Name HMS Alert Completed 24 October 1946 Decommissioned May 1964 Construction started 28 July 1944 Draft 3.89 m | Laid down 28 July 1944 Commissioned October 1946 Launched 10 July 1945 | |
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Builder Blyth Shipbuilding Company | ||
HMS Alert a Bay-class frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was originally laid down as the Loch-class vessel Loch Scamdale, and re-ordered as Dundrum Bay while building. She was completed as Alert, an Admiralty Yacht for command and gunboat diplomacy duties in the Mediterranean and Far Eastern stations.
Contents
Alert was sold to be broken up for scrap in October 1971.
Service history
Alert was commissioned for service on 24 October 1946, and arrived at Singapore, her home port, on 29 November, to join the British Pacific Fleet. She spent the next 18 years carrying out an extensive series of visits to ports in China, Japan, Malaya, Vietnam, Borneo, and the Philippines, as well as being deployed operationally as a frigate in support of anti-insurgent operations during the Malayan Emergency, and taking part in various joint and multi-national fleet exercises.
In late 1951 Alert was temporarily deployed with United Nations Task Group to carry out naval fire support operations off the west coast of Korea.
In October 1952 she sailed to the north-west coast of Western Australia to take part in "Operation Hurricane", the first British atom bomb test. Later, in April 1957 she sailed to Christmas Island as part of "Operation Grapple", Britain's first thermonuclear bomb tests.
In 1958 she visited Japan, attending celebrations marking of 338th anniversary of the foundation of the Japanese Navy by William Adams, the English sailor who, after being shipwrecked in Japan, was credited with introducing western principles of shipbuilding.
In December 1962 Alert was deployed operationally as HQ ship at Brunei after the start of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation (Konfrontasi). Troops and supplies were embarked to support the military operations. The ship also provided a communications link and was occasionally deployed with other ships of the 3rd Frigate Squadron for patrol duty off Borneo.
Alert finally returned to the UK, arriving at Plymouth on 18 May 1964, and was laid up in the Reserve Fleet. In 1971 she was placed on the Disposal List, sold to BISCO for demolition by Thos W Ward at Inverkeithing, and was towed to the breaker's yard in October.