.jpg)
Dates: 1974 - 1993
H.M.S. Amazon (F169)
H.M.S. Amazon (F169) was the first Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy. Her keel was laid down at the Vosper Thornycroft shipyard in Southampton, England on 6th November 1969, she was launched on the 26th of April 1971 and commissioned 11th May 1974.
In 1977 she suffered a fire in the Far East, drawing attention to the risk of building warships with aluminium superstructure.
H.M.S. Amazon was the only unit of her class to not participate in the Falklands War, as she was in the Persian Gulf at the time.
By the mid-1980s the surviving Type 21s were suffering cracking in the hull and so she was taken in for refitting, with a steel plate being welded down each side of the ship. At the same time modifications were made to reduce hull noise. Four Exocet launchers were also fitted in ’B’ position, the last of the class to be so fitted.
H.M.S. Amazon decommissioned and was sold to Pakistan on 30 September 1993, being renamed Babur. Exocet was not transferred to Pakistan and Babur had her obsolete Sea Cat launcher removed. A Chinese LY 60N missile launcher was fitted in place of the Exocet launchers. Signaal DA08 air search radar replaced the Type 992 and SRBOC chaff launchers and 20mm and 30mm guns were fitted.
P.N.S. Babur remains in service with the Pakistan Navy.
Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named H.M.S. Amazon.
H.M.S. Amazon was a 26-gun frigate, formerly the French ship Panthere, captured in 1745. She was sold in 1763.
H.M.S. Amazon was a 32-gun frigate launched in 1733 and broken up in 1794.
H.M.S. Amazon was a 36-gun frigate launched in 1795 at Rotherhithe. She ran aground and was lost in 1797 when H.M.S. Indefatigable and H.M.S. Amazon successfully defeated the French ship Droits de l’Homme in 1797.
H.M.S. Amazon was a 38-gun frigate launched in 1799 at Woolwich and broken up in 1817.
H.M.S. Amazon was a 46-gun frigate launched in 1821. She was converted to carry 24 guns in 1844 and sold in 1863.
H.M.S. Amazon was a wood screw sloop launched in 1865 and sunk on 10 July 1866 in a collision in the English Channel.
H.M.S. Amazon, launched 1908, was a Tribal-class destroyer stationed at Dover, England during the First World War. She was broken up in 1919.
H.M.S. Amazon (D39), launched 1926, was a prototype destroyer, the first new build for the Royal Navy after World War I. She served in the Second World War, and was broken up in 1948.
