HMS Leeds Castle (P258)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
| |
| Name: | HMS Leeds Castle |
| Operator: | Royal Navy |
| Ordered: | 8 August 1980[1] |
| Builder: | Hall, Russell & Company |
| Laid down: | 18 October 1979 |
| Launched: | 29 October 1980 |
| Sponsored by: | Lady Speed, wife of then Navy Minister Keith Speed |
| Commissioned: | 27 October 1981 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 August 2005 |
| Fate: | Sold to Bangladesh |
| Notes: | To be refitted by A&P Group beginning May 2010 & Completed in December 2010 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Castle class patrol vessel |
| Displacement: | 1,427 tonnes |
| Length: | 81 m (266 ft) |
| Beam: | 11.5 m (37 ft) |
| Draught: | 3.6 m (11 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Ruston 12RKC 5,640 bhp (4.2 MW) diesels, 2 shafts |
| Speed: |
|
| Complement: | 45 (+ accommodation for 25 Royal Marines) |
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | Flight deck can support aircraft up to Westland Sea King-size but has operated Chinook which landed thwartships |
HMS Leeds Castle (P258) was a Castle-class patrol ship built by Hall, Russell & Company of Aberdeen, Scotland for the Royal Navy. She was launched in October 1980 and commissioned the following August. She was involved in the 1982 Falklands War, operating between the British territories of Ascension Island, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands as a dispatch vessel commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Colin Hamilton.
The Leeds Castle spent much time performing fishery protection duties around the United Kingdom, as well as being used as a guard ship in the Falkland Islands. In 2000, Leeds Castle underwent an eight-month refit, returning to the fleet in early 2001.
On 8 August 2005 she returned for the final time to her home base of Portsmouth to be decommissioned after a 24-year career having finished her final deployment as a patrol vessel based in the Falkland Islands. She was relieved in that role by her sister ship HMS Dumbarton Castle (commissioned in 1982) which served in that role until being replaced in 2007 by the new HMS Clyde.
In April 2010 Leeds Castle was sold to Bangladesh along with the sister ship HMS Dumbarton Castle. She left Portsmouth under tow for the A&P Group facility in Newcastle upon Tyne on 14 May 2010, where both ships underwent a major regeneration refit that was completed in December 2010.
In March 2011, Leeds Castle and Dumbarton Castle were recommissioned as the Dhaleshwari and Bijoy of the Bangladesh Navy respectively.[2]
References
- ↑ "Service Men (Rehabilitation): 27 Oct 1981: Hansard Written Answers". TheyWorkForYou. 1981-10-27. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
- ↑