HMS Antrim (D18) | |
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![]() Chilean destroyer Cochrane | |
Career (UK) | ![]() |
Name: | HMS Antrim |
Ordered: | 5 January 1965 |
Builder: | Upper Clyde Shipbuilders |
Laid down: | 20 January 1966 |
Launched: | 19 October 1967 |
Sponsored by: | Mrs Roy Mason, wife of then Minister of Defence (Equipment), Roy Mason |
Commissioned: | 14 July 1970 |
Decommissioned: | 1984 |
Identification: | Pennant number: D18 |
Honours and awards: | Falklands War |
Fate: | Sold to Chile on 22 June 1984 |
Career (Chile) | ![]() |
Name: | Almirante Cochrane |
Acquired: | June 1984 |
Decommissioned: | 7 December 2006 |
General characteristics | |
Class & type: | County-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 5,440 tonnes (6,850 tonnes full load) |
Length: | 522 ft (159 m) |
Beam: | 53 ft (16 m) |
Draught: | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
Propulsion: | COSAG (Combined steam and gas) turbines, 2 shafts |
Armament: |
2× Fore-mounted twin-gunned turret with 4.5 inch (114 mm) guns Mark N6 ("B" Turret was later replaced by 4× MM38 Exocet missile launchers) 2× mountings for Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 1× Aft-mounted Seaslug GWS.2 SAM (24 missiles) 2× Quad mountings (port & starboard) for Seacat GWS-22 SAM (In Chilean service, the Seacat was replaced by Barak surface-to-air missile system) 2× triple-tube launchers for shipborne torpedoes |
Aircraft carried: | 1× Wessex HAS Mk 3 helicopter Humphrey |
Aviation facilities: | Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter |
HMS Antrim was a County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched on 19 October 1967. In the mid-1970s, the Royal Navy removed 'B' turret and replaced it with four Exocet launchers.
Falklands Conflict[]
Antrim served in the Falklands War. She was the flagship of Operation Paraquet, the recovery of South Georgia in April 1982. Her helicopter, a Westland Wessex HAS.Mk3, was responsible for the rescue of 16 SAS men from Fortuna Glacier. The aircraft played a key role in the detection and disabling of the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe. Captain Largos, commander of the Argentine forces on South Georgia, signed the surrender document for the Argentine Forces there in her wardroom. Lieutenant-Commander Alfredo Astiz signed a separate document shortly afterwards aboard HMS Plymouth.[citation needed] While supporting the main landing on the Falkland Islands at San Carlos Water, a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb hit Antrim, but did not explode, and she fired her Sea Slug Missile at an Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawk without hitting it.
A name board formerly belonging to her now resides in the Falkland Islands Museum, Stanley.[1]
Affiliates as HMS Antrim[]
- Royal Irish Rangers[2]
As part of her relationship with County Antrim, she carried a piece of the Giant's Causeway mounted in the ship's main passageway, appropriately also named the Giant's Causeway.[3]

HMS Antrim in 1976.
[]
Antrim was decommissioned in 1984 and sold to Chile on 22 June 1984. The Chileans renamed her Almirante Cochrane after Thomas Cochrane, who had commanded the Chilean Navy from 1817 to 1822. In 1994 Almirante Cochrane underwent the same refit as her sister ship Blanco Encalada. This entailed removing her Seaslug launcher and extending her deck aft to allow the installation of a new, larger hangar. In 1996 she received the Barak SAM in place of her Seacat launchers.
The Chilean Navy decommissioned Almirante Cochrane on 7 December 2006. On 11 December 2010, she was towed to China for scrap.
Notes[]
Publications[]
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
- Yates, D. (2006) Bomb Alley - Falklands War 1982: Aboard HMS Antrim at War, Pen & Sword Maritime, ISBN 1-84415-417-3
External links[]
The original article can be found at HMS Antrim (D18) and the edit history here.