PENELOPE HMS (F127) 1963

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a frigate by Vickers Armstrong of Newcastle-upon-Tyne for the Royal Navy.
14 March 1961 laid down.
17 August 1962 launched under the name HMS PENELOPE (F127), Lady Madden christened her. One of the Leander class frigates. She was the ninth vessel in the Royal Navy, which carried the name PENELOPE, named after the mythological character Penelope, the pretty, precious wife of Ulysses.
Displacement 2.380 standard, 2.860 full load. Dim. 372 x 41 x 18ft (draught)., bpp. 360ft.
Powered by English Electric geared steam turbines, 30.000 shp., two shafts, speed 28 knots. Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers. Bunker capacity 450m³ tons.
Armament 2 – 4.5 inch DP guns, 2 – Bofors 40mm AA guns, one Mk 10 AS mortar.
One Westland Wasp helicopter.
Crew 263.
31 October 1963 commissioned. Building cost £4.600.000.

She was laid down under the name HMS COVENTRY one of the Salisbury class type 12 frigates but during building her plans were changed to one of the Leander class.
1963 She joined the 20th Frigate Squadron at Londonderry.
September 1965 got a refit from I March 1966 to use her as a trial ship with the 2nd Frigate Squadron. Her 40mm guns were removed, and the 4.5 gun turret cocooned to protect then from the elements. Till 1972 she was used for three different designs of quiet propellers.
March 1968 visited Hamburg.
June 1969 visited the “Kieler Woche” festival at Kiel, Germany.
1969 Took part in the search and recovery after the crash of the Aer Lingus flight 712 off Tuskar Rock.
September 1970 at Gibraltar she had her propellers removed and was fitted out with pitot rake at the start of underwater noise trials in the Mediterranean. These trials involved being towed by her sister HMS SCYLLA on a one-mile long towing line, with a speed up to 23 knots.
1973 Refitted for trials with the Seawolf missile system, all the original armament was removed. Two deckhouse were fitted on the fight deck, containing the electronics for the firing of the missiles.
1977 Visited Philadelphia and used off Norfolk, Virginia, USA in ‘Seawolf’ firing trials for the benefit of the US and Canadian Navy teams.
December 1977 she was paid off, for a major refit in Devonport. She was fitted out with Exocet, STWS-1, three Seacat launcers, got an enlarged hanger and flight deck for a Lynx helicopter.
22 January 1982 recommissioned.
Before heading for the Falklands, her armament was increased with close-in weapons. She was the last ship of the Falkland Navy forces what was attacked during this war.
During 1983-84 she made three complete deployments in the South Atlantic in about eighteen months.
January 1986 got a refit before heading again in May 1987 to the South Atlantic for patrol off the Falklands.
She participated in Teamwork 1988 in the Atlantic and North Sea during 1988. During this time she came in collision with HMCS PRESERVER, a Canadian auxiliary oil replenishment vessel on 11 September 1988.
The PENELOPE got extensive underwater damage and it took two teams of twenty divers of USS PUGET SOUND 23 hours underwater welding to keep the PENELOPE afloat.
28 October she returned to the U.K. and was repaired by Thew Engineering in Southampton.
From mid-April she worked up at Portland before heading again to the South Atlantic for her sixth deployment there.
April 1990 she returned to the U.K. after visits to South American, the Caribbean and Florida.
December 1990 decommissioned.
25 April 1991 sold to Ecuador and renamed PRESIDENTE ELOY ALFARO (FM 01).
03 May 1991 She sailed from Devonport under her new name.

2005 is given by http;//www.hazegray.org/worldnav/americas/ecuador.htm
Armament only 2 – 40mm guns, her Seacat SAM no longer operational
Crew 223.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands 2004 50p sg383, scott?

Source: many web-sites under which http://www.warships.net/royalnavy/rnshi ... eander.htm
Leander class frigates by Richard Osborne and David Sowdon