HMS Marlborough (F233)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Marlborough and Chilean ship Almirante Condell.

HMS Marlborough in Portsmouth Harbour, 2005
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Marlborough
Operator:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	September 1986
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Laid down:	27 October 1987
Launched:	21 January 1989
Commissioned:	14 June 1991
Decommissioned:	8 July 2005
Motto:	S'en Vat'en Guerre "He Goes to War"
Fate:	Sold to Chile
Badge:
Career (Chile)
Operator:	Chilean Navy
Commissioned:	2008
Renamed:	Almirante Condell
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	'Duke' Class Type 23 frigate
Displacement:	4,900 tonnes
Length:	133 m (463 ft 3 in)
Beam:	16.1 m (52 ft 10 in)
Draught:	7.3 m (23 ft 11 in)
Propulsion:	CODLAG (Combined Diesel-eLectric And Gas) 2 × Rolls-Royce Spey boost gas-turbines 4 × Paxman Valenta diesel engines 2 × GEC electric motors
Speed:	28 knots (52 km/h) 15 knots (28 km/h) on diesel-electric
Range:	7,800 nautical miles (14,400 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	185
Armament:	2 × ASuW Harpoon quad launchers Vertical launch system Sea Wolf missiles 1 × BAE 4.5 inch (110 mm) Mk 8 gun 2 × Oerlikon 30 mm guns 4 × Sting Ray torpedo tubes Seagnat and DFL3 decoy launchers
Aircraft carried:	1 × Lynx HMA8

HMS Marlborough was a 'Duke'-class Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy, and the sixth ship to bear the name. She was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

History

Marlborough was the first naval ship on the scene to assist the stricken USS Cole after she was attacked in Aden, Yemen in October 2000. Marlborough, under the command of Captain Anthony Rix, was on passage to the UK after a six-month deployment in the Gulf and had a full medical detachment on board; when her offer of assistance was accepted she immediately diverted to Aden.

Marlborough played a key role in the second Gulf War, under the command of Captain Mark Anderson.

In July 2004, it was announced that Marlborough would be one of three Type 23 ships to be decommissioned by the end of 2006.

In October 2004 Marlborough again came to the aid of a stricken ally when she was dispatched to assist HMCS Chicoutimi, adrift off the northwest Irish coast and arrived at the scene where RFA Wave Knight and Marlborough's sister-ship Montrose were present. Montrose had been the first ship to make contact with the boat. Other ships were also dispatched, including RFA Argus.

Marlborough has a US Navy officer permanently assigned. Reciprocally, a Royal Navy officer is permanently assigned to the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill.

The 2003 defence cuts committed Marlborough to pay off by March 2006. In June 2005, it was announced that Marlborough would be sold to the Chilean Navy.^[1] The Chilean Navy officially welcomed their new Almirante Condell into the fleet at a Commissioning Ceremony on 28 May 2008. The vessel was the last of three former Royal Navy Type-23 frigates to be handed over to Chile, under a £134 million pound sales agreement arranged by the MOD’s Disposal Services Authority and signed in September 2005. She joins her sister ships in the Chilean Navy, the former HMS Norfolk and former HMS Grafton, handed over in November 2006 and March 2007 respectively.

References

1. ^ "Type 23 signs on for Chilean Navy" (PDF). Preview (Ministry of Defence). May 2007. http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F410D168-EB00-48B8-9E15-4E741F4601F9/0/20070511_Preview_May07.pdf. Retrieved 2007-12-10. 

External links

• Background on HMS Marlborough