Name HMS Llandaff Ordered 28 June 1951 Commissioned 11 April 1958 Construction started 27 August 1953 Draft 4.72 m | Namesake Llandaff Laid down 27 August 1953 Identification Pennant number F61 Launched 30 November 1955 | |
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Builder Hawthorn Leslie and Company | ||
HMS Llandaff was a Salisbury-class or Type 61 aircraft direction frigate of the British Royal Navy, named after the district of Llandaff in Cardiff, Wales. She was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Hebburn on the River Tyne, being laid down on 27 August 1953 and launched on 30 November 1955.
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Royal Navy service
Llandaff broke away from her moorings in a storm on 1 March 1956 and was damaged by collisions with the cruiser Bermuda, the frigate Russell and a merchant ship before she could be brought under control. Despite this damage, she completed on 11 April 1958, when she was the first ship to be trained by the newly established Flag Officer Sea Training organisation at Portland.
She re-commissioned for the 5th time at Singapore in 1967 and returned to UK waters in September 1968, completing the commission at Devonport in 1970.
Between June and September 1968, Llandaff was in transit from Singapore to the United Kingdom. Her trip home was a 'showing the flag' voyage via the Solomon Islands, Cairns (Australia), Auckland (New Zealand), Fiji, Rotuma, the Gilbert Islands, Honolulu, Monterey (USA), Long Beach for refuelling, transit through the Panama Canal then Barbados with a short stop in Azores for refuelling, then home to Devonport.
Bangladesh Navy service
Llandaff transferred to the Bangladeshi Navy at Royal Albert Dock, London 10 December 1976 and was renamed Umar Farooq. She is still in active service as of March 2014. Umar Farooq was converted into a training ship where officers under-training and sailors get sea time. During her long refit, a female officers' gunroom and heads were installed so that female officers under-training can also be accommodated. In the Bangladesh Navy she undertook flag-showing and training visits abroad, notable among them the goodwill visit to India, Pakistan and Maldives in 1989, participation in the Korean International Fleet Review in 1998 and the 2014 search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. With three other frigates she formed the 7th Frigate Squadron and was stationed in Chittagong, Bangladesh. In 2016 she was sold for scrapping.