HMS Edinburgh is one of the youngest of the Type 42 destroyers, having been launched at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, on April 14, 1983 and commissioned on December 17, 1985.

She is a Batch 3 'stretched' Type 42, being some 16 metres longer than her older sisters and displaces 4,800 tons fully loaded. Edinburgh has a ship's company of around 300, including 26 officers.

Her completion was delayed by several months to take in modifications as a result of lessons learned in the Falklands War.

The Type 42 destroyer is an air-defence platform, protecting herself and her group against attacks by enemy aircraft and missiles.

Edinburgh is equipped with Sea Dart surface to air missiles, a 4.5in gun, Stingray torpedoes and the Vulcan Phalanx system as a last line of defence.

Her helicopter, a Westland Lynx, also carries Sea Skua anti-ship missiles.

Her combined Rolls Royce gas turbine engines - two Olympus and two Spey - give her a top speed in excess of 30 knots.

'Scotland's Capital Ship' naturally underwent her most recent refit, in the mid-1990s, at Rosyth, just across from Edinburgh, and her first deployment was to the Gulf on Armilla patrol.

1997 saw her mainly around the UK coast, with appearances at Staff College Sea Days, Joint Maritime Course, the Perisher (submarine commanders qualifying course) and visits to Leith and Esbjerg in Denmark.

Part of the following year was spent in the South Atlantic, patrolling the Falklands, making numerous visits to South American ports, and exercising with local navies. In the latter part of 1999 she took part in Exercise Argonaut series in the Mediterranean.

(Ship of the Month July 1998)

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