HMS Mounts Bay (F627): Screening the Incheon Landings, Then Briefly Running Aground Under North Korean Fire

A Long and Interrupted Construction

HMS Mounts Bay was ordered on 25 January 1943 under the name Loch Kilburnie, and laid down on 23 October 1944 at William Pickersgill and Sons in Southwick, Sunderland, a Bay-class anti-aircraft frigate adapted from the anti-submarine Loch-class design. Her construction was suspended in 1946 with the war over and the pressing need for more escort vessels gone, and the unfinished hull was relocated to John I. Thornycroft's shipyard at Woolston, Southampton, that March for eventual completion. She was finally launched on 8 June 1945 but not completed until 11 August 1949, a full four years later, a fairly typical fate for a warship whose usefulness had been rather overtaken by the sudden and welcome end of the Second World War.

A Well-Armed Escort

HMS Mounts Bay displaced 1,600 tons standard and carried a substantial armament for her size, four 4-inch guns in twin mounts, four twin 40mm Bofors mounts and four twin 20mm Oerlikon mounts, along with a Hedgehog anti-submarine projector and depth charges, giving her a genuinely versatile mix of anti-aircraft, anti-surface and anti-submarine capability. She was initially allocated the pennant number K627, redesignated F627 in 1947, and finally commissioned for active service in August 1949, allocated to relieve HMS Amethyst in the Far East.

A Diplomatic Incident Off China

HMS Mounts Bay responded on 2 May 1950 to the seizure of the British merchant vessel Incharran by Nationalist Chinese forces, an incident resolved with the vessel's release, a useful reminder of just how unsettled the waters off China remained in the years immediately following the Chinese Civil War.

Screening the Landings at Incheon

HMS Mounts Bay arrived off Korea on 9 August 1950, relieving HMS Black Swan as escort group flagship, and went on to play a genuinely significant role in one of the most celebrated operations of the entire Korean War: from 15 September to 14 October 1950, she screened the amphibious landings at Incheon, General Douglas MacArthur's bold and decisive counter-stroke that transformed the course of the war almost overnight.

Grounded Under Fire

HMS Mounts Bay shelled North Korean forces building shore emplacements on 23 September 1950, firing 118 rounds from her 4-inch guns, and briefly ran aground during the engagement, though she emerged undamaged and continued her operations, a nerve-wracking moment for any crew but one that ended, fortunately, without lasting consequence. She deployed to Wonsan the following month, escorting convoys supporting minesweeping operations, and continued further Korean War deployments through to the conflict's eventual conclusion, later serving off Malaya during the Malayan Emergency as well.

A Second Career as Vasco da Gama

HMS Mounts Bay was decommissioned at Portsmouth in May 1960 and refitted by John I. Thornycroft in Southampton before being transferred to the Portuguese Navy, commissioned as NRP Vasco da Gama on 3 August 1961, serving under the Portuguese flag until 1971, a fittingly long second career for a ship that had already proven herself far more useful, and far more battle-tested, than her delayed and interrupted construction might once have suggested.