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Royal Navy - Guided Missile Frigate F 229 HMS Lancaster |
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| 02/26 | ||
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Type,
class: Guided Missile Frigate; Type 23 / Duke class;
Gerneral Purpose (GP) variant Builder: GEC Marconi Marine (YSL), Scotstoun, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. STATUS: Ordered: September 1986 Laid down: December 18, 1987 Launched: May 24, 1990 Commissioned: May 1, 1992 Decommissioned: December 6, 2025 Fate: awaiting disposal Namesake: Dukedom (Duchy) of Lancaster Ships Motto: Difficulties Be Damned Technical Data: see INFO > Duke / Type 23 class Guided Missile Frigate |
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                                                    Mark 8 Mod.1 gun fire  GWS 35 Sea Ceptor Vertical Launching System / VLS (32 cells) for CAMM SAM missiles  GWS 35 Sea Ceptor Vertical Launching System / VLS (32 cells) for CAMM SAM missiles  hangar with one Merlin helicopter |
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HMS Lancaster (F 229): HMS Lancaster is a Duke class Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched by Queen Elizabeth II on 24 May 1990 and is known as "The Queen's Frigate", the Duke of Lancaster being a subsidiary title of the Sovereign. Being the third ship in the Type 23 class, Lancaster was originally allocated the pennant number F232 until it was realised that the 232 is the Royal Navy report form for groundings and collisions and therefore considered unlucky. She is one of the few stag ships left in the fleet, she has some female officers but the mess decks are men-only. It is quite common when she has returned from long operations that she is flown over by the Avro Lancaster bomber which is part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby. Operational history: Lancaster has been involved in anti-drug operations in the Caribbean, but also delivered Vice Admiral Adrian Johns in 2009 to his new post as Governor of Gibraltar. In February 2010 Lancaster was deployed in waters off the Horn of Africa as part of Combined Task Force 150, tackling piracy, drug-running, people trafficking, arms smuggling, and other criminal and terrorist threats. In September 2010 Lancaster had a major refit at Portsmouth; she returned to sea in early 2012 and returned to active service in Spring 2013. The £17.9m contract covered upgrades to communications, the Sea Wolf and command systems, the installation of a 30mm remote-operated gun and a transom flap. Both shafts were replaced, four refurbished diesel generators installed and new paint applied to the hull. The accommodation, galley and dining halls were all refurbished at the same time. Half the crew returned to the ship in October 2011, under the command of Lt Cdr Charlie Guy until Cdr Steve Moorhouse takes over in November 2011. Although the top speed of the Duke class is commonly quoted as 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), the caption of an official Navy photo suggests that Lancaster was capable of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) even before her mid-life refit; the transom flap can add up to 1 knot (1.9 km/h; 1.2 mph) to the top speed of a Type 23, and the Intersleek anti-fouling paint added 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) to the top speed of Ark Royal. In July to August 2013, she was on a counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean, seizing a massive 680 kg haul of cocaine with an estimated street value of £100 million after sailors and an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment boarded a speedboat near Puerto Rico. On 23 March 2015, Lancaster became the first ship in the Royal Navy to deploy with the navy's new uniform and Wildcat helicopter. The crew of the Lancaster gathered on the deck of the vessel to spell the word sister, as a present from the Royal Navy, on the birth of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge on 2 May 2015. Lancaster participated the 200 year celebrations of Napoleon arrival on St Helena after his capture at the Battle of Waterloo on the 12th to the 16th of October 2015 along with RFA Gold Rover. In 2015, the ship visited Algiers for three days for official receptions and a short spell of training with ships in the Algerian Navy, including the Algerian amphibious transport dock Kalaat Béni Abbès. She arrived back in the UK on 17 December 2015. Upon her return to the UK, Lancaster entered a period of "extended readiness" in Portsmouth awaiting refit in 2017. Lancaster departed Portsmouth on 31 March 2017 under tow for Plymouth. Lancaster underwent a life extension refit (LIFEX) at HMNB Devonport from 2017 to 2019 which included fitting of the Artisan 3D radar, Sea Ceptor anti-air missiles and strengthening the backbone of the ship. The ship arrived back to its Home Port, HMNB Portsmouth, in December 2019. The ship was returned to operations in July 2020. In August 2022, it was reported that in preparation for her planned deployment to the Persian Gulf to replace HMS Montrose, Lancaster had been fitted with a full complement of eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Lancaster sailed for the Gulf on August 15 on a deployment starting with NATO exercises in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Once reaching the Persian Gulf, she was expected to remain forward deployed until 2025 with her crew being rotated every four months. Late in the month, Lancaster was diverted, at least temporarily, to shadow the Russian cruiser Marshal Ustinov and the destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov as they manoeuvred in the vicinity of the British Isles. Lancaster arrived in the Gulf in November 2022 and a crew swap was performed in December. It was announced in February 2025 that Lancaster had deployed the Peregrine UAV for the first time during anti-narcotics operations in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman; this followed a period of maintenance at Bahrain which included the replacement of a diesel generator and upgrades to weapon systems and sensors. In October 2025, a Royal Marine sniper from 42 Commando, embarked on the ship's Wildcat helicopter, disabled a drug-smuggling skiff in the Gulf of Oman, contributing to the interception of the vessel and drugs said to be worth £35 million. In November it had been reported that HMS Lancaster was to return to the U.K. in advance of her planned decommmissioning. However, it was subsequently indicated that instead she would be decommissioned and disposed of in Bahrain. On December 5, 2025 the Royal Navy announced that HMS Lancaster had arrived into Bahrain for the final time after 34 years of service. She was greeted by a 34-gun salute and the Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines deployed from HMS Collingwood in Fareham. source: wikipedia |
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There were three creations of the Dukedom of Lancaster. The first creation was on 6 March 1351, for Henry of Grosmont, 4th Earl of Lancaster, a great-grandson of Henry III; he was also 4th Earl of Leicester, 1st Earl of Derby, 1st Earl of Lincoln and Lord of Bowland. He died in 1361 and the peerage expired. The second creation was on 13 November 1362, for John of Gaunt, 1st Earl of Richmond, who was both the 1st Duke's son-in-law and also fourth son of King Edward III. John had married Blanche of Lancaster, 6th Countess of Lancaster, daughter of Henry Grosmont and heiress to his estates. When John of Gaunt, the 1st Duke of this creation died on 4 February 1399, the Dukedom passed to his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, 1st Duke of Hereford. Later that same year, the new 2nd Duke usurped the throne of England from Richard II, ascending the throne as Henry IV, at which point the Dukedom merged in the crown. The third creation was on 10 November 1399, for Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, eldest son of the new king. In 1413, the 1st Duke ascended the throne as King Henry V, and the Dukedom merged in the crown again. The Duchy of Lancaster continues to exist as a separate entity from the Crown Estate and currently provides income for the British monarch. It is customary at formal dinners in the historic county boundaries of Lancashire and in Lancastrian regiments of the armed forces for the Loyal Toast to the crown to be announced as "The Queen, Duke of Lancaster." In addition, in Lancaster it was quite common as late as the second half of the twentieth century to hear the national anthem sung as "God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Duke," but this is a tradition that has no constitutional warrant, and the British monarch is not styled legally so within either the County Palatine of Lancashire nor the Duchy of Lancaster in any official capacity (for example, Letters Patent or Acts of Parliament), merely as a sign of local, 'Lancastrian' loyalty. |
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