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29-561: The operation replaced naval blockades Operation Maritime Guard (of NATO; begun by the U.S. in November 1992) and Sharp Fence (of the WEU). It put them under a single chain of command and control (the "Adriatic Military Committee", over which the NATO and WEU Councils exerted joint control), to address what their respective Councils viewed as wasteful duplication of effort. Some maintain that despite

58-739: A UN Security Council resolution". In April 1993, a NATO official said that warships would shoot if necessary to stop a ship to enforce the blockade, with inert munitions which could include machine gun bullets and armor-piercing cannon shells. The blockade comprised destroyers from Turkey, Italy, Germany, Greece, and the United Kingdom, and frigates from the United States and the Netherlands, assisted by NATO Maritime Patrol Aircraft . The frigate USS  Kauffman and aircraft carrier USS  Theodore Roosevelt were among

87-526: A burial for the recently uncovered remains of thirty British sailors and officers who had died during or after the 1798 Battle of the Nile . On 31 October 2006, she visited the town of Chatham, Massachusetts , on her way to Boston . In 2008 Chatham was responsible for the capture of six tonnes of the 23-tonne narcotic haul seized by the Royal Navy between January and August 2008. As of March 2010, she

116-508: A combined British and Italian intelligence operation led to the capture of the Maltese merchant ship Jadran Express by the Italian frigate Zeffiro , which forced the freighter into the port of Taranto . The ship had departed from Odessa bound to Venice with a cache of 2,000 tons of Soviet-designed weaponry, valued at US$ 200 million. Manned by a boarding party of Italian marines from

145-667: A result of defence cuts, HMS Chatham arrived in Plymouth for the last time on 27 January 2011. The ship was decommissioned in February 2011. She was stripped of equipment and laid up at Portsmouth and in July 2013 sold to Turkish company Leyal for scrapping. In autumn 2013, Chatham was towed to the Leyal shipyard in Turkey on her final voyage for breaking. Chatham was affiliated to

174-511: A shot on the first of May. Three Yugoslav Navy Končar -class corvettes challenged the NATO operation and one of them tried to ram the British frigate HMS  Chatham as it was assisting Van Kinsberger . The corvettes eventually fled following the reaction of the British warship, supported by Italian Tornado aircraft which scrambled from an airbase at Gioia Del Colle . Lido II had to undergo repairs before being diverted to Italy, since

203-534: The Al-Faw Peninsula of southern Iraq. Approximately 60 rounds were fired at a variety of targets from her 4.5-inch gun. In company with HMS  Marlborough , HMS  Richmond and HMAS  Anzac she remained on station for the following 72 hours at immediate readiness to provide fire support to the troops of the Royal Marines as they advanced up the peninsula. Chatham deployed from

232-655: The San Marco battalion , the Jadran Express was eventually escorted by Zeffiro to the naval base of La Maddalena , where her cargo was unloaded under heavy security. The issue of differing views among nations in the coalition as to the use of force authorized by rules of engagement arose in April 1994. Faced with the Maltese tanker Lido II making its way towards a Montenegrin port with 45,000 tons of fuel oil,

261-475: The American cruiser USS Philippine Sea asked the NATO commander (a British Commodore ) for guidance, and received authorization to use "disabling fire" to stop the tanker, if necessary. He received confirmation that he should follow the British commodore's guidance from his own higher authority. Under U.S. Navy standards, "disabling fire" means firing rounds into the ship's engineering space. The U.S. cruiser

290-800: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), although senior military and diplomatic sources yesterday said that they thought this would be unlikely." NATO naval forces inspected 5800 ships at sea . Of them, 1400 were diverted and inspected in port. No vessels were reported as having broken the embargo, although six were seized while attempting to do so. The blockade was conducted in accordance with numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions : UNSCR 713 , UNSCR 757 , UNSCR 787 UNSCR 820 , and UNSCR 943 . Resolution 787 authorized participating states to "use such measures ... as may be necessary ... to halt all inward and outward maritime shipping ... to insure strict implementation of"

319-402: The U.K., and the U.S.), and eight maritime patrol aircraft, were involved in searching for and stopping blockade runners. Most contributors to the operation supplied one or two ships. The Turkish Navy , for example, participated with frigates, submarines, and tankers. The operational area was divided into a series of "sea boxes", each the responsibility of a single warship. Each boarding team

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348-735: The UK to the Persian Gulf in January and returned in August. During the deployment, in the run-up to and the conduct of the invasion of Iraq, the ship spent around 90 days at sea continuously at defence watches in the northern part of the Persian Gulf. At times she came very close to hitting mines laid by Iraqi dhows and tugs in the shallow waters to be found in the area. Chatham hosted the BBC for

377-678: The UN embargoes. Its successor was Operation Sharp Guard . That was a multi-year joint naval blockade in the Adriatic Sea by NATO and the Western European Union on shipments to the former Yugoslavia that began on June 15, 1993, was suspended on June 19, 1996, and was terminated on October 2, 1996. HMS Chatham (F87) HMS Chatham was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy . She

406-514: The arms embargo and economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia. Over the course of the operation, the blockade was redefined in accordance with UNSCR 1021 and UNSCR 1022 . Operation Maritime Guard Operation Maritime Guard was a NATO blockade, in the international waters of the Adriatic Sea , of the former Yugoslavia . The operation began on November 22, 1992. It followed NATO Operation Maritime Monitor , and

435-607: The capture of the Maltese freighter Lido II , which was suspected of smuggling fuel to Montenegro . The British frigate assisted the Dutch frigate HNLMS  Van Kinsbergen , who had forced the merchant to stop. Three Yugoslav Končar -class missile boats challenged the NATO operation and one of them attempted to ram Chatham . The corvettes were driven off by the actions of the British warship, supported by Italian Tornado aircraft which scrambled from an airbase at Gioia Del Colle . Lido II underwent repairs after sabotage to

464-600: The crew had sabotaged the ship's engine room. The leaking was contained by an engineer party from HMS Chatham . Seven Yugoslav stowaways, all of them members of the special forces of the Yugoslav Navy , were found on board. A similar incident had taken place off Montenegro a year before, on 8 February 1993, when a boarding party from the Italian frigate Espero forcibly seized the Maltese freighter Dimitrakis , which feigned an emergency in order to divert her route to

493-502: The former Yugoslavia. All ships bound to or coming from the territorial waters of the former Yugoslavia were halted for inspection and verification of their cargoes and destinations. With support from Turkey, the Netherlands, and Germany, the operation was strengthened to allow for NATO aircraft to shoot down aircraft that violated the blockade. An article in the academic journal International Affairs stated that Operation Maritime Guard was: "the first authorized use of force to back

522-596: The months prior to the handover ). In May 2000, Chatham was part of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) sent to the coast of Sierra Leone to oversee the evacuation of British, EU and Commonwealth nationals as part of Operation Palliser , under the captaincy of George Zambellas . In March 2003 Chatham became the first British warship to fire her guns in anger since the Falklands War , when, as part of Operation Telic , she engaged targets on

551-490: The nominal official joint command and control of the operation, in reality it was NATO staff that ran the operation. The operation's purpose was, through a blockade on shipments to the former Yugoslavia, to enforce economic sanctions and an arms embargo of weapons and military equipment against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , and rival factions in Croatia and Bosnia . The Yugoslav Wars were being waged, and

580-447: The participants hoped to limit the fighting by limiting supplies to it. Fourteen nations contributed ships and patrol aircraft to the operation. At any given time, 22 ships and 8 aircraft were enforcing the blockade, with ships from Standing Naval Force Atlantic and Standing Naval Force Mediterranean establishing a rotating duty. (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey,

609-513: The port of Bar . The merchant was smuggling coal to the Serbs from Romania . The blockade was suspended following a UN decision to end the arms embargo, and NATO's Southern Command said that: "NATO and WEU ships will no longer challenge, board or divert ships in the Adriatic". The Independent warned at the time that "In theory, there could now be a massive influx of arms to Bosnia, Croatia and

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638-470: The ship's engine room by her crew, before being diverted to Italy . The leaking was contained by an engineering party from Chatham . Seven Yugoslav stowaways were found on board. Under the command of Captain Christopher Clayton , she was guardship to the royal yacht HMY  Britannia during the withdrawal from Hong Kong in 1997 (and served as the control military operations in

667-660: The television programme Shipmates which charted the life of sailors in the Royal Navy. In the program, Chatham was filmed on active service in the Persian Gulf, whilst on an anti-terrorist mission. The show also covered the Chatham ' s humanitarian relief efforts off the coast of Sri Lanka after the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami . On 18 April 2005, Chatham sent a party ashore at Alexandria in Egypt to provide

696-570: The warships that took part in the operation. AWACS supported the effort with its sophisticated maritime radar by providing blockading ships with long-range sea surveillance coverage. The blockade was directed by the Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe, U.S. Admiral Mike Boorda . Under the blockade, 12,367 ships were contacted, 1,032 of them were inspected or diverted to a port to be inspected, and 9 ships were found to be violating

725-526: Was about to pass the order along to the Dutch Kortenaer -class frigate HNLMS Van Kinsbergen . However, the fact that the Dutch definition of "disabling fire" involves launching rounds into the bridge of the target ship, with an increased risk of loss of life, became important. The ship was boarded by Dutch Marines inserted by helicopter from HNLMS Van Kinsbergen and eventually stopped without firing

754-431: Was composed of a "guard team" to board and wrest control of the target ship, and a "search team", to conduct the search. The ships were authorized to board, inspect, and seize both ships seeking to break the blockade and their cargo. The Combined Task Force 440 was commanded by Admiral Mario Angeli of Italy. It marked the first time since its founding in 1949 that NATO was involved in combat operations. On 11 March 1994,

783-519: Was decommissioned on 8 February 2011. Chatham had the rare honour of a motto in English; Up and at 'em , being the rallying cry of the Medway town football and rugby teams. The motto has subsequently been translated back into Latin as Surge et vince . Chatham joined Operation Sharp Guard to enforce the embargo against the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Her most notable action was on 1 May 1994 and

812-407: Was in support of UN Security Council Resolution 787 , which called upon states acting individually or otherwise to enforce the UN embargoes of the former Yugoslavia ("calls upon States ... to use such measures commensurate with the specific circumstances as may be necessary" to enforce the embargo). It authorized NATO to use force, and included stopping, inspecting, and diverting ships bound for

841-611: Was the NATO flagship for international naval operations against Somali piracy . On 17 May 2010, Chatham destroyed two pirate boats in the Somali Basin , forcing the pirates to return in the mother ship to Somalia. On 20 May 2010 Cyclone Bandu disabled a cargo vessel, MV  Dubai Moon , and left her drifting off the Somali coast. Before the cargo vessel sank, 23 crew members were rescued by helicopters from Chatham . As

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