Tales of the Crazy Y

The humble 2,800-ton modified Type 12 (Rothesay Class) frigate HMS Yarmouth (F 101) was the oldest of the 24 escorts sent to the South Atlantic to retake the Falklands in 1982. Laid down in 1957, she entered service in March 1960, and the only surface warship older than her in the 43-vessel task force was the light carrier HMS Hermes, which had commissioned just four months earlier in November 1959. The Type 12 Frigate HMS Yarmouth (F101), photographed shortly before the Falklands Conflict. IWM (FKD 590) When the orders came to join Operation Corporate in April 1982, Yarmouth was in the Mediterranean, headed to the Far East, and many of her crew’s wives and families had gone ahead to Singapore to greet them there. Singapore would have to wait. HMS Hermes (R12), HMS Broadsword (F88), and HMS Yarmouth (F101) anchored off Ascension Island and conducted VERTREP on April 17th, 1982, while en route to the Falkland Islands. Nicknamed the “Crazy Y” and “The Rubber Duck,” Yarmouth was…