Military Wiki
Military Wiki
Island-class patrol vessel
AlternateTextHere
MY Steve Irwin before being renamed and painted black.
Class overview
Builders: Hall, Russell & Company
Operators: Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom Royal Navy (retired)
Naval Ensign of Bangladesh Bangladesh Navy (active)
Ensign of the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (retired)
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (active)
Succeeded by: Castle Class
In commission: 1976–2004
Completed: 7
General characteristics
Displacement: 1,000 tons (standard)
1,280 tons (full load)
Length: 195 ft (59 m) (overall)
Beam: 36 ft (11 m)
Draft: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion: 1 shafts, 2 diesel, 4,380 hp (Ruston-Paxman) Variable pitch propeller.
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h)
Range: 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 11 knots (20 km/h)
Complement: 35
Sensors and
processing systems:
Type 1006 Radar
Simrad RU sidescan sonar
Armament: 1 × Bofors 40 mm gun Mark III, replaced by 1 × 30mm gun in some ships

The Island-class patrol vessel was first designed and built for the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency. As a result of the Royal Navy's experiences in the so-called Cod War with Iceland, and the success of FPV Jura (loaned to the Navy as HMS Jura) in fishery protection patrols, the Navy built a further seven. These ships were designed and built by Hall Russell of Aberdeen.

Fishery Protection Cruisers[]

FPV Jura and FPV Westra were built by Hall, Russell & Company of Aberdeen in 1973 and 1975 respectively. Jura was loaned to the Royal Navy between 1975 and 1977 for evaluation.[1]

Royal Navy offshore fishery protection ships[]

The success of Jura encouraged the Royal Navy to build a further seven ships to the same design; these ships formed the bulk of the Fishery Protection Squadron, whose mission was to patrol the Atlantic fishing grounds, and ensure the security of the British oil and gas fields in the North Sea. However, since the mid-1990s, the class has been gradually decommissioned; Jersey was sold to the Bangladesh Navy in 1994, to be followed by Shetland, Alderney, Anglesey, Guernsey and Lindisfarne, with Orkney going to Trinidad and Tobago. The Island class was replaced in the Fishery Protection Squadron by the three ships of the River class.

Disposal[]

Presently, five Island-class patrol vessels are in active service with the Bangladesh Navy.[2] They are Karatoa (ex-Alderney), Kapatakhaya (ex-Shetland), Turag (ex-Lindisfarne), Gomati (ex-Anglesey) and Sangu (ex-Guernsey). Another ex-Royal Navy Island-class vessel, Jersey, is used as the training ship, Ruhul Amin.

The Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency Westra was sold to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 2006 and is currently named MY Steve Irwin. Jura was sold in 1988 and renamed Criscilla, and then N'Madi. She was broken up in Portugal in November 2001.[3]

References[]

Notations[]

  • Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995

Footnotes[]


All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Island-class patrol vessel and the edit history here.