The Type 81, or Tribal class, was a class

Ship class

A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....

 of seven general-purpose 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"...

s for 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...

 designed during the 1950s that served throughout the 1960s and 1970s with limited service during the 1980s.

History

The Tribals were designed during the 1950s as a response to the increasing cost of single-role vessels such as the Type 14s. They were first such 'multi role' vessels for 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...

. They were designed specifically with colonial 'gunboat' duties in mind, particularly in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

. They were therefore designed to be self-contained warships with weapon and sensor systems to cover many possible engagements, air conditioning to allow extended tropical deployment and such 'modern' habitability features as all bunk accommodation (as opposed to hammocks).

Design

They were the first class of the Royal Navy to be designed from the start to operate a helicopter and the first small escorts to carry a long-range air search 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...

, the Type 965 with a single 'rake' AKE-1 antenna

Antenna (radio)

An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...

. They were armed with two 4.5 inch Mark 5 main guns salvaged from scrapped Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 destroyers. Although these mountings were refurbished with Remote Power Control (RPC) operation, they still required manual loading on an exposed mounting. From the outset they were designed to carry the new GWS-20 Sea Cat anti-aircraft missile system but all except Zulu initially shipped single Mark 7 Bofors

Bofors 40 mm gun

The Bofors 40 mm gun is an anti-aircraft autocannon designed by the Swedish defence firm of Bofors Defence...

 guns in lieu. In the event, budget restraints led to only Ashanti, Gurkha, Eskimo and Zulu being so fitted.

The Tribals were the first modern RN ships designed to use a combination of power sources, a feature which had been trialled with limited success in the 1930s in the minelayer HMS Adventure

HMS Adventure (M23)

HMS Adventure, pennant number M23, was a minelaying cruiser of the Royal Navy built in the 1920s that saw service during the Second World War. Her commander between 1928 and 1929 was the future First Sea Lord John H. D...

. An additive mix of steam and gas turbine called "COmbined Steam and Gas" COSAG was used. This gave the rapid start-up and acceleration of a gas turbine

Gas turbine

A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

 engine coupled with the cruising efficiency and reliability of the steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

. They would cruise on the steam plant and use both systems driving the same shaft for a high-speed "boost". They suffered however from being single-shaft vessels which severely limited manoeuvrability, acceleration and deceleration.

Shortcomings

The costs for the Tribals escalated above the costs first envisaged, and the original order of ships, over twenty, was cancelled after the first seven ships had been completed. The ships were rather small, at 360 ft (110 m), which prevented much modernisation and were always going to be limited by the single-shaft propulsion. The class were still good warships in spite of their low cost, proving the usefulness of the general purpose frigate concept, as perfected in the excellent Type 12M Leander

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...

 class and modern Type 23

Type 23 frigate

The Type 23 frigate is a class of frigate built for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. All the ships were first named after British Dukes, thus the class is also known as the Duke class. The first Type 23 was commissioned in 1989, and the sixteenth, was launched in May 2000 and commissioned in...

 class.

Service

The class served throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s fulfilling their designed general purpose "colonial gunboat" role. When change in British foreign policy made this role redundant they found themselves being pressed into service in home waters in the "Cod Wars"

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....

 of the 1970s. They were not particularly suited to these duties however, as they had a hull form optimised for the calm, shallow water of the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 and with only a single shaft were unable to manoeuvre with the Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic gunboats at close quarters.

All were decommissioned from the Royal Navy during the mid-to-late 1970s with the manpower crisis also attributing to the rapid removal of the class from service. They were however given a brief reprieve by 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...

, with 3 mothballed Tribals (Gurkha, Tartar and Zulu) being reactivated to cover ships deployed to the South Atlantic or undergoing long-term repairs after the conflict. The remaining units were cannibalised for spare parts to enable the 3 ships to be refitted. These ships were sold in 1984 to Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

.

Ships

Pennant Pennant number In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...	Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Accepted into service	Commissioned	Estimated building cost	Fate
F117	Ashanti HMS Ashanti (F117) HMS Ashanti was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was named after the Ashanti people, an ethnic group located in Ghana. Ashanti was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders of Scotstoun...	(a) Yarrow & Co Ltd, Glasgow Scotstoun Scotstoun is a historic district of Glasgow, Scotland, west of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Yoker and Knightswood to the west, Victoria Park, Broomhill and Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Clyde to the south...   (b) Associated Electrica Industries Ltd, Manchester	15 January 1958	9 March 1959	November 1961	23 November 1961	£5,315,000	Sunk as target 1988
F131	Nubian HMS Nubian (F131) HMS Nubian was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was named after the Nubian ethnic group located in Sudan. Nubian was built by H.M. Dockyard . She was launched on 6 September 1960 and commissioned on 9 October 1962....	(a) HM Dockyard, Portsmouth Portsmouth Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...   (b) Associated Electrica Industries Ltd, Manchester	7 September 1959	6 September 1960	November 1962	9 October 1962	£4,360,000	Sunk as target 1987
F122	Gurkha HMS Gurkha (F122) HMS Gurkha was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was named after an ethnic group located in Nepal, and whose people continue to serve in the British Army. Gurkha was built by John I...	(a) JI Thornycroft & Co Ltd John I. Thornycroft & Company John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, usually known simply as Thornycroft was a British shipbuilding firm started by John Isaac Thornycroft in the 19th century.-History:... , Southampton  (b) JI Thornycroft & Co Ltd, Southampton (steam and gas turbines) (b) Parsons Marine Turbine Co Ltd, Wallsend-on-Tyne (gearing)	3 November 1958	11 July 1960	February 1963	13 February 1963	£4,865,000	Indonesian 332 KRI Wilhelmus Zakarias Yohannes
F119	Eskimo HMS Eskimo (F119) HMS Eskimo was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built by J. Samuel White of Cowes. She was launched on 20 March 1960 and commissioned on 21 February 1963....	(a) JS White & Co Ltd J. Samuel White J. Samuel White was a British shipbuilding firm based in Cowes, taking its name from John Samuel White . It came to prominence during the Victorian era... , Cowes, Isle of Wight Cowes Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...   (b) JS White & Co Ltd, Cowes, Isle of Wight (steam and gas turbines) (b) Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, Glasgow (gearing)	22 October 1958	20 March 1960	February 1963	21 February 1963	£4,560,000	Sunk as target 1986
F133	Tartar HMS Tartar (F133) HMS Tartar was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy . She was named after an ethnic group , most of whom were located in Asia and Eastern Europe.Tartar was built by Devonport Dockyard...	(a) HM Dockyard, Devonport 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...   (b) Vickers-Armstrongs (Engineers) Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness (steam turbines and gearing) (b) Yarrow and Co Ltd, Glasgow (gas turbine)	22 October 1959	19 September 1960	April 1963	26 February 1962	£4,300,000	Indonesian 333 KRI Hasanuddin
F125	Mohawk HMS Mohawk (F125) HMS Mohawk was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was named after a tribe of Native Americans who are located in southeast Canada and New York State. Mohawk was built by Vickers of Barrow-in-Furness. She was launched on 5 April 1962 and commissioned on 29 November 1963...	(a) Vickers-Armstrongs (Shipbuilders) Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...   (b) Associated Electrical Industries Ltd, Manchester (gas turbine) (b) Vickers-Armstrongs (Engineers) Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness (steam turbines and gearing)	23 December 1960	5 April 1962	December 1963	29 November 1963	£4,750,000	Sold for scrap
F124	Zulu HMS Zulu (F124) HMS Zulu was a Tribal-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was the third ship bearing the name of HMS Zulu, having been named after an ethnic group located primarily in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Zulu was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Govan...	(a) Alex Stephen & Sons, Ltd Alexander Stephen and Sons Alexander Stephen and Sons Limited, often referred to simply as Alex Stephens or just Stephens, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Linthouse, Govan in Glasgow, on the River Clyde.-History:... , Linthouse, Glasgow (b) JI Thornycroft & Co Ltd, Southampton (steam and gas turbines) (b) Parsons Marine Turbine Co Ltd, Wallsend-on-Tyne (gearing)	13 December 1960	3 July 1962	April 1964	17 April 1964	£5,100,000	Indonesian 331 KRI Martha Khristina Tiyahahu

The building costs given above are official figures from the Navy/Defence Estimates. Note that Janes Fighting Ships quotes a slightly lower cost for Ashanti of £5,220,000, as against £5,315,000 quoted in the 1962-63 Navy Estimates.