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FOR a vessel whose name has dubious beginnings, HMS St Albans
has become a warship which has distinguished herself through
the centuries.
Today St Albans is part way through her first deployment,
putting the check on smugglers and terrorists in the Middle
East and Indian Ocean.
But few of her 180 crew probably know the less than auspicious
surroundings which gave her predecessor her title more than
three centuries ago.
The ship takes her name from the bastard son of Charles II
and Nell Gwyn, Charles Beauclerk, the first Duke of St Albans,
who was born barely two decades before the first of six HMS
St Albans served the crown.
That first in line was a fourth rate built in 1687, served
William of Orange the following year and fought in the victory
off Barfleur in 1692. She was wrecked 12 months later in
a storm as she hurried for shelter in Kinsale harbour.
The same fate befell her successor, another 50-gun fourth
rate, in Jamaica in 1744, when a hurricane smashed through
the Caribbean. In her five-year career, the vessel had completed
blockade duties in the war with Spain and successfully ferried
soldiers to the Indies.
Gales seemed to have dogged the name St Albans. Even the
present bearer of the name hasn’t escaped the curse.
In October 2002, a ferry crunched the frigate while she was
berthed in Portsmouth Naval Base, interrupting her training
programme.
But that is in the past. A rejuvenated St Albans came out
of repairs, sailed through operational training and off to
the Middle East in November last year.
The demands of the global war on terror meant that she was
one of the few RN vessels actually at sea on December 25.
Not that that stopped crew enjoying themselves (or munching)...
In fine RN tradition, youngest crewman OM James Edwards,
just 17, swapped places with Commanding Officer Cdr Mark
Knibbs for the day; the flight deck became home to a carol
service; a Naval chaplain conducted Midnight Mass; and officers
served the ranks their Christmas dinner before tucking into
their own meals.
And what a dinner: eight turkeys, 25kg gammon, 25kg beef,
30kg bacon, 6kg stuffing, 400 chipolatas, 50kg spuds, 15kg
sprouts, 15kg carrots, 20 large Christmas puddings, two Christmas
cakes, 300 mince pies, 14 tubs of Quality Street, 12 boxes
of chocolate puddings, 12 boxes of mints, six gallons of
brandy sauce, 10 gallons of gravy and 180 bloated sailors.
Crew were allowed to let their hair down at New Year, when
the ship put into the Seychelles.
The frivolty was a brief let-up in the ceaseless war on terror.
St Albans arrived in the Middle East in late November and
found her patrol patch stretched from the Gulf to the Horn
of Africa.
A team of Royal Marines provide the punch against terrorists
and smugglers moving by sea, leading the boarding party which
inspects suspicious vessels.
There’s also assistance to other seafarers in the region
to offer. St Albans recently came across 34 people – women
and children among them – crammed aboard a barely seaworthy
vessel. The RN team checked over the boat and gave the refugees
supplies to continue their voyage.
It has taken more than three long years to get to this stage.
St Albans hurtled down the slipway at BAE Systems’ yard
in Scotstoun in May 2000.
Her launch brought the curtain down on a decade of building
Type 23, or Duke class, frigates for today’s RN.
The Dukes were originally conceived as Atlantic anti-submarine
hunters for the Cold War which ended as the first two of
the class, HMS Norfolk and Argyll, were entering service.
Instead, the frigates have become the workhorses of the fleet
around the globe, called on to perform defence diplomacy,
gunfire support, anti-smuggling operations as well as their
intended role.
This workhorse role is one the previous St Albans, number
five, would recognise all too well.
Built as the USS Thomas in 1918, the RN acquired her in September
1940 under a deal with the United States, for convoy and
anti-mine duties.
She was then briefly loaned to the Norwegian Navy before
rejoining the RN for duties in the Atlantic and Arctic. Finally,
she was given to the Russians who fittingly renamed her Dostoinyi – Worthy,
a title perhaps due all six St Albans.
(Ship of the Month February 2004)
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