NAVY NEWS, MAY 1997 Options
No 498
Ships of the Roval Naw
Take a bow, Archer HMS ARCHER and her predecessors can bask in the glory of some modest Royal Navy history-making. For example, the current patrol craft was the first of the P2000 series, and has subsequently lent her name to the class, albeit one of the smallest series of vessels in the Navy's annals, and the smallest HMS Archer by a considerable margin. Then there is the fact that Archer and her permanent crew of five is the most northerly-based RN warship of today's fleet. Her home port is Aberdeen, where she carries out one of her primary roles, that of training members of Aberdeen University's Royal Naval Unit, which comprises some 50 undergraduate midshipmen.
Transfer Before the transfer of the 12 Archer-class craft to the Inshore Training Squadron (ITS), which is responsible for providing craft for University Royal Naval Unit (URNU) duty, Archer had been used by the Royal Naval Reserve - she severed her link with Tayforth RNR in 1991. The craft provides a good starting point for prospective seafarers in the university, and she spends a good deal of her time on navigational sea training. But that allows her to fulfil another vital role, that of showing the White Ensign in ports which are closed to Archer's bigger sisters. Thus, in the normal course of her duties, Archer can be seen at places
such as Lochinver, Scrabster, Tobermory and Ardfern, and the Archer-class is capable of cruising through the Caledonian Canal. The ship's company consists of a Commanding Officer who is normally a lieutenant or a lieutenant commander. The Executive Officer will usually be a chief, as will the Marine Engineer ing Officer Next in line is usually an LMEM, and the fifth is an AB - but in all instances the need to take good care of up to 13 students, as well as carry out the normal tasks required of seagoing Naval personnel, means that responsibility is considerable right the way through the ship's company. This is reflected in the fact that even though Archer is a tiddler in the Fleet, she has to measure up to exactly the same standards as the carriers, destroyers, frigates et al. This is tested by Flag Officer Sea Training's team during a two-and-ahalf day operational sea training programme. And on the last occasion she was under the spotlight, in September,
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i Aiming high - training craft HMS Archer, who gave her name to the P2000 class of patrol vessel.
Archer was assessed as "very satisfactory" when she went through her paces from Faslane. The 20-metre craft is powered by two Perkins (Rolls-Royce) diesel engines, which can push Archer up to 20 knots, but normal cruising would be at 15 knots or less.
Warship Her hull was constructed by moulding glass-reinforced plastic, giving her a standard displacement of 45 tonnes. And although she could fulfil her role as a warship by bringing a light machine-gun to bear, in her training role the machine-gun is not normally mounted. With Aberdeen as the focus of her
Battle honours Baltic Heligoland Atlantic Biscay.
1854-5 1914 1943-4 1943
responsibility, HMS Archer currently operates extensively around the north-east coasts of Scotland, and March saw her embark on a threeweek Western Isles training period. This month sees Archer undergoing a three-week period of maintenance, which is due to end on May 29. On completion, she will head for an extensive training period throughout June and July which will take in ports on the English Channel and in the Netherlands. In the middle of the summer is a major squadron exercise for the 16 vessels" of the Inshore Training Squadron, which on this occasion will be controlled from Dartmouth. She will then make her way back round to Aberdeen on July 15 for the start of the the Tall Ships Race. The busy summer programme continues into August with a Norwegian deployment, then minds will be turned once again to the annual OST, this time in Newcastle, scheduled for September. j The Inshore Training Squadron: no jelly and ice cream outfit - see page 9.
"Facts and figures" Class: Archer class P2000 Fast Patrol Vessel Pennant number: P264 Builder: Watercraft Ltd, Shoreham Launched: July 24, 1985 Commissioned: August 13, 1985 Displacement: 45 tonnes Length: 20 metres Beam: 5.8 metres Draught: 1.9 metres Ship's company: Five (plus 13 students) Machinery: Two Perkins (Rolls Royce) CV12 diesels, each developing 820BHP, twin screws, mechanical steering Speed: 20 knots Range: 550 miles at 15 knots Armaments: Fitted for general purpose or light machine gun Radars: Navigation: Racal Decca 1216; Iband Affiliations: Stonehaven Sea Cadet unit, Aberdeen Sea Cadet unit, and informal links with Strongbow Cider (through the bow and arrow connection) and 819 Naval Air Squadron.
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Historic ship - escort carrier HMS Archer, one of whose Swordfish launched the first successful operational air-to-sea rocket projectile attacks to sink a U-boat in May 1943.
A small ship with a big history Ten years later she was used in operations THE CURRENT patrol vessel is the seventh to bear the name HMS Archer - and against pirates on the Congo, but was broken up her predecessors acquitted themselves the following year. The third Archer was a torpedo cruiser well in a number of actions against enemy weighing in at 1,770 tons and launched in 1886. shipping. Possibly the high point of her career came in The first Archer was a gun brig built on the 1894, when she landed a party to protect the Thames in 1801. The 179-ton 12-gun ship cap- Consul General at Seoul. She was sold in 1904. tured a French lugger off Boulogne in January Next came another ship to pick up a battle 1804, and the following year took two French honour, a 775-ton destroyer built at Yarrow and gunboats off Griz Nez. She was sold in 1815. launched in 1911. It was 34 years before the second Archer, a She was with the Grand Fleet from 1914 to 973-ton steam sloop, was launched at Deptford. October 1916, when she gained her honour at Her 13 guns were used to good effect in 1851, Heligoland, then she moved on to Devonport when she was involved in the capture of for almost a year, seeing out the First World Bonbee, Benin River, and four years later she War in the Mediterranean. She was sold in 1921. won battle honours in the Baltic, being involved Fifth in line was an American merchant ship, in two occupations and the destruction of a converted to an escort carrier of 9,000 tons, Russian sloop and government buildings. which joined the Royal Navy on lend-lease at
the end of 1941. She accompanied a troop convoy from the US to Africa in November 1942 for the Operation Torch landings, and then resumed convoy protection and aircraft transport duties. On May 23, 1943, one of Archer's Swordfish aircraft (819 NAS) sank the German U-boat U752 750 miles into the Atlantic - the first operational success of air-to-sea rocket projectiles. She returned to trade in 1945 as the Empire Lagan, and after three further changes of name was broken up in 1962.
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