Name HMS Clyde Laid down 2005 Construction started 2005 Endurance 21 days 0 hours | Ordered 2005 Commissioned 30 January 2007 Length 82 m Launched 14 June 2006 | |
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Sponsored by Mrs Lesley Dunt, wife of Vice Admiral Sir Peter Dunt (Retired) | ||
HMS Clyde (pennant number P257) is an offshore patrol vessel and is the tenth ship in the Royal Navy to bear the name. She was launched on 14 June 2006 in Portsmouth Naval Base by VT Group shipbuilders in Portsmouth, England, and is the fourth vessel of the River class, with a displacement of 2,000 tonnes and a 30 mm Oerlikon KCB gun in place of the 20 mm gun fitted to Tyne River-class ships.
Operational history
Clyde was the first ship built entirely in Portsmouth Naval base for 40 years and has been constructed alongside the bow and superstructure sections for the new Type 45 destroyers Daring and Dauntless. She was named in a ceremony on 7 September 2006 as she had not received a traditional launching ceremony.
HMS Clyde was commissioned into the Royal Navy in a ceremony at Portsmouth Naval base on 30 January 2007. She and her ship's company went through a rigorous series of trials and safety training before undergoing operational sea training off Scotland.
After being commissioned into active service she was sent to the South Atlantic to relieve HMS Dumbarton Castle as the Royal Navy's patrol vessel in the area based in the Falkland Islands. Unlike predecessors in this role Clyde will stay in South Atlantic waters for the foreseeable future, with a contract in place for her to remain in the Falkland Islands until 2018.
In January 2011, the government of Brazil denied HMS Clyde access to Rio de Janeiro in solidarity with Argentinian claims over the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute, as Uruguay had done with HMS Gloucester the previous September.
On 18 November 2015, HMS Clyde assisted in the rescue of 347 passengers and crew from the cruise ship Le Boreal drifting off the Falkland Islands after an engine room fire. At 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph), it took the ship four hours to reach the ship, which was off the north end of Falkland Sound. Clyde resupplied one of the two larger lifeboats with fuel and took on people from the smaller lifeboats, and then escorted them to Falkland Sound, where they transferred the passengers to Le Boreal's sister ship, L’Austral.
In January 2017, Clyde was dry docked in Simonstown, South Africa for maintenance; her patrol duties were temporarily transferred to survey ship HMS Enterprise.
A parliamentary briefing paper released in October 2016 stated that Clyde will leave service in 2017; however as of February 2017, no official announcement has been made. Clyde is expected to be replaced by a Batch 2 River Class OPV.