Falklands Loss still Recalled

The present RFA Sir Galahad is the second Landing Ship Logistic (LSL) of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary to bear the name.

This year the current vessel took part in the RFA Remembrance Ceremony at Marchwood, particularly remembering the two RFAs Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram lost in the bombing at Fitzroy Cove twenty years earlier during the Falklands Conflict.

RFA Sir Galahad spent the early part of this year employed on freighting runs for the British Army, moving vehicles and equipment between continental ports and Marchwood, with a gap in March and April when she underwent a refit at Liverpool.

September saw the Landing Ship set off in company with HMS Ark Royal and others as part of the Amphibious Task Group, operating with the HNLMS Rotterdam in the Mediterranean in Exercise Destined Glory and the French Exercise Abelia.

With the return of the Argonaut deployment, Sir Galahad returned to her ferrying role between the ports of Europe and Marchwood.

At the end of November, the RFA vessel visited Dartmouth, an event scheduled to coincide with the first RFA Officers Training Course taking place at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

Described as part-landing craft, part 'roll-on roll-off' ferry, the operational role of LSLs is in support of amphibious operations. They are constructed to land troops, tanks, vehicles and other heavy equipment in port or any suitable shore.

Specific design features include bow and stern doors for rapid loading and unloading and a shallow draft so that the entire ship can be beached if necessary.

She also provides an air capability, able to operate helicopters from her two flight decks.

The RFA Sir Galahad that was lost in the Falklands was a 3,270 ton LSL that came onto the scene in 1966. On June 8, 1982, she was fatally attacked by Argentinean bombs in the waters off the Falkland Islands.

The original Sir Galahad was an Admiralty minesweeper trawler of the Round Table class.

Built in 1941 by Hall Russell, after the war she was sold into the merchant service and renamed the Star of Freedom in 1946 and then became the Robert Limrick briefly in 1956 before being lost one year later.

Facts and Figures
Class:	Landing Ship Logistic
Pennant Number:	L3005
Builder:	Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd
Entered Service:	1988
Lloyds classification:	+ 100 A1 +LMC Class 1 RO-RO
Port of registry:	London
Displacement:	8,751 tonnes
Length:	141 metres
Breadth:	19.5 metres
Draught:	4.5 metres
Speed:	14 knots (normal), 17 knots (max)
Complement:	51
Propulsion:	Two Mirrless Blackstone Blackstone diesels; plus one 400hp bow thruster
Designed power:	6,600hp per engine
Landing platforms:	Aft: one spot for Sea King or Lynx; vehicle deck: one spot for Chinook, Sea King or Lynx
Flight deck letters:	GD

(Ship of the Month December 2002)

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