HMS Leeds Castle (P258): From the Falklands to Fishery Protection

Built at Aberdeen

HMS Leeds Castle was built by Hall, Russell and Company of Aberdeen, laid down on 18 October 1979, launched on 22 October 1980 and commissioned on 27 October 1981 as the very first of the Royal Navy's two Castle-class patrol vessels. Designed for fisheries protection and oilfield patrol duties around the United Kingdom's exclusive economic zone, she displaced 1,350 tons and measured 81 metres overall, with a large helicopter deck capable of taking a Sea King or even a Chinook, and space to carry 25 Royal Marines alongside her own ship's company of 45.

Diverted South for the Falklands War

Leeds Castle had barely completed her first year of service when she was diverted to the South Atlantic on 22 April 1982 as the Falklands War broke out, arriving in the Total Exclusion Zone on 21 May to serve as a dispatch vessel, including acting as a refuelling platform for helicopters ferrying stores between transport ships, unglamorous but essential logistics work that kept the wider task force running. She returned to Rosyth on 20 August 1982 after a four-month deployment.

Decades of Fishery Protection

Much of Leeds Castle's subsequent career was spent on fishery protection patrols around Shetland, the English Channel and the North Sea, the quiet, steady work of enforcing British fishing rights that rarely makes headlines but occupies a great deal of the Navy's peacetime effort. She also took part in minelaying trials in 1983, before returning to the South Atlantic to serve as the Falkland Islands guard ship, a post she held until being relieved in 2004.

A Second Career With Bangladesh

HMS Leeds Castle decommissioned on 8 August 2005 after 24 years of service, and was sold to Bangladesh in April 2010, entering service with the Bangladesh Navy under the name Dhaleshwari, extending the working life of a hardy patrol vessel that had already seen action in the South Atlantic and spent decades safeguarding British waters.