HMS Orkney (P299)

HMS Orkney was an Island-class patrol vessel of the Royal Navy. In 2000 she became TTS Nelson of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. In 2016, the vessel was sold for scrap.

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Orkney
Namesake: Orkney Islands
Builder: Hall, Russell & Company, Aberdeen
Yard number: 972[1]
Launched: 29 June 1976
Sponsored by: Lady Troup, wife of Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland
Commissioned: February 1977
Fate: Sold to Trinidad and Tobago October 2000
Trinidad and Tobago
Name: TTS Nelson
Identification: Pennant number: CG20
Fate: Sold for scrap 2016
General characteristics
Class and type: Island-class patrol vessel
Displacement: 1,250 long tons (1,270 t) standard
Length: 195 ft (59 m) o/a
Beam: 36 ft (11 m)
Draft: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion: 1 shaft, 1 diesel, 4,380 hp (3,266 kW)
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h)
Range: 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 11 knots (20 km/h)
Complement: 35
Armament: 1 × Bofors 40 mm gun Mark III

Construction and British service

Orkney was built by Hall, Russell & Company in Aberdeen, launched on 29 June 1976 and commissioned in February of the following year. She was modelled on the ocean-going fishery protection vessels Jura and Westra. As part of the Fishery Protection Squadron, along with her sister ships, she patrolled the waters around the UK (sometimes also Gibraltar) providing protection for Britain's fishing grounds, as well as providing oil]and gas platform protection. In 1978, Orkney coordinated the clean-up operation after the tanker Christos Bitas ran aground in the Irish Sea.[2] She helped co-ordinate the search for survivors from the trawler Ocean Monarch off Fair Isle, in 1980 and recovered many of the bodies when the freighter Radiant Med sank off Guernsey in 1984.[2]

In 1993 she became involved in a fishing dispute with France around the Channel Islands. Paid off in April 1999, she was laid up at Portsmouth Dockyard.[3] Following decommissioning, her bell, name board and honours board were presented to Orkney Islands Council.[4]

Trinidad and Tobago service

In 2000 she was sold to the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force and renamed TTS Nelson. During her residency at the Coast Guard's headquarters in Chaguaramas, she saw little naval service as she experienced mechanical and structural problems due to her age at the time. After sixteen years under ownership by the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force she was sold for scrap in 2016 upon the Coast Guard's reception of her replacement, TTS Nelson II.

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References
  1. "Orkney". Aberdeen Built Ships. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
  2. "Farewell to the Island Class". Navy News. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  3. Jeremy Olver. "Island Class Offshore Patrol Vessels". Royal Navy Postwar. Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  4. Brian Flett (4 May 2000). "Rear Admiral hands over HMS Orkney artefacts". The Orcadian.
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