HMS Zulu (F124): The Frigate That Fired the Royal Navy's Last Full Broadside

Built on the Clyde

HMS Zulu was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons at Govan on the Clyde, her keel laid down on 13 December 1960, launched on 3 July 1962 and commissioned into service on 17 April 1964 at a cost of some £5,100,000, a Type 81 Tribal-class frigate that joined the 9th Frigate Squadron operating east of Suez.

A Rescue in the Mediterranean

In 1965, Zulu took part in the rescue of the crew of the Greek merchant ship Thrasyvoulos, a reminder that a frigate's working life is rarely confined to exercises and patrols, and that a ship on station can find herself called upon for entirely unscripted emergencies.

Enforcing the Beira Patrol

Between 1966 and 1967, Zulu served on the Beira Patrol, the Royal Navy's long and often tedious operation to enforce oil sanctions against Ian Smith's illegal regime in Rhodesia by intercepting tankers attempting to supply the landlocked country via the Mozambican port of Beira.

Zulu spent over 120 days on patrol in 1967 alone, intercepting four ships suspected of running the blockade, unglamorous but important work in support of international sanctions.

Fighting a Tanker Fire

In 1970, Zulu assisted in fighting a fire aboard the tanker Pacific Glory, going on to further deployments to the West Indies, the Far East and Belize over the following years, a well-travelled frigate whose service record ranged from sanctions enforcement to firefighting at sea.

Reserve, the Falklands, and the Last Full Broadside

Manpower shortages saw Zulu placed in reserve in 1979, before she was recommissioned during the Falklands War in August 1982, called back into service at a moment when every available hull mattered.

She was finally decommissioned on 30 March 1984, and in doing so earned herself a genuine footnote in naval history: as the last Royal Navy ship in service armed with multiple gun turrets, she fired what is recorded as the Royal Navy's last 'full' broadside, a fittingly resonant send-off for a type of firepower that had defined naval warfare for centuries.

A Second Career in Indonesia

HMS Zulu was sold to Indonesia on 16 April 1984 and renamed KRI Martha Khristina Tiyahahu. After refurbishment, she was commissioned into the Indonesian Navy on 2 May 1985, going on to serve for a further fifteen years before being struck from the Indonesian naval register in 2000, bringing to a close the career of a frigate whose most famous moment had come at the very end of her British service.