| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Torquay |
| Ordered: | 6 March 1951 |
| Builder: | Harland and Wolff |
| Laid down: | 11 March 1953 |
| Launched: | 1 July 1954 |
| Commissioned: | 10 May 1956 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 March 1985 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1987 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Whitby-class frigate |
| Displacement: | 2,150 tons (2,185 tonnes) 2,560 tons full load (2,600 tonnes) |
| Length: | 360 ft (109.7 m) w/l 370 ft (112.8 m) o/a |
| Beam: | 41 ft (12.5 m) |
| Draught: | 17 ft (5.18 m) |
| Propulsion: | Y-100 plant; 2 Babcock and Wilcox boilers, 2 English Electric steam turbines, 2 shafts, 30,000 shp (22 MW) |
| Speed: | 30 kn (56 km/h) |
| Range: | 370 tons oil fuel, 4,200 nmi (7,780 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 152, later 225 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Armament: |
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HMS Torquay (F43) was a Type 12 Whitby class frigate of the Royal Navy. They were the first frigate to have the "V" form hull. This evolutionary design made it possible to be driven in head sea without the usual slamming which occurs with conventional destroyers of the time. Each frigate cost 3.5 million pounds and the first ship completed was HMS Torquay in May 1956.
HMS Torquay was launched by Lady Monkton on 1 July 1954, and participated in the Suez operation in 1956. In 1958 she was diverted to Tobruk following the assassination of the Iraqi Royal Family.
Between 1967–1973 and 1983–1985 Torquay served as a navigation training ship based in Portsmouth. At an unknown time the ship was refitted with a solid main mast (as opposed to a lattice mast) and a large training navigation room was built where the forward set of triple-barrelled mortars used to be located (leaving one set of mortars). In 1974 she was refitted to undertake trials of CAAIS (Computer Assisted Action Information System). Torquay attended the 1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review off Spithead.
Replaced by the Leander class frigate HMS Juno as the navigation training vessel for the Royal Navy, Torquay paid off on 23 March, 1985. At the time she was the longest serving ship of her class and the oldest frigate in the fleet. She was sold for scrap in 1987 and left Portsmouth on 1 July 1987 to be broken up in Barcelona, Spain.
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