HMS Antrim (D18)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Antrim and Chilean ship Cochrane.

Chilean destroyer Cochrane
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Antrim
Ordered:	5 January 1965
Builder:	Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
Laid down:	20 January 1966
Launched:	19 October 1967
Sponsored by:	Mrs Roy Mason, wife of then Minister of Defence (Equipment), Roy Mason
Commissioned:	14 July 1970
Decommissioned:	1984
Honours and awards:	Falklands War
Fate:	Sold to Chile on 22 June 1984
Career (Chile)
Name:	Almirante Cochrane
Acquired:	June 1984
Decommissioned:	7 December 2006
General characteristics
Class and type:	County-class destroyer
Displacement:	5,440 tonnes (6,850 tonnes full load)
Length:	522 ft (159 m)
Beam:	53 ft (16 m)
Draught:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	COSAG (Combined steam and gas) turbines, 2 shafts
Armament:	2× Fore-mounted twin-gunned turret with 4.5 inch (114 mm) guns Mark N6 (Turret "B" was later replaced by 4× MM38 Exocet missile launchers) 2× mountings for Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 1× Aft-mounted Seaslug GWS.2 SAM (24 missiles) 2× mountings (port & starboard) for Seacat GWS-22 SAM (In Chilean service, the Seacat was replaced by Barak surface-to-air missile system) 2× triple-tube launchers for shipborne torpedoes
Aircraft carried:	1× Wessex HAS Mk 3 helicopter Humphrey
Aviation facilities:	Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter

HMS Antrim (D18) was a County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched on 19 October 1967. In the mid-1970s, the Royal Navy removed 'B' turret and replaced it with four Exocet launchers.

Falklands Conflict

Antrim served in the Falklands War. She was the flagship of Operation Paraquet, the recovery of South Georgia in April 1982. Her helicopter, the Westland Wessex HAS.Mk3, was responsible for the rescue of 16 SAS men from Fortuna Glacier. The aircraft played a key role in the detection and disabling of the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe. Captain Largos, commander of the Argentine forces on South Georgia, signed the surrender document for the Argentine Forces there in her wardroom. Lieutenant-Commander Alfredo Astiz signed a separate document shortly afterwards aboard HMS Plymouth.^{[citation needed]} Whilst supporting the main landing on the Falkland Islands at San Carlos Water, a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb hit Antrim, but did not explode, and she fired her Sea Slug Missile at an Argentine Air ForceA-4 Skyhawk without hitting it.

A name board formerly belonging to her now resides in the Falkland Islands Museum, Stanley.^[1]

Affiliates as HMS Antrim

• Royal Irish Rangers^[2]

As part of her relationship with County Antrim, she carried a piece of the Giant's Causeway mounted in the ship's main passageway, appropriately also named the Giant's Causeway.^[3]

HMS Antrim in 1976.

Transfer to Chilean Navy

Antrim was decommissioned in 1984 and sold to Chile on 22 June 1984. The Chileans renamed her Almirante Cochrane after Thomas Cochrane, who had commanded the Chilean Navy from 1817 to 1822. In 1994 Almirante Cochrane underwent the same refit as her sister ship Blanco Encalada. This entailed removing her Seaslug launcher and extending her deck aft to allow the installation of a new, larger hangar. In 1996 she received the Barak SAM in place of her Seacat launchers.

The Chilean Navy decommissioned Almirante Cochrane on 7 December 2006. On 11 December 2010, she was towed to China for scrap.

Notes

1. ^ HMS Gloucester delivers Task Force South exhibit to Falklands Museum
2. ^ HMS Antrim and the Royal Irish Rangers
3. ^ Navy News - Fact Card - HMS Antrim

References

• Yates, D. (2006) Bomb Alley - Falklands War 1982: Aboard HMS Antrim at War, Pen & Sword Maritime, ISBN 1-84415-417-3

External links

• HMS Antrim Association