HMS Tartar (F133)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	22 October 1959
Launched:	19 September 1960
Commissioned:	26 February 1962
Decommissioned:	29 March 1984
Fate:	Sold to Indonesia 1984. Renamed Hasanuddin
Struck:
Motto:

This is a page about an individual ship, for general information please see: Tribal class frigate

HMS Tartar (F123) was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). She was named after an ethnic group (the Tatars), most of whom were located in Asia and Eastern Europe.

Tartar was built by Devonport Dockyard. She was launched on the September 19, 1960 and commissioned on the February 26, 1962.

Tartar undertook deployments to the West Indies and Far East and in 1968, Tartar deployed to the Persian Gulf, which was, at that time, quiet a tense period for diplomatic relations between the UK and Iran, which was then ruled by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. In 1975, Tartar began a Fishery Protection Patrol in the Barents Sea, and in 1976, Tartar got involved in the Third Cod War during the fishery disputes with Iceland. Tartar was in the thick of it for much of the deployment, with a number of encounters with the notorious Icelandic gunboats, specifically with Tyr, who often got entangled with RN warships and British fishing trawlers during the Cod Wars. On the 1st April, Tartar was rammed twice by Tyr and in May, she further encounters with Iceland's Navy when she was rammed twice by another Icelandic gunboat Aegir.

Later that year, Tartar, while deployed to the West Indies as guardship, began a search for the wreckage of a Cubana DC8-40 passenger plane, which was lost off Barbados after a bomb onboard had exploded. Seventy-three people were killed in the tragic incident. Tartar successfully found the wreckage. In 1977, Tartar, along with many warships from a variety of nations, took part in the last, so far, Fleet Review of the Royal Navy, in honour of HM the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

In 1980, Tartar was placed in Reserve when she joined the Standby Squadron. In 1982, in response to the Falklands War, Tartar was taken out of Reserve, first undertaking a refit before returning to active service, though she would not see action in the Falklands, simply performing a variety of duties in Home Waters, due to the gaps made by the many warships that had joined the Task Force, headed by the aircraft carrier Hermes, for the South Atlantic. In 1984, Tartar decommissioned from the Royal Navy and was subsequently sold to Indonesia. She was renamed Hasanuddin. Hasanuddin remains in service with the Indonesian Navy.

See HMS Tartar for other ships of the name.

Tribal-class frigate

Ashanti | Eskimo | Gurkha | Mohawk | Nubian | Tartar | Zulu

List of frigates of the Royal Navy