HMS Hecla (A133)

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Career (UK)

Name:	HMS Hecla
Commissioned:	1964
Fate:	Sold 1997
General characteristics
Displacement:	2,800 tons full load
Length:	79 m (259 ft 2 in)
Beam:	15.4 m (50 ft 6 in)
Draught:	4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
Propulsion:	3 × Paxman Ventura V-12 diesel engines
Speed:	11 kn (20 km/h) cruise 14 kn (26 km/h) maximum
Range:	12,000 nmi (22,000 km) at 11 kn (20 km/h)
Complement:	121
Aircraft carried:	1 × Westland Wasp light helicopter

Service record
Operations	Falklands War

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Hecla.

HMS Hecla was the lead ship of the Hecla class, an ocean going survey ship type in the Royal Navy. She was ordered in the mid 1960s, along with her sisters ships HMS Hecate and HMS Hydra. A fourth ship, HMS Herald was completed in the early 1970s. The ship served for thirty years in this role, and various others, before finally being replaced by HMS Scott in 1997. Hecla was sold to private interests, being renamed "Bligh" after Vice-Admiral William Bligh. After this, the vessel was used in a hydrographic survey of Irish waters, and was based in Waterford.

In 1982, Hecla was used as an ambulance ship for the duration of the Falklands War. In this role, she ferried wounded from both sides to the main hospital ship, SS Uganda.