns.<ref name="cf98p944"/> A large helicopter deck was fitted aft, suitable for landing a Sea King or Chinook helicopter, but no hangar was provided, as the cost of a permanently embarked helicopter would be more than the cost of the ship.<ref name="brownp136">Template:Harvnb</ref> She was fitted with Type 1006 navigation radar,<ref name="jfs85p628"/> which was supplemented with a Type 994 air/surface search radar in 1986,<ref name="cf98p944"/><ref name="cf90p716"/> together with a UAN(1) electronic intercept system (based on the Orange Crop system fitted to the Royal Navy's helicopters.<ref name="cf98p944"/> The ship had a crew of 6 officers and 39 other ranks, with room for a 25-man detachment of Royal Marines to be carried.<ref name="cf98p944"/><ref group="lower-alpha">Jane's Fighting Ships lists a crew of 50, plus the 25-man Marine detachment.<ref name="jfs85p628"/> The ship had a crew of 52 when she set out on her 1991 deployment to the Falklands.<ref name="nn1091p5"/></ref>

Dumbarton Castle was laid down at Hall, Russell & Company's Aberdeen shipyard as yard number 986 on 25 April 1980 as the second Castle-class patrol vessel.<ref name="cf98p944"/><ref name="clydeship">Template:Cite web</ref> This was in advance of a formal order for the two ships being placed, which did not take place until 8 August that year.<ref name="cf98p944"/> She was launched on 3 June 1981, and was completed on 12 March 1982.<ref name="cf98p944"/>

Service

Dumbarton Castle commissioned at Rosyth on 26 March 1982,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was assigned the pennant number P265.<ref name="cf98p944"/> In April 1982, the Falklands War began when Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April. Dumbarton Castle sailed from her base at Rosyth on 26 April for HMNB Portsmouth to be fitted with additional communications equipment and a desalination plant to better suit her to support the British task force sailing to retake the Falklands. Dumbarton Castle left Portsmouth on 1 May, arriving at Ascension Island on 11 May, where she was employed as a despatch vessel, ferrying stores between Ascension and the Task Force, and between warships of the task force. She returned to Rosyth in August 1982.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Dumbarton Castle was awarded the battle honour "Falkland Islands 1982" for her service in the war.<ref name="nn1091p5"/>

Both Dumbarton Castle and sister ship Template:HMS were employed as guardships for the Falklands as well as for more normal fishery protection duties in home waters.<ref name="conways47p537"/> In August 1991, Dumbarton Castle relieved Leeds Castle at the start of a three-year deployment to the Falklands,<ref name="nn1091p5">Template:Cite news</ref> and from 1998 to 2000, carried out another three year deployment to the South Atlantic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2001, Dumbarton Castle was converted to serve as a command ship for mine countermeasures vessels<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Dumbarton Castle was replaced by the Template:Sclass2, Template:HMS, in 2007, returning to Portsmouth after her last patrol on 22 November that year.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Both Dumbarton Castle and her sister were sold to Bangladesh in April 2010. Dumbarton Castle left Portsmouth on 21 May 2010 towed by the tug Multratug 7, for A&P Group facility in Newcastle upon Tyne for a major regeneration project with her sister ship Leeds Castle. The project was completed in December 2010.

In March 2011, Leeds Castle and Dumbarton Castle were recommissioned as Template:Ship and Template:Ship of the Bangladesh Navy respectively.<ref>[1]Template:Dead link</ref> On 4 August 2020 BNS Bijoy, was damaged in the 2020 Beirut Port Explosions while part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

References

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External links

• Royal Navy site
• A history – the Royal Navy’s Falkland Islands patrol vessels.