HMS Sheffield (D80)
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- See HMS Sheffield for other ships of the same name.
| Missing image HMS_Sheffield_(D80).jpg HMS Sheffield | |
| Career | 
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|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 15 January 1970 |
| Launched: | 10 June 1971 |
| Commissioned: | 16 February 1975 |
| Fate: | Sunk by Argentine air attack on 4 May 1982 during Falklands War |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4,820 tonnes |
| Length: | 125 m (410 ft) |
| Beam: | 14.3 m (47 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.8 m |
| Propulsion: | 4 Rolls-Royce (2 Olympus and 2 Tyne) producing 36 MW COGAG (Combined Gas and Gas) arrangement |
| Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 287 |
| Armament: | Sea Dart missiles 114 mm (4.5 in) Mk 8 gun |
| Aircraft: | Lynx HAS1 |
| Motto: | |
HMS Sheffield (D80) was the second Royal Navy ship to bear the name Sheffield, after the city of Sheffield in Yorkshire. She was a Type 42 destroyer laid down by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering at Barrow-in-Furness on 15 January 1970, launched on 10 June 1971 and commissioned on 16 February 1975. The ship was part of the Task Force sent to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War. She was struck by an Exocet cruise missile fired by an Argentine aircraft during on May 4, 1982. While the ship was sinking, her crew, waiting to be rescued, sang "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Sheffield_onfire.jpg
The burnt out hulk was taken in tow by the Rothesay Class Frigate Yarmouth but sank on 10 May 1982, the first Royal Navy vessel sunk in action for almost forty years. Twenty-one of her crew died during the attack and the wreck is a designated war grave.
The sinking of the Sheffield is often blamed on a superstructure made wholly or partially from aluminium, the melting point and ignition temperature of which are significantly lower than those of steel. This story is no more than a myth. Like all other ships of her class, the Sheffield</i>'s superstructure was made entirely of steel [1] (http://www.hazegray.org/faq/smn6.htm#F7).
External links
- BBC article about the sinking (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4/newsid_2504000/2504155.stm)
- Debunking of aluminium myth (http://www.hazegray.org/faq/smn6.htm#F7)
| Type 42 destroyer |
| Sheffield | Birmingham | Newcastle | Glasgow | Cardiff | Coventry | Exeter | Southampton | Nottingham | Liverpool | Manchester | Gloucester | Edinburgh | York |
| List of destroyers of the Royal Navy |