HMS Fife (D20)

HMS Fife
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Fife
Ordered:	26 September 1961
Builder:	Fairfield Shipbuilding
Laid down:	1 June 1962
Launched:	9 July 1964
Commissioned:	21 June 1966
Decommissioned:	June1987
Fate:	Sold to Chile on 12 August 1987
Career (Chile)
Name:	Blanco Encalada
Acquired:	August 1987
Commissioned:	1988
Decommissioned:	12 December 2003
Fate:	Sold for scrap in November 2005
General characteristics
Class and type:	County-class destroyer
Displacement:	6,200 tonnes 6,800 tonnes (full load)
Length:	158.9 m (521 ft)
Beam:	16 m (52 ft)
Draught:	6.2 m (20 ft)
Propulsion:	COSAG (Combined steam and gas) turbines, 2 shafts
Speed:	30+ knots
Range:	3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) at 28 knots (52 km/h)
Capacity:	440-471
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 (removed during refit in 1986) 2× mountings (port & starboard) for Seacat GWS-22 SAM (In Chilean service, the Seacat was replaced by 2× Eight-cell Vertical launching system (VLS) for Barak surface-to-air missiles) 2× triple-tube launchers for shipborne torpedoes
Aircraft carried:	1× Wessex HAS Mk 3 helicopter (In Chilean service, 2× Cougar helicopters )
Aviation facilities:	Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter. (In Chilean service, it was enlarged and expanded for embarkation of two helicopter during refit in 1987)

HMS Fife (D20) was the first unit of the Batch 2 County-class destroyers of the Royal Navy. She had 'B' turret removed and replaced with four Exocet launchers in the mid-1970s. In 1979, Fife provided assistance to the Caribbean island of Dominica after the island was hit severely by Hurricane David. She was under refit during the Falklands War and so did not take part in the conflict.

Refit 1986

In 1986 Fife underwent a refit to convert her into a moving training ship, her Sea Slug missile system being removed. This was completed in June 1986. This created space for extra messdecks and classrooms for officers under training (OUTs). One messdeck still used hammocks and these OUTs are possibly the last men in the Royal Navy to sleep in hammocks; they were told so at the time. In September 1986 she undertook a Dartmouth Training Ship (DTS) deployment (10 countries in 10 weeks) to the Mediterranean returning to Portsmouth early December.

A "hut" was built where the sea slug launcher had once stood, aft of the helicopter pad. This grey box was actually a satellite navigation classroom and attracted much attention from a Russian Kashin class destroyer which regularly "buzzed" HMS Fife for some close quarter photographs . . . no doubt intrigued by the box which did not appear on any pictures of Fife in Jane's Fighting Ships.

Her second DTS deployment in Jan 87 took her via Brest into the Mediterranean, in company with HMS INTREPID. Her final voyage in the Royal Navy was to lead a DTS deployment to North America, in which she and HMS Juno sailed to North America and into the Great Lakes, including a period alongside at Chicago in May 1987. On her return to Great Britain in June 1987 she landed the OUTs at Dartmouth and then proceeded to Portsmouth where she decommissioned.

Sale to Chile

The ship was sold to Chile on 12 August 1987 and renamed Blanco Encalada. She was taken into refit at Talcahuano upon her arrival, and, taking advantage of the removed Sea Slug, Blanco Encalada's deck was extended aft and a new, larger hangar constructed. The rebuild was completed in May 1988. In 1996 she was fitted with the Barak SAM by removing the Sea Cat launchers. Blanco Encalada was decommissioned from the Chilean Navy on 12 December 2003 and was sold for scrap in November 2005.

Chilean destroyer Blanco Encalada gets underway from Valparaiso, Chile, in Exercise TEAMWORK SOUTH '99

See also

• List of ship launches in 1964
• List of ship commissionings in 1966
• List of ship commissionings in 1987
• List of ship decommissionings in 1987
• List of ship decommissionings in 2003

References