HMS ANTRIM
Battle Honours
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Captain
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Captain B.G. Young [DSO]
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Ship's Complement
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x Officers
y Seamen
z Others Embarked
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Displacement (tons)
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5,440 Standard
6,200 Full Load
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Dimensions (feet [metres])
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520 x 54 [158.5 x 16.5]
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Machinery
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2 sets geared steam turbines
2 G6 gas turbines
30,000shp + 15,000shp = 32.5 knots
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Armament
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2 x 4.5in (114mm) Mark 6
dual-purpose (surface/AA) guns
2 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns
1 x Seaslug 2 system (GWS 10)
2 x Seacat system (GWS 22)
4 x MM.38 Exocet
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Aircraft
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1 Wessex 3
1 Wessex 5
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HMS Antrim, launched by Mrs Roy Mason (wife of the then Minister of Defence for Equipment) on October 19, 1967, was accepted by the Royal Navy from Upper Clyde Shipbuilders that November. Originally intended to be a ‘Super-Daring’, what finally emerged was a handsome and unusually powerful-looking class of ship with a high freeboard and two widely spaced funnels. They were generally known as the ‘County’ class and because of their size were soon updated from destroyers to destroyer-leaders to correspond with the similar regarding in the US Navy. It was however recognized that their traditional cruiser-names indicated that the Royal Navy regarded them as light cruisers and that ‘destroyer’ was a fiction to secure Parliamentary approval for their construction.
HMS Antrim had a displacement of 5440 tons when launched in 1967 on the Clyde. She had a top speed of over 30 knots and a range of 3500 miles at 28 knots and carried a crew of 471 including 36 officers. Her main armament was the Seaslug guided missile which is fired from a twin launcher aft. Other armament includes Seacat which is a close range guided missile, and four radar controlled 4.5 inch guns. For anti-submarine operations the latest sonar detection equipment is fitted and the ship carries a Wessex helicopter fitted with dipping sonar and armed with homing torpedoes.
In a major refit HMS Antrim was converted into a ‘County’ class (Exocet) Destroyer. The B turret was removed and 4 Exocet was fitted.
During the Falklands War on May 21st 1982 between 10:25 and 10:55 hrs HMS Antrim received a direct hit from a 454kg bomb, it ripped through the deck and landed in the SeaSlug magazine room but did not go off (boy they had the luck of the Irish with them that day) she then set sail for San Carlos bay to be able to defuse the dud and effect repairs.
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