View source for HMS Fife (D20)

{{short description|County-class guided missile destroyer of the Royal Navy and Chilean Navy}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2014}}
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{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=HMS Fife (27516079478).jpg
|Ship caption=HMS ''Fife'' at Portsmouth Navy Day, 1980
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United Kingdom
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
|Ship name=HMS ''Fife''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship ordered=26 September 1961
|Ship builder=[[Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company|Fairfield Shipbuilding]]
|Ship laid down=1 June 1962
|Ship launched=9 July 1964
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=21 June 1966
|Ship decommissioned=June 1987
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship honours=
|Ship identification=[[Pennant number]]: D20
|Ship fate=Sold to Chile on 12 August 1987
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship captured=
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=title
|Ship country=Chile
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Chile|navy}}
|Ship name=''Blanco Encalada''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship acquired=August 1987
|Ship commissioned=1988
|Ship decommissioned=12 December 2003
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship honours=
|Ship fate=Sold for scrap in November 2005
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship captured=
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship class={{sclass2|County|destroyer}}
|Ship displacement=*6,200 tons
*6,800 tons (full load)
|Ship length={{convert|158.9|m|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|16|m|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship height= 
|Ship draught={{convert|6.2|m|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship propulsion=COSAG ([[Combined steam and gas]]) turbines, 2 shafts
|Ship speed= 30+ knots
|Ship range= {{convert|3500|nmi|km}} at {{convert|28|kn|km/h}}
|Ship endurance=
|Ship boats=
|Ship capacity=440-471
|Ship troops=
|Ship complement=
|Ship sensors=
|Ship EW=
|Ship armament=
*2 × twin turrets with [[QF 4.5 inch Mk I – V naval gun|4.5 inch (114 mm) guns Mark N6]] (B turret was later replaced by 4 × [[Exocet|MM38 Exocet]] missile launchers)
*2 × mountings for [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon]]
*1 × Twin [[Sea Slug missile#Mark 2 (GWS.2)|Seaslug GWS.2 SAM]] (removed during refit in 1986)
*2 × Quad [[Sea Cat missile#GWS-22|Seacat GWS-22 SAM]] (in Chilean service, the Seacat was replaced by 2 × eight-cell [[vertical launching system]] for [[Barak (missile)|Barak surface-to-air missiles]])
*2 × triple 12.75" torpedo tubes
|Ship armour=
|Ship aircraft=1× [[Westland Wessex|Wessex HAS Mk 3]] helicopter (in Chilean service, 2× [[Eurocopter AS 532|Cougar]] helicopters)
|Ship aircraft facilities=[[Flight deck]] and enclosed [[hangar]] for embarking one helicopter. (In Chilean service, it was enlarged and expanded for embarkation of two helicopter during refit in 1987)
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''HMS ''Fife''''' was the first unit of the Batch 2 {{sclass2|County|destroyer|0}} [[destroyer]]s of the [[Royal Navy]]. She was subsequently sold to Chile and scrapped in 2005.

==Design and construction==
''Fife'' was the first and only British warship to bear the name, for the county of [[Fife]].  She was a Mk.2 Guided Missile Destroyer (GMD, also referred to pre-1975 by its then US Navy/NATO designator DLG (Destroyer, Light, Guided (USN 'Frigate') carrying long range surface to air missiles for area defence; post-1975 DDG, 'destroyer' with similar characteristics).  The Mk.2 designator refers to her primary armament, the [[Sea Slug (missile)|Seaslug Mk.2]] missile.  The weapon had begun development in the early fifties and entered service in the Mk.1 GMDs like {{HMS|Hampshire|D06|2}}.  By modern standards the Seaslug was a huge missile with one sustainer rocket motor and 4 disposable boosters.  The missile used 'beam riding' guidance.  It was launched from a huge twin-rail launcher in the stern and boosted into the guidance beam from the fire direction radar which pointed at the target, a high altitude supersonic attack aircraft.  Once in the beam the missile would fly at supersonic speed to the target where a proximity fuze would detect the target and detonate the continuous rod warhead.

The ship was ordered by the [[Ministry of Defence (1947-64)|Ministry of Defence]] (MoD) on 26 September 1961. The keel was laid on 1 June 1962 by [[Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company|Fairfield Shipbuilding]] and the vessel was launched 9 July 1964. ''Fife'' was commissioned 21 June 1966 with the pennant number D20.

==Royal Navy service==
In 1969, ''Fife'' took part in a group deployment around the world.  She left Portsmouth on 1 April 1970 and sailed to [[Safi, Morocco|Safi]] in Morocco; the first visit by a British warship for over 100 years. Then to [[Lagos]] in Nigeria just at the end of the [[Nigerian Civil War|Biafran War]].  From Lagos to [[Simon's Town]] in South Africa.  The gates of the former British naval base still bore the royal cypher, VR.  From Simonstown, she briefly took part in the [[Beira Patrol]] off the shores of [[Mozambique]] after Prime Minister Ian Smith declared [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence]].  The Beira Patrol was a naval blockade to enforce economic sanctions on the errant regime.  From there she crossed the Indian Ocean and stopped off at the [[NATO]] base on the island of Gan en route to [[Singapore]].  There she spent six weeks in an Assisted Maintenance Period (AMP) before heading for the South China Sea to conduct the first live firings of the Sea Slug Mk.2 area-protection anti-aircraft missile.  The ship had been refitted in Portsmouth to accommodate a larger payload of missiles and this work was completed in Singapore where she took on live missiles.  The trials were partially successful against US targets from bases in the Philippines. One failure was a result of the telemetry beam nutating waveguide breaking off and one booster motor failing to disengage. The missile crashed into the sea about 1 mile into the flight.   After this she went to Hong Kong and [[Kobe]] in Japan for Expo 70, before heading to [[Pearl Harbor]] on Hawaii and then on to [[Long Beach Naval Shipyard|Long Beach]] in California and [[Acapulco]] in Mexico and via the [[Panama Canal]] to Puerto Rico and on to the Mediterranean. She visited Toulon and spent time in Malta and Gibraltar before returning to the UK. Whilst in Hawaii, the Royal Navy abolished the rum issue.  As a result, ''Fife'' became the last ship in the Navy to issue rum by virtue of being the furthest west in the Pacific.  The Hawaiian media came on board and were quite bemused when the ship's senior ratings staged a mock burial at sea, complete with a Piper's Lament provide by the ship's pipe and drum band and pall bearers dressed in black.

Her commanding officer for this voyage was Captain [[David Scott (Royal Navy officer)|David Scott]], who had been the 1st Lieutenant of {{HMS|Seraph|P219|2}} in the Second World War when the submarine executed [[Operation Mincemeat]], a successful deception operation to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily.

''Fife'' had 'B' turret removed and replaced with four [[Exocet]] launchers in the mid-1970s. In 1977 she attended the [[Silver Jubilee]] [[Fleet Review]] and formed part of the 2nd Flotilla.<ref>Official Souvenir Programme, 1977. ''Silver Jubilee Fleet Review'', HMSO</ref>  In 1979 she provided assistance to the Caribbean island of [[Dominica]] after the island was severely hit by [[Hurricane David]], for which she was awarded the [[Firmin Sword of Peace|Wilkinson Sword of Peace]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Ships of the Royal Navy: No. 333: Fife drums up public support|magazine=[[Navy News]] |date=August 1983|page=5|url=https://issuu.com/navynews/docs/198308|access-date=30 December 2018}}</ref> She was under refit from October 1980 to December 1982, and therefore missed the [[Falklands War]]. Changes included replacing the old Wessex helicopter with a [[Westland Lynx]], fitting a satellite communications system and anti-submarine torpedo tubes.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Fife is back with a Lynx|magazine=[[Navy News]] |date=January 1983|page=15|url=https://issuu.com/navynews/docs/198301}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title= Fife's Tartan Army| magazine=[[Navy News]] |date=May 1983|page=31|url= https://issuu.com/navynews/docs/198305 |access-date= 30 December 2018}}</ref> She formally recommissioned  after the refit on 31 March 1983.<ref name="cf86p189">{{Harvnb|Couhat|Baker|1986|p=189}}</ref>

==Refit 1986==
In 1986, ''Fife'' underwent a refit to convert her into a mobile training ship. The removal of her [[Seaslug missile]] system and its large magazine was completed in June 1986, which created space for extra messdecks and classrooms for officers under training. One messdeck still used hammocks and these officers are possibly the last men in the Royal Navy to sleep in hammocks; they were told so at the time. In early September 1986 she undertook a Dartmouth Training Ship (DTS) deployment to the [[Caribbean Sea]] and [[Florida]], returning to Portsmouth in late November. She was accompanied on this deployment by the frigates {{HMS|Diomede|F16|2}} and {{HMS|Apollo|F70|2}}.

A "hut" was built where the Seaslug launcher had once stood, aft of the helicopter pad. This grey box was a navigation training classroom and attracted much attention from a Russian {{sclass2|Kashin|destroyer|1}}, which regularly "buzzed" ''Fife'' for some close quarter photographs.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

Her second Dartmouth Training Ship deployment in January 1987 took her via [[Brest, France|Brest]] into the Mediterranean Sea, in company with {{HMS|Intrepid|L11|2}}. Her final voyage in the Royal Navy was to lead a Dartmouth Training Ship deployment to North America, in which she and {{HMS|Juno|F52|2}} sailed into the [[Great Lakes]]. On her return to Great Britain in June 1987 she landed the officers under training at Dartmouth and then proceeded to Portsmouth where she was decommissioned after 21 years of service.

==Chilean Navy service==
{{other ships|Chilean ship Blanco Encalada}}
[[File:DN-SD-02-01997.jpg|thumb|left|Chilean destroyer ''Blanco Encalada'' gets underway from Valparaiso, during Exercise Teamwork South '99]]
The ship was sold to Chile on 12 August 1987 and renamed ''Blanco Encalada''. She was taken into refit at [[Talcahuano]] on her arrival and, taking advantage of the removed Sea Slug, her deck was extended aft and a new, larger hangar constructed. The rebuild was completed in May 1988. In 1996 ''Blanco Encalada''{{'}}s [[Sea Cat missile|Sea Cat]] launchers were removed and she was fitted with the [[Barak SAM]].

''Blanco Encalada'' was decommissioned from the [[Chilean Navy]] on 12 December 2003 and was sold for scrap in November 2005. She was broken up by Turkish shipbreakers Leyal Gemi Sokum in 2013.

{{clear left}}

==Commanding officers==
Notable commanding officers include [[David Hallifax]] (1973-1975), [[David Eckersley-Maslin|David M Eckersley-Maslin]] in 1975, [[Jeremy Black (Royal Navy officer)|J Jeremy Black]] (1977-1978) and [[Jonathan Tod|Jonathan J R Tod]] (1985-1985).

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{Cite Colledge2006}}
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Couhat|editor1-first=Jean Labayle|editor2-last=Baker|editor2-first=A. D. |title=Combat Fleets of the World 1986/87 |year=1986 |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location= Annapolis, Maryland, USA |isbn=0-85368-860-5 }}
* McCart, Neil, 2014. ''County Class Guided Missile Destroyers'', Maritime Books. {{ISBN|978-1904459637}}

{{County class destroyer}}
{{Chilean destroyers}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fife (D20)}}
[[Category:County-class destroyers of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness]]
[[Category:1964 ships]]
[[Category:Cold War destroyers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:County-class destroyers of the Chilean Navy]]