HMS Rothesay

Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Rothesay, after the town of Rothesay in Scotland.

HMS Rothesay (F107)

HMS Rothesay was the lead ship of the Rothesay or Type 12M class of anti-submarine frigates of the British Royal Navy. She was commissioned in 1960 and scrapped in 1988.

History

In the spring/summer of 1961 Rothesay was in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was intending to make courtesy calls at ports on the eastern seaboard of the USA but was instead diverted to Bermuda where she was to stay ready to protect British interests in Cuba. On 21 March 1962 she accidentally rammed the Turkish Balao-class submarine Gur in the western Mediterranean (off Gibraltar) during the NATO exercise "Dawn Breeze".

During two visits to the West Indies (7 months and 11 months) she was at Nassau and filmed for three days to get a 30 second showing in the James Bond film Thunderball. A sheet of canvas with a "0" was placed over the "F1" of her pennant number (F107) to read 007. Sean Connery and Claudine Auger came on board.

Between 1966 and 1968 Rothesay was refitted in Rosyth, Among the improvements the 40 mm gun was replaced with Seacat missile system, radar and communication equipment was updated, accommodation improved and perhaps most significantly a helicopter flight deck and hangar were added. Although this required the removal of one of the two triple barrelled anti-submarine mortars, it allowed the Rothesay class to carry the Westland Wasp helicopter which was a huge asset for anti-submarine operations. This modernisation was a vast improvement over the Whitby class and brought the Rothesay class up to the standard of the succeeding Leander-class frigate.