Ships

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HMS Fife

HMS Fife (D20) was the first unit of the Batch 2 County-class destroyers of the Royal Navy. She had 'B' turret removed and replaced with four Exocet launchers in the mid-1970s. In 1979, Fife provided assistance to the Caribbean island of Dominica after the island was hit severely by Hurricane David. She was under refit during the Falklands War and so did not take part in the conflict.

In 1986 Fife underwent a refit to convert her into a moving training ship, her Sea Slug missile system being removed. This was completed in June 1986. This created space for extra messdecks and classrooms for officers under training (OUTs). One messdeck still used hammocks and these OUTs are possibly the last men in the Royal Navy to sleep in hammocks; they were told so at the time. In September 1986 she undertook a Dartmouth Training Ship (DTS) deployment to the West Indies returning to Portsmouth early December. Her final voyage in the Royal Navy was to lead a DTS deployment to North America, in which she and HMS Juno sailed to North America and into the Great Lakes (the first British warships in the Lakes for 29 years), including a period alongside at Chiago in May 1997. On her return to Great Britain in June 1997 she landed the OUTs at Dartmouth and then proceeded to Portsmouth where she decommissioned. She was sold to Chile on 12 August 1987 and renamed Blanco Encalada.

The ship was taken into refit at Talcahuano upon her arrival, and, taking advantage of the removed Sea Slug, Blanco Encalada's deck was extended aft and a new, larger hangar constructed. The rebuild was completed in May 1988. In 1996 she was fitted with the Barak SAM by removing the Sea Cat launchers. Blanco Encalada was decommissioned from the Chilean Navy on 12 December 2003 and was sold for scrap in November 2005.

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