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Baltic Summer For Atherstone
The year 2002 proved a packed one for HMS Atherstone,
one of the eleven Hunt class mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV).
Over the past year, Atherstone has visited no less than ten
foreign ports, taken part in two major multi-national exercises,
been involved in live operations and protected the coastline
of Britain on fishery protection duties.
After her major refit in 2001, propulsion, communications
and accommodation were all upgraded. This work session also
saw the addition of a two-man compression chamber that meant
Atherstone's mine clearance divers can operate in depths of
up to 80 metres.
HMS Atherstone was the first of her class to have a chamber
of this type fitted.
Early in 2002 the MCMV took up duties as part of the On Call
Force, along with visits to Amsterdam and Hamburg.
The summer months saw Atherstone in and around the Baltic
where she took part in Exercises Blue Game and US Baltops
along with other British, European and American ships.
During these exercises, Atherstone took the lead of a four
ship Task Element that included two Polish and one German
MCMV.
Under the Partnership for Peace agreement, HMS Atherstone
with Pembroke, Ramsey and the French ship Orion cleared 150
square miles of seabed off the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda.
This area of the Baltic was mined heavily during World War
II and was later used as a munitions dumping ground during
the Cold War.
This deployment gave opportunities to visit ports in Poland,
Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Norway. Indeed, Atherstone was
part of Russian Navy Days in Archangel where she was open
to the public.
After the summer, the MCMV switched to fishery protection
duties, patrolling the eastern coast of England with standoffs
in Newcastle, Hull and Lowestoft. During her fish duties,
the MCMV got to enjoy fireworks night off the port of Whitby
and watched the town's celebrations.
Atherstone finally returned to her home port of Faslane on
November 29, having spent seven months of the year away from
home.
The present Atherstone is the third Royal Navy ship to bear
the name. The first was an Ascot-class paddle minesweeper
built in 1916 that served in the Firth of Fourth and the Humber
until being paid off in 1924.
The second Atherstone was also a Hunt, but a Hunt-class destroyer.
This was the first of the Type I batch of 1,000-ton destroyers
to be built.
Launched in December 1939, she joined the Orkneys and Shetland
Command based at Scapa Flow and escorted convoys between the
Orkneys and the Clyde.
In the later half of 1940, Atherstone was based in Portsmouth
where she was bombed and severely damaged while escorting
a convoy.
Once repaired, Atherstone returned to the fray once more,
sinking two German coasters off the island of Alderney, escorting
the damaged Warspite, and rescuing the 63 survivors after
the HMS Aldenham had been fatally damaged by a mine in the
Adriatic.
By the end of the war, Atherstone had been reduced to the
status of a reserve ship and was finally broken up in the
Clyde in 1957.
(Ship of the Month January 2003)
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