HMS ''Tyne'' is a built by

Vosper Thornycroft VTG (formerly VT Group) is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VTG was integrated into Babcock Interna ...

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

to serve as a fishery protection unit within the United Kingdom's waters along with her two

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

s and . All three were commissioned into service in 2003 to replace the five older s. ''Tyne'' is the sixth Royal Navy ship to carry the name and was featured in the first episode of the BBC series ''Empire of the Seas'', "How the Navy Forged the Modern World, Heart of Oak", presented by

Dan Snow Daniel Robert Snow (born 3 December 1978) is a British Popular history, popular historian and television presenter. He is an ambassador of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS). Early life and education Born in Westminster, London Dan Snow is the ...

Construction

The first of her class, ''Tyne'' was built by

at its

Woolston, Southampton Woolston is a suburb of Southampton, located on the eastern bank of the River Itchen. It is bounded by the River Itchen, Sholing, Peartree Green, Itchen and Weston. The area has a strong maritime and aviation history. The former hamlet gr ...

shipyard in 2001. Following construction, she was launched on 1 July 2002 with an expected handover to the Royal Navy's

Fishery Protection Squadron The Overseas Patrol Squadron (known as the Fishery Protection Squadron until 2020) is a front-line squadron of the Royal Navy with responsibility for patrolling the UK's Extended Fisheries Zone, both at home and around British Overseas Territori ...

by November. By January 2003, she had completed the first stage of her sea trials in the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...

. The first three River-class ships ''Tyne'', ''Severn'' and ''Mersey'' were the first ever privately funded vessels received by the Royal Navy on charter. They were chartered for five years, after which the Ministry of Defence could either purchase them outright or return them to VT.

Operational history

''Tyne'' made her first operational fishery protection patrol between January and February 2003. In January 2004, having been on fishery protection duties, she helped coordinate a search and rescue following the capsizing of French fishing trawler off the coast of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. In September 2012, the Royal Navy purchased ''Tyne'' and her sister ships ''Severn'' and ''Mersey'', having previously operated them on lease. They had a remaining service life of 11 years. Aside from her day-to-day fishery protection duties, ''Tyne'' has occasionally been called upon to undertake escort roles in the UK Area of Interest. Two such examples occurred in the autumn of 2016 when she was twice assigned to escort Russian warships through the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. In March 2017, it was announced that ''Tyne'' would be crewed by personnel usually assigned to s to allow her regular crew to transfer to the Batch 2 ''River''-class in build in Glasgow.

Decommissioning and reactivation

In March 2018, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Defence

Guto Bebb Guto ap Owain Bebb (born 9 October 1968) is a Welsh politician and former business consultant who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberconwy from 2010 to 2019, having previously lost elections to the Welsh Assembly and the House of Com ...

revealed that £12.7M had been allocated from the EU Exit Preparedness Fund to preserve ''Tyne'' and her two Batch 1 sister ships, should they be required to control and enforce UK waters and fisheries following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. In May 2018, the ship entered Portsmouth to be decommissioned on 24 May 2018. However, the ship was still flying the

white ensign The White Ensign, at one time called the St George's Ensign because of the simultaneous existence of a crossless version of the flag, is an ensign worn on British Royal Navy ships and shore establishments. It consists of a red St George's Cr ...

in July 2018, and therefore still in active service. The Royal Navy subsequently clarified that the ship had not been decommissioned due to delays in the delivery of the her planned successor, HMS ''Forth''. On 22 November 2018, Defence Secretary

Gavin Williamson Sir Gavin Alexander Williamson (born 25 June 1976) is a British politician who served in various Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak between 2016 and 2022, lastly as Minister of State without ...

further clarified that ''Tyne'' and her two Batch 1 sister ships would be retained in service and forward-operated from their affiliated rivers. The intention to forward-base the Batch 1s was later abandoned, with the ships to be retained in service until around 2028.

Post-reactivation

Despite plans to station ''Tyne'' on her affiliated river, the ship remained base-ported in Portsmouth as of February 2020. Between 1 January 2014 and 30 September 2019, she had spent a total of 1,081 days at sea. In December, she was tasked with shadowing the Russian Navy ''Perekop'' through the English Channel. In June 2021, ''Tyne'', along with and , was deployed off the Cornish coast to provide security for the

2021 G7 summit The 47th G7 summit was held from 11 to 13 June 2021 in Cornwall, England, during the United Kingdom's tenure of the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7), an inter-governmental political forum of seven advanced nations. The participants include ...

. In January 2025, ''Tyne'', was reported to be monitoring Russian spy ship '' Yantar'' in the North Sea along with .

Affiliations

Her affiliations included North Tyneside Council, St Catherines Primary School, Hadrian Special Needs Primary School, TS ''Caledonia'' (Peterhead Sea Cadets unit), TS ''Tyne'' (Newburn Sea Cadets unit), and the Worshipful Company of Butchers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tyne River-class patrol vessels Ships built in Southampton 2003 ships Ships of the Fishery Protection Squadron of the United Kingdom