HMS Ajax (F114): The Frigate That Collected the Freedom of Her Namesake Town

A Ship That Changed Class Before She Was Even Launched

This particular HMS Ajax had an unusually indecisive start to life. Built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, she was originally laid down on 19 October 1959 as a Rothesay-class frigate under the name Fowey, only for the design to be changed in 1960 partway through construction, converting her into the newer, more capable Leander class and giving her the rather grander name Ajax along the way. She was launched on 16 August 1962 and commissioned on 11 December 1963, a solidly built general-purpose frigate armed with a twin 4.5-inch gun mount, Bofors anti-aircraft guns, a Limbo anti-submarine mortar, and a Westland Wasp helicopter.

East of Suez

Ajax wasted little time getting to work, assisting the Swedish merchant vessel MV Solklint after a Channel collision in early 1964, before heading east later that year as leader of the 24th Escort Group. Over the following years she took part in the Beira Patrol, the long-running Royal Navy effort to enforce oil sanctions against Rhodesia by sea, covered the British withdrawal from Aden, and served a stint as guardship for Hong Kong, the sort of steady, far-flung commitment that defined much of the Cold War frigate force's working life.

A New Set of Teeth

After becoming Gibraltar guardship in 1970, Ajax went in for a substantial modernisation at Devonport Dockyard between September 1970 and 1973, trading her original 4.5-inch gun for an Ikara anti-submarine missile system and gaining eight Sea Cat surface-to-air missiles, bringing her up to date for a navy increasingly built around guided weapons rather than traditional naval guns. Freshly modernised, she took over as leader of the 8th Frigate Squadron.

A Visit to Her Own Namesake

Ajax's most charming moment came in 1976, on a visit to Canada, when she was granted the Freedom of the town of Ajax, Ontario, a town that had itself been named after an earlier, far more famous HMS Ajax in recognition of that ship's role in the 1939 Battle of the River Plate. It is a rare thing for a warship to visit a town named after one of her own predecessors and be welcomed as something close to a returning relative, streets and all.

In between refits in 1977 and 1980 to 1981, she also helped evacuate British citizens during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, before going on to lead the 1st Frigate Squadron following her later refit.

A Quieter Final Act

Although Ajax did not take part in the 1982 Falklands War, she kept busy in the years that followed, serving as Persian Gulf guardship and completing a four-month South Atlantic deployment in 1984, before spending part of her final year escorting the Royal Yacht Britannia on a tour of Italy in 1985, a suitably dignified way to close out an active career.

She was decommissioned on 31 May 1985 and spent a further period as a static training ship at Devonport, taking over from HMS Salisbury, before finally arriving at Millom in Cumbria on 3 August 1988 to be broken up. Pieces of her live on scattered around the places she meant something to: her anchor sits at the Royal Canadian Legion in Ajax, Ontario, her ship's bell hangs in that town's council chamber, and one of her radio masts still stands at Millom Rugby Union Football Club, a quietly fitting scattering of mementoes for a ship that spent much of her career being useful in out-of-the-way places.