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Ship Born on The Jersey
The Type 42 destroyer is still the Royal Navy's primary
air defence platform, more than 20 years after the first of
the class entered service.
HMS Liverpool was the last of the Batch 2 destroyers - built
at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, she entered service just before
a tranche of modifications was made to the class as a result
of lessons learned in the Falklands War.
She was, however, the first Navy warship to be built under
a revolutionary, faster process, in which the hull was built
in sections and heavy machinery and equipment fitted while
still under cover.
The separate elements were then assembled, and the ship launched
conventionally in September 1980.
Her air-defence systems centre on the tried and tested Sea
Dart missile system, designed to provide area defence for
a group of ships.
In such cases, Liverpool would act as a forward picket, standing
guard in case of air attack against the rest of the task group.
The twin-barrel missile launcher can also be used against
surface targets.
Liverpool also has a 4.5-in gun, which can be used against
air or surface targets, but is also effective in shore bombardment.
Close range defence is provided by a number of smaller-calibre
guns and the Vulcan Phalanx system.
Destroyers can also perform anti-submarine duties.
Using her active sonar system, Liverpool can locate the submarine,
then send up her Lynx helicopter to attack the target with
homing torpedoes.
The Lynx can also deliver Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Cruiser Lost Her Bows in Air Attack
There are seven predecessors to the current HMS Liverpool,
one of which never made it into service.
The first, a 681-ton 40-gun vessel, was launched in July 1741,
and served off the coast of Spain and in the Mediterranean
before being sold in September, 1756.
Early 1758 saw the launch of the second Liverpool, and in
the 20 years before she was wrecked off Long Island in North
America she served in the Channel, the North Sea, Newfoundland
and the Mediterranean.
The third of the name was a Blackwall ship carrying 50 guns,
which appeared in 1814 but was sold eight years later at Bombay.
Liverpool number four was order in mid-1825, but cancelled
before the end of the decade, so the next ship to see service
was a steam frigate, launched in October 1860, and sold 15
years later.
The sixth Liverpool, a second-class cruiser of 4,800 tons,
won the first of the name's Battle Honours.
She served with the Home Fleet from 1910 to 1914, gaining
a honour at Heligoland Bight, and saw out the war in the Adriatic.
The destroyer's immediate predecessor was a 9,400-ton cruiser,
completed a year before the outbreak of war.
In June 1940 she and her squadron conducted a long-range action
with three large Italian destroyers off Greece, sinking one.
However, much of the rest of the war was spent under repair
as the ship was twice seriously damaged by air attacks - her
bows were blown off in October 1940 and, shortly after returning
from the United States, she was holed on the starboard side.
She was finally broken up in 1958.
(Ship of the Month May 2000)
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