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Type 81 / Tribal class Frigate – 1961

The Type 81 Tribal Class general purpose Frigates were ordered 1955-1958 and commissioned 1961-64, bearing the names of distinguished Second World War destroyers; using all welded construction. Intended as self-contained units for use in the Far East, Middle East and West Indies in particular, having air-conditioned accommodation, cafeteria messing and all bunk sleeping. They were the first Royal Navy frigates built to carry a helicopter and to have combined steam and gas turbine propulsion. They were expensive to build, limiting the class to seven vessels.

They served throughout the globe, ‘flying the flag’. In 1966, Gurkha embarked a company from the British Army whilst in the Persian Gulf during an oil dispute.

The class were actively involved in the ‘Cod Wars’ as Fishery Protection Vessels, and had numerous skirmishes, collisions and rammings with Icelandic gunboats – on 6 May 1976 Gurkha collided four times with the Odin and three more times the following day.

The 1981 Defence Review with its reductions in the surface fleet in favour of submarine warfare saw most of the class placed in reserve, mainly in the former Standby Squadron at Chatham dockyard, but losses during the Falklands campaign meant three – Gurkha, Zulu and Tartar - were refitted and reinstated to cover increased commitments in home waters until sold to Indonesia in 1984, entering Indonesian service the following year after refit. Three others were sunk as missile or torpedo targets.