NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2007 5
Take the weather with you...
● Not the Solent in July, but the South Pacifi c... HMS Southampton ploughs through heavy seas bound
for Patagonia on the latest phase of her Pacifi c/South Atlantic deployment
Picture: LA(Phot) Chris Wenham, FRPU Whale Island
IN 1982 it took barely a month for
The exercise ended with a night-time battle
the Corporate task force to reach
reminiscent of Thursday wars off Plymouth,
the Falklands.
with the friends trying to force a merchantman
through a blockade... and the foes trying to
A quarter of a century later it’s taken
stop them.
HMS Southampton nearly three months
From Iquique, Southampton continued
to arrive off the South Atlantic islands,
south to the historic Chilean port of
but then she’s fostering peace not waging
war.
Valparaiso, the last port of call in the
And proof of just how far Britain
Pacific for the Type 42 destroyer before
and Argentina have come since the dark
she entered the Atlantic.
days of the spring of 1982 came off the
In the heart of Valparaiso stands a
Chilean coast as Southampton worked
towering monument to Capitan Arturo
side-by-side with the frigate ARA Robinson
Prat, Chile’s national hero who died
during a fortnight of exercises.
valiantly in the Battle of Iquique. And it
We last caught up with The Saint in the Chilean
was at the foot of this imposing memorial
port of Mejillones as she edged her way down South
that Southampton’s CO Cdr Richard Morris laid a
America’s Pacific coast.
wreath in Prat’s honour, accompanied by a platoon
And it was in Mejillones that the naval forces
of officers and ratings from the destroyer.
mustered for Exercise Teamwork South, run every
Other members of the ship’s company took
two years by Chile’s Navy.
advantage of the visit to Valparaiso to head into the
The first week of the exercise, which is remarkably
hills on horseback, or travelled the relatively short
similar to the Neptune Warrior war games run by the
distance to the capital Santiago.
RN in Scottish waters, saw the French, American,
Whilst Valparaiso’s setting is impressive (as is the
Argentine, Chilean and British sailors bond on the
historic port itself), its beauty pales in comparison
sports fields (although the ‘field’ for the tug-of-war
with the canals of Patagonia.
contest bore a remarkable resemblance to a naval
Rather than round Cape Horn, Southampton
base quayside...)
chose to negotiate 600 miles of waterway which link
Three days of gunnery, anti-submarine and flying
the Pacific and Atlantic.
training off Mejillones ended when the Teamwork
For much of the passage, sadly, the mountains
South force entered Iquique (pronounced e-key-kay,
were obscured by fog and snow storms (perhaps
if you were wondering), paying marks of the respects
apt given the rotten summer back here in Blighty),
to the dead of the Chilean warship Esmerelda, lost in but the weather abated sufficiently for the sailors to
the Battle of Iquique in 1879. spy the cross atop Cape Froward which marks the
Upon departing the port, the warships split into southernmost point on the Americas mainland.
two groups, friend and foe. Southampton teamed up After a 36-hour stop in Punta Arenas, Chile’s most
with Robinson for three days as the duo conducted southerly city, Southampton began to make her way
boarding operations and hunted the Chilean across the South Atlantic for the Falklands to relieve
submarine Carrera. HMS Edinburgh.
Ledbury will cause double trouble
VETERAN minehunter HMS Ledbury has a long time to deploy the device in a towed
been earmarked to test new mine detection loop – and once in the water, it restricts the
kit which will double her fi ghting capacity. movements of the mother ship.
The Navy is investing £5m in what will “The new system will effectively take
effectively be a souped-up Rigid Infl atable the man out of the minefi eld,” explained
Boat crammed with electronic/acoustic Colin Sainsbury, heading mine warfare
wizardry to sweep for mines. technological development at Defence
Controlled by the mother ship, Equipment and Support, which provides
the boat will roam into a suspected new kit for the forces.
minefi eld and send out acoustic and “It will allow the ship to do hunting
magnetic signatures to trick mines into and sweeping at the same time, effectively
thinking that a large vessel, not a RIB, is doubling the ship’s capability.”
above them. Although Ledbury is set to trial the
The new kit, to be built by Atlas-QED device in early 2009, and the aim is for all
in Newport, Wales, is intended to replace the eight Hunts to receive two ‘RIB sweepers’ in
existing Combined Infl uence System (CIS) which is due course, the new equipment is designed so it can
deployed by Hunt-class warships. be used from any parent ship, or even a shore base.
CIS is expensive and it’s also tricky to use; it takes Ledbury’s civic honour, page 13marina
0005_NN_Aug.indd 105_NN_Aug.indd 1 118/7/07 15:27:148/7/07 15:27:14
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48