HMS St Brides Bay (K600)

History

United Kingdom
Name:	HMS St Brides Bay
Namesake:	St Brides Bay
Ordered:	2 May 1943
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	1250
Laid down:	2 May 1944
Launched:	16 January 1945
Completed:	15 June 1945
Commissioned:	June 1945
Decommissioned:	16 December 1961
Identification:	pennant number K600/F600
Honours and awards:	Korea 1950-53
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 1962
Badge:	On a Field White, on a lozenge Blue, surrounded by flames proper, a celestial crown Gold.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Bay-class frigate
Displacement:	1,600 long tons (1,626 t) standard 2,530 long tons (2,571 t) full
Length:	286 ft (87 m) p/p 307 ft 3 in (93.65 m) o/a
Beam:	38 ft 6 in (11.73 m)
Draught:	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Propulsion:	2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines, 5,500 ihp (4,100 kW)
Speed:	19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph)
Range:	724 tons oil fuel, 9,500 nmi (17,600 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement:	157
Sensors and processing systems:	Type 285 fire control radar Type 291 air warning radar Type 276 target indication radar High Frequency Direction Finder (HF/DF) IFF transponder
Armament:	4 × QF 4 inch Mark XVI guns on 2 twin mounting HA/LA Mk.XIX 4 × 40 mm Bofors A/A on 2 twin mounts Mk.V 4 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on 2 twin mounts Mk.V 1 × Hedgehog 24 barrel A/S projector 2 rails and 4 throwers for 50 depth charges

HMS St Brides Bay was a Bay-class anti-aircraft frigate of the British Royal Navy, named for St Brides Bay in Pembrokeshire. In commission from 1945 to 1961, she served in the Mediterranean and Eastern Fleets, seeing active service in the Korean War.

The ship was originally ordered from Harland and Wolff, Belfast, on 2 May 1943 as the Loch-class frigate Loch Achilty, and was laid down on 2 May 1944. However the contract was then changed, and the ship was completed to a revised design as a Bay-class anti-aircraft frigate. Admiralty Job No. J3902 was launched as St Brides Bay on 16 January 1945, and completed on 15 June 1945.

After sea trials St Brides Bay was commissioned for service in the British Pacific Fleet in June 1945. In July she sailed for Malta, but the proposed deployment in the Pacific was cancelled in August and she was reallocated to the 5th Escort Flotilla in the Mediterranean Fleet. There her duties included weather ship and air sea rescue duties in the western Atlantic during U.S aircraft troop repatriation flights in late November 1945, patrol duty in the Aegean, Adriatic, and Red Seas, and periods as Guardship at Alexandria, Trieste, and Aqaba, as well as attachment to the Haifa Patrol, attempting to intercept ships carrying illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine. In May 1948 her pennant number was changed from K600 to F600.

...
Wikipedia