Name HMS Widemouth Bay Yard number 1259 Commissioned 13 April 1945 Launched 19 October 1944 Builder Harland and Wolff | Namesake Widemouth Bay Laid down 24 April 1944 Decommissioned July 1949 Draft 3.89 m | |
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HMS Widemouth Bay was a Bay-class anti-aircraft frigate of the British Royal Navy, named for Widemouth Bay in Cornwall.
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The ship was ordered from Harland and Wolff at Belfast on 2 February 1943 as a Loch-class frigate to be named Loch Frisa and laid down on 26 April 1944 as Admiralty Job Number J3917. During construction the contract was changed, and the ship was completed as a Bay-class frigate and named Widemouth Bay on 5 October 1944. Launched on 19 October, she was completed on 13 April 1945, the first of her class to be completed.
Service history
After sea trials and training Widemouth Bay sailed in July 1945. She arrived at the Forward Base of the British Pacific Fleet at Manus, Admiralty Islands, in August, just after the Japanese surrender. She remained on the Far East Station, based at Hong Kong, for the next year and a half, supporting post-war repatriation operations, carrying out patrols and escort duties.
In March 1947, along with her sister ships Bigbury Bay, Veryan Bay and Whitesand Bay, she was transferred to Mediterranean Fleet, to reinforce the Palestine Patrol. In September 1948 Widemouth Bay returned to the UK, and was assigned to the Fishery Protection Patrol, operating in the waters around the UK until July 1949, when she was decommissioned and laid up in Reserve at Sheerness.
Widemouth Bay was recommissioned in June 1951 for service in 4th Training Flotilla of the Home Fleet, based at Rosyth, also acting as an escort ship, and taking part in the Coronation Naval Review at Spithead in June 1953. The ship was decommissioned again in September 1953 and put into Reserve at Chatham.
Widemouth Bay was placed on the Disposal List in 1957, and sold to the British Iron & Steel Company (BISCO) for breaking up by Hughes Bolckow. She arrived in tow at the breaker's yard in Blyth on 23 November 1957.