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HMS PROTECTOR
(A Brief History)
The HMS Protector we so lovingly called home for our trips South to the Antarctic and the Falklands was laid down as a fast net layer at Messrs Yarrow & Co Ltd, of Glasgow in August 1935. She was launched in August 1936 and commissioned on the 30th December 1936. During the war period she spent time, 1939, in the South Atlantic then in 1940 in home waters during the early Norwegian campaign before being sent out to the Mediterranean in May of the same year. It was whilst on station in the Med that an aerial torpedo hit her. Emergency repairs were undertaken before she was towed to Bombay and spent from 1942 - 45 undergoing major engine room repairs before returning to blighty.
After spending time in the fleet reserve as a training ship she was then on display at the Coronation Review of the Fleet at Spithead on Monday 15th June 1953 along with other ships of the line and visiting Commonwealth Navies.
The following year, 1954, she underwent a transformation from Net Layer to Ice Patrol Ship in the Devonport dockyard where a flight deck was built above her net deck and the "shed" (lovingly called a hangar) for the choppers, of which there were two on the ships "flight".
On the 3rd October 1955 she slipped her moorings in Portsmouth and set sail for her very first season in the Antarctic.
Thirteen such seasons followed until the 3rd May 1968 when she paid off before making the final voyage to the great shipyard in the sky at Inverkeithing in 1970.
During her 13 years of honourable and stoic service to the Falkland Islands and its Dependencies, many changes took place to the old girl, not least the addition of her new bows, gallons of red lead and pussers grey.
The stories that can be told by the members of her crews over the years are what comedy films are made of, that though is another story. Some of these are now surfacing after decades in the minds of old sailors and can be heard during our reunions.
It was also during her thirteen years of Antarctic service several famous people crossed the quarterdeck, Sir Edmund Hillary and Dr Vivian Fuchs being two of the better-known names. This probably came about after the Protector and her crew came to the rescue of the MV Theron after it became stuck in the ice and the two intrepid explorers were aboard the Theron.
HMS Protector was a happy ship, as each commission year will vouch, mainly we believe because she was an independent command whilst serving the Falklands and the Antarctic Survey Bases. This feeling of well being and happiness remains even today and is more than evident at all our reunions that are held during the course of a year. Perhaps some of you that are reading this piece were a member of the ships company at some time during her life, if that is the case and you are curious about your old shipmates, then why not join us.
For those of a technical bent the following may be of interest,
Ships Compliment
21 Officers and 238 Senior and Junior Ratings
Displacement approximately 4000 tons
Dimensions Length..............346ft
Beam.................35ft
Draught..............16ft
Machinery Four Admiralty 3 Drum Boilers
Two British Thomson - Houston geared Turbines
Maximum Speed 19 Knots
Armament Twin 4" Mounting
Twin Oerlikon Mountings
Hotchkiss 3pdr Saluting Gun
Aircraft Two Westland Whirlwind Mk1 Helicopters (upgraded to Mk 9`s later)
HISTORY OF SHIPS WITH THE NAME OF "HMS PROTECTOR"
- 5TH.Rate of 44 guns. Foundered 1st. January 1761 in a cyclone off Pondicherry
- Fireship in service in 1768
- Gun-Brig of 12 guns; launched 1805, survey vessel 1817; broken up 1833.
- Wooden screw Gunboat laid down 1861 and cancelled 1863
- Cruiser launched 1884; renamed Cerberus 1921; renamed Protector 1924 and sold as a merchant ship and renamed Sidney; lost in collision off Gladstone in July 1943 while on loan to the U.S. Army.
- Netlayer launched 1936; Antarctic patrol ship 1955 until 1968; sold for breaking up 1970.
- Patrol vessel (formerly Seaforth Saga) purchased 1983 and sold 1987
- June 1999 HMS Protector Association formed by Mr. Harry Pinkerton ; 1942 - 2002
