HMS Jaguar (F37): From a World Cruise to Two Cod Wars

The Last Frigate From a Famous Yard

HMS Jaguar was built by William Denny and Brothers, the very last frigate the celebrated yard would ever build for the Royal Navy, a genuinely notable milestone marking the slow decline of an industry that had once been central to British shipbuilding. A Leopard-class Type 41 frigate, she was unique among her sister ships in being fitted with controllable pitch propellers, and carried two twin 4.5-inch Mark 6 guns alongside a twin STAAG anti-aircraft mounting, later replaced by a 40mm gun. She received a significant mid-1960s refit that saw her radar upgraded, Type 960 replaced by Type 965 and Type 293Q by Type 993, along with new electronic support measures and a mainmast converted from a lattice structure to a solid plated one.

A World Cruise and Medical Aid in the Seychelles

HMS Jaguar sailed from Chatham Dockyard in 1969 on an extensive world cruise, visiting Gibraltar, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and various Pacific territories, a genuinely impressive itinerary that showcased the Royal Navy's continuing global reach even as the empire that had once justified such a presence steadily receded. During the voyage, she provided medical assistance in the Seychelles, a welcome piece of humanitarian work carried out far from home.

Colliding With an Icelandic Gunboat

HMS Jaguar deployed to Iceland in 1973 for the Second Cod War, the long-running dispute between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights, and on 10 September that year collided with the Icelandic gunboat Thor, sustaining damage to her bow in one of the numerous close-quarters confrontations that characterised the dispute, in which Iceland's small but determined coastguard fleet repeatedly took on Royal Navy frigates many times their size. HMS Jaguar was recommissioned for further service during the Third Cod War in 1976, this time fitted with protective wooden sheathing to her bow and stern, a genuinely practical if somewhat old-fashioned response to the risk of further collisions.

A Long Second Life in Bangladesh

HMS Jaguar was sold to the Bangladesh Navy on 6 July 1978 for £2 million, commissioned as BNS Ali Haider (F17), and went on to serve for well over three decades under her new flag, finally decommissioning on 22 January 2014 at Chittagong, closing out the career of a frigate whose service, spanning a round-the-world cruise, two separate confrontations with Icelandic gunboats and more than thirty years with a second navy, proved genuinely remarkable for a ship built as the last of a fading shipbuilding tradition.