HMS Danae (F47) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

HMS Danae (F47) was a Leander-class

Leander class frigate

The Leander class, or Type 12I frigates, comprising twenty-six vessels, was among the most numerous and long-lived classes of frigate in the Royal Navy's modern history. The class was built in three batches between 1959 and 1973...

frigate of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

(RN). She was, like the rest of the class, named after a figure of mythology

Danaë

In Greek mythology, Danaë was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Eurydice of Argos. She was the mother of Perseus by Zeus. She was sometimes credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium....

. Danae was built by Devonport Dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

. She was launched on 31 October 1965 and commissioned on 10 October 1967.

In 1968, Danae became Gibraltar Guardship and later joined HMY Britannia

HMY Britannia

Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former Royal Yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She was the 83rd such vessel since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. She is the second Royal yacht to bear the name, the first being the famous racing cutter built for The Prince of Wales...

her in South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

to perform Royal escort duties. Danae subsequently undertook a Beira Patrol

Beira Patrol

The Beira Patrol was a blockade of oil shipments to Rhodesia through Beira, Mozambique, resulting from United Nations trade sanctions after Rhodesia declared its independence...

, which was designed to prevent oil reaching landlocked Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

via the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, of which the port of Beira

Beira, Mozambique

Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. It lies in the central region of the country in Sofala Province, where the Pungue River meets the Indian Ocean. Beira had a population of 412,588 in 1997, which grew to an estimated 546,000 in 2006...

there gave its name to the operation. Danae then deployed to the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

, (Visiting Australia, New Zealand & Japan) remaining in that region until the middle of 1969. She then undertook another Beira Patrol

Beira Patrol

The Beira Patrol was a blockade of oil shipments to Rhodesia through Beira, Mozambique, resulting from United Nations trade sanctions after Rhodesia declared its independence...

, (a routine duty for the Royal Navy until it was stopped in 1975) and finally returned to Devonport (Plymouth) in October 1969 - having been on deployment for 12 months.

In 1974, Danae deployed to the Far East

Far East

via South Africa, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The following year, Danae performed a variety of duties while in the North Atlantic including oil-rig and fishery protection. She became a member (later Flagship) of the Standing Naval Force Atlantic (part of NATO), shadowing the Russian Navy's Ocean 75 exercise.

During the 1970s, Danae was one of the Leander class frigate

Leander class frigate

s used as the fictional HMS Hero

HMS Hero

Six Royal Navy ships have been called HMS Hero:, a 74-gun third-rate launched in 1759, a prison ship after 1793, renamed Rochester in 1800, and broken up 1810., a 74-gun third-rate launched in 1803 and wrecked on 25 December 1811, with the loss of all her crew, inside the northern Haaks about five...

for the popular TV drama series Warship

Warship (TV series)

Warship was a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. It was also dubbed into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens...

. The BBC's children's television programme "Blue Peter

Blue Peter

Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...

" did a broadcast of Warship being filmed at Plymouth Dockyard onboard Danae, with Lesley Judd

Lesley Judd

Lesley Judd is an English dancer and TV presenter, best known as a long-serving host of the BBC children's programme Blue Peter. She was educated at the independent Royal Ballet School...

in 1975. Six episodes of Warship

Warship (TV series)

Warship was a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. It was also dubbed into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens...

were filmed aboard Danae around that time.

In 1977, Danae took part in the Royal Navy Fleet Review to celebrate HM the Queen's

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

Silver Jubilee. Danae was placed between her sister-ship HMS Euryalus

HMS Euryalus (F15)

HMS Euryalus was a of the Royal Navy . Like the rest of the class, Euryalus was named after a figure of mythology. Euryalus was built by Scotts Shipbuilders of Greenock...

and HMS Antelope

HMS Antelope (F170)

HMS Antelope was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy that participated in the Falklands War. Her keel was laid down 23 March 1971 by Vosper Thornycroft in Woolston, Southampton, England. Budget costs for this class were £3.5 million but actual costs exceeded £14 million...

. Soon after, Danae commenced her modernisation program, which included the removal of her single 4.5-in twin turret which was replaced by the Exocet

Exocet

The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Hundreds were fired in combat during the 1980s.-Etymology:...

anti-ship missile system, giving Danae a powerful surface capability. The number of Sea Cat missile

Sea Cat missile

Sea Cat was a British short-range surface to air missile system intended to replace the ubiquitous Bofors 40 mm gun aboard warships of all sizes. It was the world's first operational shipboard point-defence missile system and was designed so that the Bofors guns could be replaced with minimum...

s she carried was also increased. The modernisation was completed in 1980.

In 1982, Danae was assigned to NATO's Standing Force North Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT) and was later deployed to the South Atlantic in the tense aftermath of the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

, where she would escort the carrier HMS Illustrious

HMS Illustrious (R06)

HMS Illustrious is the second of three Invincible-class light aircraft carriers built for the Royal Navy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and is affectionately known as "Lusty" to her crew...

. She left later that year. The following year, the ship returned to the South Atlantic to undertake a Falkland Islands patrol, at a time when that region was still very tense. In 1985, Danae made yet another journey to the South Atlantic. In the late 1980s the ship became ever more active with NATO's multi-national squadrons, though she was beginning to show signs of her increasing age. She was decommissioned in 1991 and sold to Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, she was renamed Morán Valverde.

The "Morán Valverde" was decommissioned Oct 2008. In Late 2009 was offered to Sold for Auction.

External links

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