HMS Aurora (F10)

Aurora post IKARA conversion
History
United Kingdom
Name	Aurora
Builder	John Brown & Company
Cost	£4.65m
Yard number	721
Laid down	1 June 1961
Launched	28 November 1962
Commissioned	9 April 1964
Recommissioned	5 August 1967
Decommissioned	28 April 1987
Refit	Converted to IKARA Batch 1b Leander 4 December 1974 – 27 February 1976 – Chatham Dockyard. Conversion cost £15.58m
Homeport	Chatham
Identification	Pennant number: F10
Motto	Post Tenebras Lux: 'After darkness light'
Fate	Arrived for scrapping 6 September 1990 at Millom, Cumbria
General characteristics
Class and type	Leander-class frigate
Displacement	2,500 tons standard, 2,962 tons full load
Length	113.4 m (372 ft 1 in)
Beam	13.1 m (43 ft 0 in)
Draught	4.5 m (14 ft 9 in)
Propulsion	2 Babcock & Wilcox oil-fired boilers, geared steam turbines, 22,370 kilowatts (30,000 hp), 2 shafts
Speed	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Range	7,400 kilometres (4,600 mi; 4,000 nmi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	260
Sensors and processing systems	Radar: Types 965 (air warning radar removed in batch 1 ships), 992Q, 903, 974/978 Sonar: Types 162, 184, 199
Armament	Initial: 2 × 4.5-inch guns (1 × twin mounting Mk6) 1 × Seacat surface-to-air missile launcher 2 × 20 mm guns (single mountings) 1 × ASW Limbo mortar Batch 1: 1 × Ikara Anti submarine missile launcher 2 × Seacat surface-to-air missile launchers 2 × 40 mm guns - single mountings 2 × triple 324 mm (12.75 in) STWS-1 tubes for Mk 46 and Stingray ASW torpedoes 1 × Limbo ASW Mortar
Aircraft carried	Initial and Batch 1: 1 × Westland Wasp ASW helicopter.

HMS Aurora was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). Like other ships of the class, Aurora was named after a figure of mythology, Aurora being the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Eos.

History

Aurora was built by John Brown & Company, shipbuilders of Clydebank, Scotland. Aurora was launched on 28 November 1962 and commissioned on 9 April 1964.

Aurora became the leader of the 2nd Frigate Squadron in 1964. From 1967 to 1968, Derek Bazalgette served her as Commanding Officer. On 17 April 1968, her Westland Wasp ASW helicopter from 829 Naval Air Squadron crashed off South Africa. It was replaced by an aircraft from HMS Gurkha.

In August 1969, Aurora, together with the American destroyer Macdonough and the French destroyer <i>La Galissonnière</i>, took part in the commemorations at Théoule-sur-Mer of the 25th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France.^[1] From 1970 to 1971, Paul Greening served as her Commanding Officer.

On 19 September 1972, while on patrol near the Faroe Islands during the Second Cod War, Aurora came to the aid of the Icelandic fishing vessel Jon Eiriksson that had caught fire, rescuing the five-person crew of the fishing vessel with the frigate's helicopter.^[2] Soon after this incident, Aurora underwent modernisation which included the addition of the Ikara anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missile launcher that in effect changed the Batch One ships, of which Aurora was part, into a specialised ASW batch rather than its original role as a general-purpose batch. The modernisation was completed in 1976.

In 1978, Aurora joined the Fishery Protection Squadron, undertaking patrols and other duties in support of British fishing interests around the UK. She remained with the squadron until she was eventually transferred to the 7th Frigate Squadron, which was stationed in the Far East, just as the RN presence in that region was being reduced.

Further duties were undertaken by Aurora across the world and in 1982 she took part in the Armilla Patrol and in 1983 was deployed to the Far East, Australia and New Zealand during the Royal Navy's 'Orient Express' deployment along with HMS Invincible, HMS Rothsay and other RN Ships.

However in 1987, due to defence cuts, as well as manpower shortages, a common problem for the RN at that time, Aurora was decommissioned.

References

• HMS Aurora (Clydebuilt Ships Database) (Retrieved February 2010)
• 1967–1969 Ship's Logs. National Archives, Kew

Publications

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Marriott, Leo, 1983. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983, Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 07110 1322 5

This page was last edited on 20 November 2023, at 14:26