HMS Devonshire (D02): The First Ship to Fire a Seaslug Missile, Sunk by a Submarine

HMS Devonshire (D02)

Built at Birkenhead

HMS Devonshire was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, launched on 10 June 1960 and delivered to the Royal Navy two years later, commissioning in 1962 with a full load displacement of 6,200 tons. She holds the genuinely significant distinction of being the first operational Royal Navy ship to fire the Seaslug missile, the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile system and a major step forward in fleet air defence capability at the dawn of the guided missile era.

A Global Early Career

Following her initial work-up, HMS Devonshire deployed to the Mediterranean, before sailing on to Bermuda and the United States and returning to Portsmouth by the end of 1962, an ambitious first deployment for so new a class of ship. She went on to conduct patrol duties in the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean Sea, and took part in the 1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead, one of the great ceremonial gatherings of the postwar Royal Navy.

A Collision Near the Elbe

On 31 August 1966, HMS Devonshire collided with the tanker British Sovereign near the mouth of the River Elbe, though fortunately no one was injured aboard either ship, a reminder that even routine navigation close to busy European shipping lanes carried genuine risks.

Sunk as a Target

HMS Devonshire was decommissioned in 1978 as part of the defence cuts of that period, and spent six years laid up in Portsmouth before finding an unusual final role: serving as a target vessel for testing the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile and the Mark 24 Mod 2 Tigerfish torpedo, weapons that needed genuinely realistic targets to prove their effectiveness. HMS Devonshire was finally sunk by the submarine HMS Splendid as a target on 17 July 1984 in the North Atlantic, a fitting if slightly melancholy end for a ship that had pioneered guided missile technology for the Royal Navy over two decades earlier, ultimately destroyed by precisely the kind of guided weapon her own generation of warships had been built to help defend against.