HMS St Brides Bay 1945 -1961 World Naval Ships Forums Archive

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HMS St Brides Bay 1945 -1961 World Naval Ships Forums Archive

HMS St Brides Bay 1945 -1961

Posts 1 to 29

Here's a few pictures of ST BRIDES BAY taken during her final commission out the far east 1960- 1961
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HMS ST BRIDES BAY sliced through a Royal Navy ML in HONG KONG in the 60s does anyone know what the name of the launch was and was there any casualities, better still has anyone any photos of the inccident?

The ship sliced in half was HMS DAMERHAM. Here are the only 2 pix I have of the incident which happened in 1960.
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i belive this is what you are crashing to see. cylla
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Would you two mates mind if I steal those 2 photos for my album-- someone blotted their copy book that day, it would`nt take much to smash those wooden crafts.Thanks Rik and Cylla for your piece on the inccident.

No problem m8.

What are mates for,?no worry,s . when you borrow sumt ,and return it ,you can borrow it again. we are here to help each other ,are we Rik ? cylla

Most definitely Yorky !!

Hi, I have a copy of these photo's also. I believe they were taken by a ships phot from HMS Ceylon. The 'Brides' was on a final visit to HK before going back to Singapore to pay off her penultimate commission. At the time of the incident I was manning the engine telegraph in the wheelhouse and I recall ringing on 'full astern'. We didn't suffer any injuries, and I believe there were only a couple of gangway watchkeepers on the other ship; who would have been pretty shaken! Bob

Please if you have larger versions or can scan them in a LARGE format, please post them. They are extremely rare in large format. (beg beg) ;)

pedantic mode the victim wasn't really an 'ML' but a Ham class minesweeper. There were two groups the Ham class and the Ley class. derivatives of these were used as coastal survey ships well into the 1980s. I lived near Great yarmouth for a couple of years and saw them regularly in and out of harbour.

[quote=Bob2;58359]Hi, I have a copy of these photo's also. I believe they were taken by a ships phot from HMS Ceylon. The 'Brides' was on a final visit to HK before going back to Singapore to pay off her penultimate commission. At the time of the incident I was manning the engine telegraph in the wheelhouse and I recall ringing on 'full astern'. We didn't suffer any injuries, and I believe there were only a couple of gangway watchkeepers on the other ship; who would have been pretty shaken! Bob[/quote] Welcome to the Forum Bob2, looking forward to seeing your BIG pics;) Jim

These are 6x8" prints. I have scanned them at 200 dpi....Hope that is what you mean by big? Bob.
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Spot on Bob. Couldn't have asked for better. That just leaves Cylla's other pic to be enlarged. You really have been most helpful Bob. Thanks again.

Hi Rik , would you know the name of the other Ham at the back ,i am sure it is one .?? cylla

'Fraid not m8. Just hope one day a big version will turn up and maybe we can identify the other one.

Post #1 - Last two photos show men sitting on deck and a sailor who seem to guard over them. What is the story?

Marek, in the 1960's there was a huge problem with Illegal immigrants fleeing from China into many of the Asian colonies such as Hong Kong, Singapore etc. So they are probably illegal immigrants picked up by the ship probably from a small boat making it's way to one of those places. Regards Alan

Thanks, Alan.

Alan the people in the photo are in fact pirates caught by HMS St Brides Bay while on anti piracy patrol in May 61 They were taken to Tawau Borneo for trial and recieved 12yrs in prison.

Marek. To confirm the previous note. They were definately Pirates we captured in the Celebes Sea, they were taken in and imprisoned in Borneo. Tug Wilson

Post #1 - The third photo of the ship steaming up Serangoon harbour on the way to the Naval Base is evocative. She's just coming up to the Officer's Club at Fairy Point, having passed the Yacht Club at RAF Changi, where the duty Safety Officer (sometimes me) would be charged with exchanging a salute. (Which could be interesting if our Commodore was in the premises and we were flying his Air Marshal's pennant)

Post #1 - Great pictures she certainly was heavily armed was this the standard gun fit for this class of frigate

[quote=Bob2;58359]Hi, I have a copy of these photo's also. I believe they were taken by a ships phot from HMS Ceylon. The 'Brides' was on a final visit to HK before going back to Singapore to pay off her penultimate commission. At the time of the incident I was manning the engine telegraph in the wheelhouse and I recall ringing on 'full astern'. We didn't suffer any injuries, and I believe there were only a couple of gangway watchkeepers on the other ship; who would have been pretty shaken! Bob[/quote] I was chief of the watch in the engine room when this happened. Yes we got a full astern order on the telegraph. The problem was that going from ahead to Full astern caused the propellers to draw down air from the surface of the water causing cavitation, stopping them from "biting" into the water.

Hello everyone, i know this is a long shot and i dont know whether anyone would remember my grandad reginald Ellis or not!. He served as a gunner on st brides bay. From recent stories from my mother he got took to the glass house for loosing his mask. But he always said it was the best times of his life in the navy. He never rarely spoke about it cause he lost quite alot of his dear friends on the ship. I know that the ship got hit twice but it remarkably survived. I have got many pictures of my grandad and crew of hms st brides bay these are at my mother house at the moment. :). I hope that their is someone out their that does remember him but i know its been a while and most of the crew have either past on. Looking forward to be hearing from you Amy

If you have a search through the Photo Gallery on this site you'll find a thread which contains more photographs & information on the ST BRIDES BAY that I uploaded some time ago. Good Luck. Dave

Two photos of St Brides Bay from the National Library of New Zealand.
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HMS St Brides Bay. Bob.
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How times have changed - just had a look at her history and discovered that she spent her entire 16 year career overseas, never once serving in UK waters. Amazing!

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