16 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2008
630
● The Atlantic sunset gives Chatham’s grey hull a
The mighty
golden hue Picture: PO(Phot) Flo Foord, DPR(N)
at ’em
Quiberon Bay .................. 1759
Dardanelles ................1915-16
Battle Honours
Class: Type 22 frigate, Batch 3
Pennant Number: F87
Motto: Surge et vince (Arise
and conquer)
Based: Devonport
Builder: Swan Hunter, Wallsend
Launched: January 20 1988
Commissioned: May 4 1990
Length: 148m (486ft)
Beam: 14.8m (48ft 6in)
Draft: 6.4m (21ft)
Top speed: 30kts
Range: 4,500 nautical miles at
18kts
Displacement: 4,900 tons
Complement: 250 (can be
increased to 300)
Engines: 2 x Rolls-Royce Spey
gas turbines; 2 x Rolls-Royce
Tyne gas turbines
Weapons systems: Harpoon
surface-to-surface missiles;
fore and aft Seawolf air defence
missile system;
1 x Mk8 4.5in main gun; 1 x
Goalkeeper 30mm automated
IT WILL require the
ship’s company (or their newly- then had the pleasure of ‘top-up along the Medway, up and at ’em, captured vessels and transporters. machine-gun; 2 x 20mm close-
training’ from FOST to prepare and promptly converted it into the A fourth rate built in Portsmouth range guns; Seagnat decoy
es
fortitude of 250 men and
adopted mascot, Mighty Mouse,
women to sustain HMS
who recounts his escapades on the the ship’s company for the Gulf; more refined surge et vince. in 1758 earned the ship’s first
launchers
frigate for youngsters) since they since Chatham’s previous spell at
Thirteen previous ships have battle honour, Quiberon Bay, the
Sensors: Type 1007 navigation
Chatham over the coming
returned from a Mediterranean FOST last May more than half the
borne the Chatham name, some following year.
radar; Type 967 and 968
seven months. deployment at the end of sailors aboard had changed.
with distinction, some briefly, but It would be 150 years before
surveillance radars; 2 x Type
And one mouse. November. The FOSTies also wanted to
almost all in the days of sail. another Chatham added a fresh
911 Seawolf tracking radars;
The Type 22 frigate is now in The winter was spent
The Chatham story begins in honour, this time in the shape of a
UAT Electronic Surveillance
see how the ship’s seamanship
the Gulf region for the next five overhauling the war
1666 when a small Dutch galley 1911 light cruiser.
System; Type 2050 active sonar
ship ahead specialists coped with the larger
or so months supporting efforts to
was captured. She saw action in the disastrous
Aircraft: Up to 2 x Lynx
of her Gulf mission, including and more powerful sea boat the
stabilise Iraq and nurture her oil- a tweak to her Seawolf missiles, frigate is now equipped with.
Since then there have been Dardanelles campaign. Post-war
armed with Sea Skua anti-
driven economy by safeguarding the replacement of two engines Until the present Chatham
Chatham sloops, Chatham yachts she was loaned to New Zealand
ship missiles, Stingray anti-
the country’s offshore oil and the addition of the WECDIS came along, there was no motto
– one such yacht had the sad until she was broken up in 1926.
submarine torpedoes, Mk 11
platforms. electronic chart system. for the ship. The sailors borrowed a
duty of carrying Nelson’s body After that the name Chatham
depth charges or machine-guns
Additional features: 1 x 8in
from HMS Victory to Greenwich disappeared for six decades until
There has been little rest for the Thoroughly upgraded, the ship traditional cry from rugby grounds
plastic mouse
Hospital – hulks, survey ships, the current frigate came along.
Facts and figur
HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.49
L/Cpl Walter Parker RM, VC
AT DUSK, the rain lashed the Gallipoli peninsula, Turks charged the position.
gradually fading to a drizzle which persisted all Empson himself was killed and command
night. fell to a Lt Alcock who decided the trench was
The marines filed up the steep slopes, untenable. On May 2, the Royals began to pull
laden with blankets, coats, food, ammunition, out, with Parker overseeing the evacuation of
waterproof sheets and rifles. the wounded.
The eerie holler of Turkish bugles bounced Evacuation was no less fraught with danger
off the ravines. The crack of rifle fire pierced the than had been the trench’s occupation.
night. Showers of mud, kicked up by machine- Walter Parker was again wounded by Turkish
gun bullets striking the gulley parapets, showered fire as he directed the stretcher-bearers – so
the weary men. gravely wounded in fact that he crawled the final
After less than a week of battle, the Australians few yards to safety.
had already given names to various features in The lance corporal never truly recovered from
the Dardanelles terrain: MacLaurin’s Hill, Wire his wounds in Gallipoli and he was invalided out
Gully, Monash Valley and, more ominously, Dead of the Corps a year later.
Man’s Ridge. And it took another year for him to be gazetted
In seizing these points and others from ‘Johnny for Britain’s highest honour; there were few
Turk’, the ANZACs had exhausted themselves. witnesses of his deeds on the turn of April-
Now they were being hauled out of the line May 1915 and many senior officers had been
to rest. In their place came the Royal Naval wounded, so recommendations for awards were
Division. delayed until June 1917.
‘Line’ was a rather grandiose term for the front From his comrades, there was a more personal
at ANZAC Cove: in many places it was little more sign of gratitude: a marble and gilt clock and a
than a series of outposts, whose defenders were cheque.
left to their own devices.
One such outpost was held by 18-year-old Lt R
H W Empson and 60 comrades of the Portsmouth
Battalion, Royal Marines Light Infantry.
They had expected to find trenches. They
found holes barely two feet deep a good 350
yards from their closest comrades. They also
found Johnny Turk determined to dislodge
them.
In the small hours of May 1 1915, Empson sent
word to his superiors: he needed ammunition,
water and medical supplies.
Thirty-three-year-old L/Cpl Walter Parker, a
former foundry worker from Nottinghamshire,
volunteered to lead a party of stretcher-bearers
with the relief mission.
The mission was a disaster. As soon as they
emerged from cover, the marines were cut down
by Turkish fire. Parker remained to care for one
wounded marine while his comrades continued
on to Empson’s outpost.
Come dawn on May 1, Walter Parker decided
to join them. To do so, he had to cross
upwards of 400 yards of open ground strafed
by Turkish rifle and machine-gun fire.
He charged down the slope, was struck
at least twice by enemy bullets, and finally
made the beleagured trench where he
learned that not one of his fellow marines in the
relief party had got through.
Despite his own wounds, the lance corporal
set about treating Empson’s men while the
016_NN_May.indd 1 22/4/08 09:58:12
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  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56