HMS Rothesay (F107) was a Rothesay or Type 12I

Rothesay class frigate

The Rothesay class, or Type 12M frigates were a class of frigates serving with the Royal Navy, South African Navy and the New Zealand Navy....

 class anti-submarine

Anti-submarine warfare

Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 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...

.

History

In the spring/summer of 1961 HMS Rothesay was in Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 and was intending to make courtesy calls at ports on the eastern seaboard of the USA but was instead diverted to Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 where she was to stay ready to protect British interests in Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

. On 21 March 1962 she accidentally rammed the Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 Balao class submarine

Balao class submarine

The Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 122 units built, the largest class of submarines in the United States Navy. An improvement on the earlier Gato class, the boats had slight internal differences...

 Gur in the eastern Mediterranean during the NATO exercise "Dawn Breeze".

During two visits to the West Indies (7 months and 11 months) she was at Nassau and filmed for three days to get a 30 second showing in the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film Thunderball

Thunderball (film)

Thunderball is the fourth spy film in the James Bond series starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham...

. A sheet of canvas with a "0" was placed over the "F1" of her pennant number (F107) to read 007. Sean Connery

Sean Connery

Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

 and Claudine Auger

Claudine Auger

Claudine Auger is a French actress best known for her role as Bond girl Dominique "Domino" Derval in the James Bond film Thunderball . She earned the title of Miss France Monde and was also the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.Born in Paris, France, she attended St...

 came on board.

Between 1966 and 1968 Rothesay was refitted in Rosyth

Rosyth

Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....

, Among the improvements the 40 mm gun was replaced with Seacat

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...

 missile system, radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 and communication equipment was updated, accommodation improved and perhaps most significantly a helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

 flight deck

Flight deck

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters and other VTOL aircraft is also referred to as the...

 and hangar

Hangar

A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...

 were added. Although this required the removal of one of the two triple barrelled anti-submarine mortar

Anti-submarine mortar

Anti-submarine mortars are artillery pieces deployed on ships for the purpose of sinking submarines by a direct hit with a small explosive charge. They are often larger versions of the mortar used by infantry and fire a projectile in relatively the same manner...

s, it allowed the Rothesay Class to carry the Westland Wasp

Westland Wasp

The Westland Wasp was a British small first-generation, gas-turbine powered, shipboard anti-submarine helicopter. Produced by Westland Helicopters, it came from the same P.531 programme as the British Army Westland Scout, and was based on the earlier piston-engined Saunders-Roe Skeeter...

 helicopter which was a huge asset for anti-submarine operations. This modernisation was a vast improvement over the Whitby Class

Whitby class frigate

The Type 12 frigates of the Whitby class were a six-ship class of anti-submarine warfare frigates of the Royal Navy that entered service late in the 1950s. They were designed as first rate ocean-going convoy escorts in light of experience gained during World War II...

 and brought the Rothesay class up to the standard of the succeeding 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...

.

On 19 March 1969, together with HMS Minerva

HMS Minerva (F45)

HMS Minerva was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers Armstrong. She was launched on the 19 December 1964, and commissioned on 14 May 1966....

, they landed 315 men of The Parachute Regiment on Anguilla

Anguilla

Anguilla is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin...

 to restore order after the islanders objected to being placed under the government of Saint Kitts

Saint Kitts

Saint Kitts Saint Kitts Saint Kitts (also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island (Saint-Christophe in French) is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean...

.

In 1973 HMS Rothesay undertook Cod War

Cod War

The Cod Wars, also called the Icelandic Cod Wars , were a series of confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic....

 fishery protection patrols.

In 1977 She attended the Silver Jubilee

Silver Jubilee

A Silver Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, ruling anniversary or anything that has completed a 25 year mark...

 Fleet Review with sister ships HMS Plymouth

HMS Plymouth (F126)

HMS Plymouth is a Rothesay class frigate, which served in the United Kingdom Royal Navy from 1959 to 1988. She was named after the English city of Plymouth...

, HMS Berwick

HMS Berwick (F115)

HMS Berwick was a Rothesay or Type 12I class anti-submarine frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was built by Harland & Wolff and launched on 1 June 1961....

 and HMS Brighton

HMS Brighton (F106)

HMS Brighton was a Rothesay or Type 12I class anti-submarine frigate of the British Royal Navy....

.

At the start 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...

, "Rothesay" was in Rosyth under repair after she hit a sea wall in Esjberg, Denmark. During the War in 1982, Rothesay was stationed in the Caribbean.

There were plans to withdraw the ship from service in 1983 but these were abandoned and instead in 1985 she underwent a refit

REFIt

rEFIt is a boot menu and maintenance toolkit for EFI-based machines like the Intel Macs. It can be used to boot multiple operating systems, including triple-boot setups with Boot Camp. It also provides a way to enter and explore the EFI pre-boot environment. The name "rEFIt" is likely a play on the...

 in preparation for her new role in the Dartmouth Training Squadron. She served in this role until she was paid off on 13 March 1988. During her many years of service she clocked up over 800,000 miles. She was sold to Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and was broken up at Santander

Santander, Cantabria

The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. Located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao, the city has a population of 183,446 .-History:...

in 1988.