HMS Antelope (F170)
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 Antelope's magazines exploding on 24 May 1982 |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 23 March 1971 |
| Launched: | 16 March 1972 |
| Commissioned: | 19 July 1975 |
| Fate: | Sunk by Argentine bomb on 24 May 1982. |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 3,250 tons full load |
| Length: | 384 ft (117 m) |
| Beam: | 41 ft 9 in (12.7 m) |
| Draught: | 19 ft 6 in (5.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | Two Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines, plus two Rolls-Royce RM1A Tyne gas turbines for cruising |
| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h) |
| Range: | 4,000 nautical miles at 17 knots (7,400 km at 31 km/h), 1,200 nautical miles at 30 knots (2,220 km at 56 km/h) |
| Complement: | 177 |
| Armament: | One Mk8 4.5 inch (110 mm) gun Two 20 mm Oerlikon guns Four Sea Cat SAMs Two Corvus chaff launchers One Type 182 towed decoy |
| Aircraft: | One Westland Wasp when built, refitted later for one Westland Lynx |
| Motto: | Audax et vigilans (Daring and watchful) |
HMS Antelope (F170) was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy that participated in the Falklands War. Her keel was laid down March 23, 1971 by Vosper Thornycroft in Woolston. She was commissioned July 17, 1975. She was the only unit of the class never to be fitted with Exocet launchers.
Antelope took part in the Falklands War. On May 23, 1982, while Antelope was on air defence duty at the entrance to San Carlos Water, protecting a beachhead established two days earlier, she came under attack by Argentine A-4 Skyhawk jets.
Two 1100-pound bombs struck the ship on the Starboard side, killing one crewman, Steward Mark R. Stephens. After initial damage control efforts, Antelope proceeded to more sheltered waters so that two EOD technicians from the Royal Corps of Engineers could come aboard and attempt to defuse the bombs. On the fourth attempt to defuse one of the bombs, a time-delay device detonated the weapon, killing Staff Sergeant James Prescott and severely injuring Warrant Officer Phillips, the other member of the EOD team. The ship was torn open from water line to funnel, with the blast starting major fires in both engine rooms which spread very quickly. The starboard fire main was fractured, the ship lost all electrical power, and the commanding officer, Commander Nick Tobin, gave the order to abandon ship. Tobin was the last person to leave the ship, and about five minutes after his departure, the missile magazines began exploding.
Explosions continued throughout the night, and the following day Antelope was found to be still afloat, but her keel had broken and her superstructure melted into a heap of twisted metal. Antelope broke in half and sank that day. TV and stills pictures of Antelope's demise became one of the defining images of the Falklands War and appear repeatedly in histories of the event.
On January 27, 2002, a diving team from HMS Montrose replaced the Naval Ensign on Antelope. The wrecksite is designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act.
Memorial Webpage for SSgt James Prescott: [1]
See HMS Antelope for other ships of the same name.
| Type 21 frigate |
| Amazon | Antelope | Active | Ambuscade | Arrow | Alacrity | Ardent | Avenger |
List of frigates of the Royal Navy |
