THE NAVY AND ITS CHANGES DURING MY 30 YEAR CAREER 1953-1983

FIGHTING SHIPS OF THE ROYAL NAVY

Note:  Whilst some of the ships covered by this note are clearly fighting ships, the list below included deep sea units only.  The list does not include Gunboats, Monitors, River Gun Boats, Net Layers, Target Towing Vessels, MTB's, Coastal Minesweepers, Depot Sips, Repair Ships, Motor Launches, Motor Minesweepers, Trawlers, Whalers, Boom Defence Vessels, Tenders, Survey Vessels, Cable Layers, RFA's, Royal Yachts, Hospital Ships, Salvage Vessels, Fleet and rescue Tugs, QHM Vessels. BUT click here to see a full list of ships and their callsigns.    See also this link. 

SHIPS OF THE 1950 NAVY.

Ships that were still on the books of the navy whether operational and in commission, on loan to foreign navies, in refit, being repaired, or awaiting their fate anchored up some lonely creek.   
 

                                  COLOUR CODINGS                    LOSSES AND DAMAGE CAUSED BY ACCIDENTS

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  NOTE Vessels having an asterisk after their names denotes that their callsigns began with the Letter 'B' before the change-over at the end of the 1940's. You can see all these B Callsigns in this file RN SHIPS AND SUBMARINES WHICH USED B CALLSIGNS.htm.  Vessels with an # after their names had callsigns beginning with letter 'Q', again until the change over. See THIS FILE for the actual callsigns.

THESE WERE THE SHIPS AND SUBMARINES, WHO, WITH THEIR  SISTER SHIPS AND SUBMARINES WHO DID NOT RETURN AND WHOSE SPLENDID NAMES ARE MISSING FROM MY LIST, FOUGHT THE SECOND WORLD WAR, THE KOREAN WAR AND THE SUEZ WAR.

For those of you who think of ships belonging to  numerical types [Type 22 for example], or named after the first of a class [Leander for example], you might be remotely interested to know how ships in the table above were referred to. 

Some, like the Tribals of the 60's, (where you had to know that the Ashanti, for example, is a tribe of Africans from Ghana, {who were renown warriors [known for the odd human sacrifice now and again], and now artisans and farmers} before you knew she was a member of this class),  all carried names of a common theme.  It was always easy to spot the ships with two names [or three - St Austell Bay and St Brides Bay] because of the word at the beginning or the end of their name.  In the list above, there are 18 Bay-class frigates; 19 Loch-class frigates; 24 Castle-class frigates. Just as easy were the ships whose names all began with the same two letters, e.g., CH etc. These were the CA,CH,CO [etc]-class destroyers. If your military history was good, you would readily pick out the Battle-class destroyers all named after famous battles from Agincourt through to Dunkirk, and the Weapon-class named after weapons like Crossbow etc- there were lots of them.

From now on, things begin to get more complicated.  The Daring-class destroyer was a most handsome type of ship, but not all ships beginning with the letter 'D' were Darings. There are eight Darings on the list with a further four destroyers also beginning with 'D'.

Are you au fait with  rivers, birds, hills, flowers, animals, villages, mythology, etc, because each and every subject was used to name different classes of ships and ocean minesweepers?

When it came to cruisers  it was easier, because there are only 25 of them against the 281 destroyers/frigates listed. The first group [the big boys] were named after Colonies.  Then came the Town-class, if one can call many of our cities towns!  Swiftsure-class, Sirius-class and others brought up the rear.

With just three mine layers, we wont dwell on their names!

As for battleships and aircraft carriers, the former were proudly stated to be 'a 15 inch' or a '16 inch' gunner, whilst the carriers were either described as Fleet,  Light,  or Repair.

Submariners had it the easiest because all they had to remember was the first letter of the name of the boat, which automatically pigeon-hole it.  It didn't matter that Alderney was named after a Channel Island [we didn't have 'G' or 'J' boats so Jersey and Guernsey missed out, and clearly, Sark must have done something wrong] and that Auriga was a constellation [the charioteer] home to Capella, the fourth brightest star in our skies some 42 light-years away [12.92 parsecs].

Of the remaining ships not specifically mentioned here, many have names from everyday speech, such as 'Cheerful' and 'Artful' for example. However, I do wonder about ships named after people!  What of: Michael and Sylvia?

Well, that concludes the story of the ships that were already there when I joined the navy.  What did we build in the 1950's, or complete from keels laid down after the war in the mid to late 1940's?

                 of                             

{MY PEN AND LINE DRAWINGS TO A SCALE OF 1:2290.  PLEASE NOTE THAT THEY ARE SYMBOLIC AND NOT INTENDED TO BE WORKS OF ART! HOWEVER THEIR LENGTHS ARE CORRECT.}

	AIRCRAFT CARRIERS Albion Ark Royal Bulwark Centaur Eagle Ark Royal -full speed ahead
	CRUISERS Tiger [as built]
	CRUISERS Tiger [after conversion] into a Command and Control ship
	DESTROYERS AND FRIGATES Whitby, Blackpool, Eastbourne. Scarborough, Tenby, Puma, Lynx, Leopard, Blackwood, Duncan, Dundas, Exmouth, Grafton, Hardy, Keppel, Malcolm, Murray, Palliser, Pellew, Russell, Salisbury, Llandaff, Chichester.
	SUBMARINES Cachalot, Porpoise, Rorqual, Grampus, Narwhal.
	MINE SWEEPERS Alcaston, Aldington, Appleton, Ashton, Badminton, Belton, Bevington, Blaxton, Boulston, Burnaston, Calton, Carhampton, Castleton. Caunton Chediston, Chilcompton, Chawton, Chilton, Clarbeston, Clyde, Coniston, Crofton, Curzon, Dalswinton, Darlaston, Dartington, Dilston, Dufton, Dumbleton, Edderton, Eessington, Fenton, Fiskerton, Fittleton,  Flockton, Floriston, Glasserton, Hexton, Hickleton, Highburton, Houghton, Ilmington,  Invermoriston, Jackton, Kedleston, Kellington, Kemerton, Kildarton, Killiecrankie, Kilmorey, Laleston, Lanton, Latterston, Leverton, Lullington, Maddiston, Maryton, Mersey, Montrose, Northumbria, Oakington, Oulston, Packington, Penston, Pictpon, Puncheston, Quainton, Rennington, Repton, Rodington, St David, Santon, Sefton, Shoulton, Singleton, Somerlayton, Stratton, Sullington, Swanton, Tarlton, Thames, Thankerton, Venturer, Warsash, Wilkieston, Wiston,  Woolaston, In 1976 the Fittleton manned at that time by RNVR personnel, collided with the frigate Mermaid in the English Channel.  Twelve men lost their lives

	CRUISERS Blake and Lion [as built].	CLICK HERE TO SEE A PICTURE OF HMS BLAKE  I SERVED IN BOTH TIGER AND BLAKE.
	CRUISERS Blake [after conversion] into a Command and Control ship.
	GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYERS [GMD/DLG] Devonshire, Hampshire and London.
	FRIGATES Ashanti, Eskimo, Mohawk and Nubian.
	NUCLEAR SUBMARINES Dreadnought
	CONVENTIONAL DIESEL/ELECTRIC SUBMARINES Finwhale

On into the 1970's then.  Just two ships which were built or completed in the 70's and which were not in service in 1983.  One GMD [more often called a destroyer light guided [DLG]], the Norfolk and the frigate
Mermaid

Click then Point to these chaps & have one on me!                                                   1980 and finally:

Aircraft Carriers

Hermes

Invincible

Illustrious

 

Fearless

Assault Ships

Bristol

Intrepid

Ships brought out of reserve [awaiting scrap] for the 1982 crisis

Gurkha

Tartar

Zulu

Destroyers and Frigates

Antrim

Fife

Glamorgan

		Battleaxe	Brilliant	Brazen		Boxer
Harbour Training Ship
Beaver		Birmingham	Sheffield	Coventry		Glasgow
				Lost in Action Falklands '82		Lost in Action Falklands '82
Exeter Southampton Nottingham Liverpool
Manchester Gloucester
Newcastle Amazon Active Ambuscade Arrow
						Alacrity Avenger Antelope Ardent Aurora
			Lost in Action Falklands '82	Lost in Action Falklands '82
						Euryalus Galatea Arethusa Naiad Dido
						Trials Ship
						Yarmouth Lowestoft Brighton Rothesay Falmouth Berwick Plymouth Rhyl Torquay Londonderry Bacchante Apollo Scylla Ariadne Charybdis Achilles Diomede Andromeda Herione Jupiter Minerva Danae Juno Argonaut Penelope Leander Ajax Cleopatra Sirius Phoebe
						Sea Training Ship
Coastal Mine Warfare Vessels
	Beachampton	Bickington	Bildeston	Bossington		Brecon
Brinton		Brocklesby	Bronington	Cattistock		Chiddingfold
Cottesmore		Crichton	Cuxton	Dulverton		Gavinton
Hubberston		Hurworth	Iveston	Kirkliston		Ledbury
Lewiston		Maxton	Middleton	Monkton		Nurton
Pollington		Shavington	Sheraton	Soberton		Stubbington
Upton		Walkerton	Wasperton	Wolverton		Wotton
Wilton		Yarnton
Patrol Craft
	Alderney	Anglesey	Guernsey	Jersey		Lindisfarne
Orkney		Shetland	Leeds Castle	Dumbarton Castle
Submarines		Revenge	Renown	Resolution		Repulse
Trafalgar		Turbulent	Swiftsure	Sovereign		Superb
Sceptre		Spartan	Splendid	Valiant		Warspite
Churchill		Conqueror	Courageous	Oberon		Odin
Orpheus		Olympus	Osiris	Onslaught		Otter
Onyx		Oracle	Ocelot	Otus		Opossum
Opportune		Walrus	Porpoise	Sealion

It seems strange that any sailor who joined when I left over 20 years ago, will perhaps think of this 1983 navy as I did about the navy of 1950.  If you do, then do bother to put your navy together on a web site.

Yours aye.

© Godfrey [Jeff] Dykes RN 1953-1983

P.S.   In the meantime, keep the power on, and let's go full steam ahead for a good strong navy of the future.