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HMS Chatham in harbour, 2010
History
UK
Name	HMS Chatham
Operator	Royal Navy
Builder	Swan Hunter
Laid down	12 May 1986
Launched	20 January 1988
Sponsored by	Lady Oswald
Commissioned	4 May 1990
Decommissioned	9 February 2011
Homeport	HMNB Devonport, Plymouth
Identification	list error: <br /> list (help) Pennant number: F87 International callsign: GABL
Motto	list error: <br /> list (help) "Up and at 'em" Latin: Surge et vince
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Type 22 frigate
Displacement	5,300 tons
Length	148.1 m (486 ft 9 in)
Beam	14.8 m (48 ft 6 in)
Draught	6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion	list error: <br /> list (help) 2 × Rolls-Royce Marine Spey gas turbines (high speed) 2 × Rolls Royce Tyne gas turbines (cruising) 2 shafts driving variable pitch propellers with COGAG (Combined gas and gas) gearbox, allowing all four engines to provide power to the drive train.
Speed	list error: <br /> list (help) 18 knots (33 km/h) cruise 30 knots (56 km/h) maximum
Complement	250 (max. 301)
Armament	list error: mixed text and list (help) 2 x Sea Wolf anti air system (Total of 72 Sea Wolf missiles) 2 × Quad Harpoon missile launchers (total of 8 Harpoons) 2 x triple Magazine launched anti-submarine torpedo tubes (total of 36 torpedoes) 1 x 4.5 inch (114 mm) Mk.8 gun 2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns 1 x Goalkeeper CIWS NATO Seagnat Decoy Launchers
Aircraft carried	list error: mixed text and list (help) 2 x Lynx Mk.8 helicopters (but only 1 Lynx in peace time). Armed with 4 x Sea Skua anti-ships missiles 2 x Sting Ray anti-submarine torpedoes 2 x Mk 11 depth charges 2 x Machine guns

HMS Chatham (F87) is a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She has the rare honour of a motto in English; Up and at 'em being the rallying cry of the Medway town football and rugby teams. The motto has subsequently been translated back into Latin as Surge et vince.

History

HMS Chatham joined Operation Sharp Guard to enforce the embargo against the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Her most remarkable action was the capture of the Maltese freighter Lido II, suspected of smuggling fuel to Montenegro. The British frigate was assisting the Dutch frigate HMNLS Van Kinsberger, who stopped the merchant, when three Yugoslav corvettes of the Koncar class challenged the NATO operation and one of them tried to ram HMS Chatham. The corvettes were eventually scared off by the reaction of the British warship, supported by Italian Tornado aircraft which scrambled from an airbase at Gioia Del Colle. The Lido II underwent repairs before being diverted to Italy, because of sabotage to the ship's engine room by her crew. The leaking was contained by an engineer party from HMS Chatham. Seven Yugoslav stowaways were found on board by Leading Marine Engineering Mechanic Smith.

Under the command of Captain Christopher Clayton, she was guardship to the royal yacht HMY Britannia during the withdrawal from Hong Kong in 1997 (and served as the control military operations in the months prior to the handover). In May 2000, Chatham was part of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) sent to the coast of Sierra Leone to oversee the evacuation of British, EU and Commonwealth nationals as part of Operation Palliser, under the captaincy of George Zambellas.

In March 2003 Chatham became the first British warship to fire her guns in anger as part of Operation Telic when she engaged targets on the Al-Faw Peninsula of southern Iraq. Approximately 60 rounds were fired at a variety of targets from her 4.5" gun. In company with HMAS Anzac she remained on station for the following 72 hours at immediate readiness to provide fire support to the troops of the Royal Marines as they advanced up the peninsula.

Chatham deployed from the UK to the Persian Gulf in January and returned in August. During the deployment, in the run up to and the conduct of the invasion of Iraq the ship spent around 90 days at sea continuously in defence watches in the northern part of the Persian Gulf. At times she came very close to hitting mines laid by Iraqi dhows and tugs in the shallow waters to be found in the area.

Chatham hosted the BBC for the television programme Shipmates which charted the life of ordinary sailors in the Royal Navy. In the program Chatham was filmed on active service in the Persian Gulf, whilst on an anti-terrorist mission. The show also covered the Chatham's humanitarian relief efforts off the coast of Sri Lanka after the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004.

On 18 April 2005, Chatham sent a party ashore at Alexandria in Egypt to provide a burial for the recently-uncovered remains of thirty British sailors and officers who had died during or after the Battle of the Nile in 1798.

On 31 October 2006, she visited the town of Chatham, Massachusetts, on her way to Boston.

In 2008 Chatham was responsible for the capture of six tonnes of the 23-tonne narcotic haul seized by the Royal Navy between January and August 2008. As of March 2010, she was the NATO flagship for international naval operations against Somali piracy. On 17 May 2010, Chatham destroyed two pirate boats in the Somali Basin, forcing the pirates to return in the mother ship to Somalia.

On 20 May 2010 Cyclone Bandu disabled a cargo vessel, MV Dubai Moon, and left her drifting off the Somali coast. Before the cargo vessel sank, 23 crew members were rescued by helicopters from HMS Chatham. Due to the recent defence cuts, HMS Chatham arrived in Plymouth for the last time on the 27th of January. The ship was decommissioned in February 2011.

Affiliations

Chatham is affiliated to a number of military and civil bodies:

Ship's Sponsor: Lady Oswald

• 3 Regiment, Army Air Corps
• Medway Council
• Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors
• Chatham Dockyard Historic Trust
• Chatham Dockyard Historic Society
• Royal Naval Association, Chatham
• TS Cornwallis (Medway Town Sea Cadet Unit)
• TS Anson (Dartford and Crayford Sea Cadet Unit)
• TS Sirius (Hayes, Harlington and Southall Sea Cadet Unit)
• 5th Littlehampton Sea Scouts
• 5th Medway Scouts
• King's School Rochester CCF Unit
• Prior Park School (Bath) CCF Unit

References

1. "Royal Navy Bridge Card, February 2009" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-06-20.
2. Royal Navy Major Surface Vessel
3. ^ "Ship background - HMS Chatham at Navy News". Retrieved 2009-06-20.
4. "NATO and WEU ships encounter Yugoslav Navy while preventing violation of UN embargo". Press Release by NATO/WEU force conducting the Operation Sharp Guard in the Adriatic Sea, 1 May 1994. Release 94/13
5. McLaughlin, Rob (2009). United Nations Naval Peace Operations in the Territorial Sea. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 42, note 81. ISBN 90-04-17479-6
6. "BBC Website - Shipmates". Retrieved 2006-10-25.
7. Smith, Tannalee. "30 Members of British Fleet Reburied". Associated Press, 18 April 2005.
8. "Nato warship destroys pirate boats in Somali Basin". BBC. 2010-05-17. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
9. "Devon-based ship saves crew caught in tropical cyclone". BBC News. 22 May 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
10. "Crew Says Farewell To HMS Chatham".
11. "HMS Chatham affiliations - Royal Navy Website". Retrieved 2009-06-20.

External links

• HMS Chatham Commissioning Book (PDF)

v t e Type 22 frigates
Royal Navy	Broadsword Battleaxe Brilliant Brazen Boxer Beaver Brave London Sheffield Coventry Cornwall Cumberland Campbeltown Chatham
Brazilian Navy	Greenhalgh (ex-Broadsword) Dodsworth (ex-Brilliant) Bosísio (ex-Brazen) Rademaker (ex-Battleaxe)
Chilean Navy	Almirante Williams (ex-Sheffield)
Romanian Naval Forces	Regele Ferdinand (ex-Coventry) Regina Maria (ex-London)
Preceded by: Type 21 frigates Followed by: Type 23 frigates
List of frigates of the Royal Navy

v t e Commissioned ships of the Royal Navy
Aircraft carriers	Queen Elizabeth class Queen Elizabeth Prince of Wales
Submarines	Vanguard class Vanguard Victorious Vigilant Vengeance Trafalgar class Triumph Astute class Astute Ambush Artful Audacious Anson
Destroyers	Type 45 Daring Dauntless Diamond Dragon Defender Duncan
Frigates	Type 23 Argyll Lancaster Iron Duke Westminster Richmond Somerset Sutherland Kent Portland St Albans
Amphibious warfare ships	Albion-class LPD Albion Bulwark
Mine counter measures vessels	Sandown class Penzance Pembroke Bangor Hunt class Ledbury Cattistock Brocklesby Middleton Chiddingfold Hurworth
Patrol vessels	Ice patrol vessel Protector River class Severn Tyne Mersey Forth Medway Trent Tamar Spey Archer class Archer Biter Smiter Blazer Puncher Charger Ranger Trumpeter Express Example Explorer Exploit Tracker Raider Pursuer Dasher Cutlass class Cutlass Dagger
Survey vessels	Ocean survey vessel Scott Survey launch Magpie
Miscellaneous	Ship of the line Victory (flagship of the First Sea Lord)

• Active frigates of the United Kingdom
• 1997 in Hong Kong
• 1988 ships
• Type 22 frigates of the Royal Navy