Birkenhead Docks
HMS Plymouth F126
Sadly now scrapped, HMS Plymouth F126 was a former Type 12 Rothesay Class Frigate which served with the Royal Navy between 1961 and 1988, and in this slide show we see Plymouth as preserved at Birkenhead Docks on 13th September 2003. Built in the city she was named after, HMS Plymouth was built at Devonport Dockyard and was launched on 20th July 1959, being commissioned on 11th May 1961. A Falklands veteran, she was one of the first ships to arrive in the South Atlantic following the Argentine invasion, and together with HMS Antrim and HMS Brilliant recaptured the island of South Georgia on 28th April 1982, with the surrender being signed by Lieutenant Commander Alfredo Astiz in HMS Plymouth's wardroom. HMS Plymouth was the final Type 12 Frigate to survive and one of the final Falklands veterans, she was later controversially sold by Peel Ports to Leyel recycling in Turkey, before being tragically scrapped in August 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGQJtjmp4QA
HMS Onyx S21
Another preserved warship and Falklands veteran that has since been tragically and scandalously scrapped. In this slide show, we see ex Royal Navy Oberon Class diesel submarine HMS Onyx S21 berthed with other preserved warships, including HMS Plymouth and HMS Bronington, at Birkenhead Docks on 13th September 2003. Unlike today's submarines which are built at Barrow, the preservation of HMS Onyx at Birkenhead was significant as she was built in the city by Cammel Laird, being launched in August 1966 and was commissioned on 20th November 1967. The only non-nuclear submarine to take part in the Falklands, her displacement of just 1610 tons (standard displacement) proved ideal at landing SBS marines around the shallow waters of the Falkland Islands. Decommissioned by the Royal Navy in 1991, she was initially preserved at Birkenhead, the city of her birth, before leaving in 2006 for a new submarine museum at Barrow in Furness. Sadly, this failed to materialise, and in 2014 she was towed to Rosneath Jetty on Gare Loch where she was scrapped. How sad that HMS Onyx joined other Falklands veterans like HMS Illustrious and HMS Plymouth by being scrapped, although at least Onyx met her end in British waters, rather than suffer being towed to a Turkish scrapyard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4PxySLf9IA