HMS Broadsword (F88)

HMS Broadsword was the lead ship and first Batch 1 unit of the Type 22 frigates of the Royal Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Broadsword.

HMS Broadsword in Portsmouth Harbour, 1982
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Broadsword
Operator: Royal Navy
Builder: Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down: 7 February 1975
Launched: 12 May 1976
Commissioned: 4 May 1979
Decommissioned: 31 March 1995
Homeport: HMNB Devonport
Identification: Pennant number: F88
Fate: Sold to Brazil 30 June 1995
Brazil
Name: Greenhalgh
Operator: Brazilian Navy
Identification:
Status: Active
General characteristics
Class and type: Type 22 frigate
Displacement: 4,400 tons
Length: 131.2 m (430 ft)
Beam: 14.8 m (48 ft)
Draught: 6.1 m (20 ft)
Propulsion:
Speed:
  • 18 knots (33 km/h) cruise
  • 30 knots (56 km/h) top speed
Complement: 222
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 1 × Lynx MK 8 helicopters

Construction

Broadsword was ordered from Yarrow Shipbuilders on 8 February 1974 and was laid down at Yarrow's Scotstoun shipyard on 7 February 1975. She was launched on 12 May 1976 and commissioned on 3 May 1979.[1]

Royal Navy service

While on sea trials, Broadsword was called into service as the command ship during the large rescue operation required after storms struck the 1979 Fastnet race.[2]

Broadsword in formation with HMS Hermes in 1982

Broadsword took part in the 1982 Falklands War where, on 25 May 1982, she was providing air defence support to HMS Coventry. A technical fault in her Sea Wolf missile system allowed two Argentine Skyhawks to sink the Coventry.[3] Broadsword was hit by one bomb, which bounced up through the helicopter deck and put out of action a Lynx helicopter, before exiting and exploding harmlessly. She subsequently rescued 170 of the sunken Coventry's crew. She shot down one IAI Dagger of FAA Grupo 6 and shared an A-4C Skyhawk kill with HMS Antelope's Sea Cat, land-based Rapiers and Blowpipe SAMs.[4]

Captain G W R Biggs commanded Broadsword between 10 April 1985 and 15 May 1986 and Commander M W G Kerr who commanded between 27 July 1988 and 18 May 1990 both subsequently became flag officers.

In 1993 Broadsword took part in the naval operation in support of Operation Grapple (Yugoslavia), in the Adriatic Sea. Upon completion on 8 July 1993, a fire broke out in the aft auxiliary machinery room. This resulted in the deaths of two on-watch engineers; LMEM(M) Mark Hunter, age 30, and MEM(M) Roy Ware, age 22.[5]

She was decommissioned on 31 March 1995 and was sold to the Brazilian Navy on 30 June 1995 and renamed Greenhalgh.

References
  1. Prézelin and Baker 1990, p. 711.
  2. Rousmaniere, John. "Fastnet, The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing". Norton (1993). ISBN 978-0-393-30865-5
  3. Hart Dyke, David. Four Weeks in May: The Loss of "HMS Coventry". Atlantic Books (2007). ISBN 978-1-84354-590-3
  4. "List of Argentine Aircraft Destroyed". Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  5. "Two killed in frigate fire". The Independent. London. 9 July 1993. Retrieved 12 August 2010.

Publications


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