Our Ship: HMS Andromeda (F57)

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She was one of three Batch 3 Broad-Beamed Leander-class frigates ordered on 12th January 1965, the other two being Hermione and Jupiter. Her keel was laid down at Portsmouth on 25th May 1966. She was launched on 24th May 1967 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 2nd December 1968, with the pennant number F57.

The commissioning ceremony was held at Portsmouth Dockyard. Captain Michael Stacey assumed command as her first Commanding Officer. Mrs Reynolds, wife of the Minister of Defence (Administration) Gerry Reynolds, presented a silver salver to the Captain. A Bible was gifted by the T.S. Andromeda Sea Cadet Corps unit. Rear Admiral A.J. Power, Admiral Superintendent, attended.

She would serve the Royal Navy for twenty-five years. Then she would serve the Indian Navy for seventeen more. Her story spans Cold War patrols, rescues at sea, collisions in the North Atlantic, the evacuation of civilians from a war zone, a once-in-a-generation modernisation, a war in the South Atlantic, and a second life training a new generation of naval officers on the other side of the world.

1969–1971: First Deployment - Persian Gulf, Far East, and the Beira Patrol

After work-up in home waters, Andromeda deployed in 1969 to the Persian Gulf and Far East as leader of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. Her first major operational task was the Beira Patrol, the Royal Navy's long-running enforcement of United Nations sanctions against Rhodesia, intercepting vessels suspected of delivering oil via the Mozambican port of Beira. It was one of the most politically significant Royal Navy operations of the Cold War, and it placed Andromeda squarely in the pattern of patrol, presence, and maritime constabulary work that would define much of her career.

It was during this deployment that one of the most dramatic incidents of her early life occurred. On 1st June 1970, the RFA tanker Ennerdale, outbound from Port Victoria, Mahé in the Seychelles to refuel Andromeda, struck an uncharted granite pinnacle of rock. The rock tore through her starboard side and she heeled over rapidly, settling on the bottom with her stern submerged and her bow in the air. Mercifully, there was no loss of life.

Andromeda was the first ship on scene and helped rescue the entire crew. Her Communications Officer at the time,  on exchange from the Royal Australian Navy, later recalled: "We limped into the Seychelles very short on fuel and then anchored until another tanker arrived. We then dived on the Ennerdale to recover crypto etc. The ship's side was clear of the water, and our helicopter landed on it several times."

The wreck of Ennerdale was later destroyed by torpedoes from the submarine HMS Cachalot. It now lies in three sections in 30 fathoms of water off Mahi and is a popular diving site.

Later that year, Andromeda was involved in two further incidents that underlined her role as a working ship, not just a warship. On 9th October 1970, Andromeda and her helicopter went to the aid of the tug RMAS Samsonia, which had suffered a mechanical breakdown while towing the landing ship Stalker in bad weather through the Pentland Firth. Then, on 23rd October 1970, the Liberian-flagged tanker Pacific Glory collided with the tanker Allegro off the Isle of Wight and caught fire. Thirteen men were killed aboard Pacific Glory. She ran aground on 24th October, and Andromeda took part in the large-scale clean-up operation that followed.

In 1971, Andromeda was present at Portsmouth Navy Days. In August that year, she joined the 6th Frigate Squadron as leader.

1973–1976: The Cod Wars - Rammed Three Times

The Cod Wars were not wars in the conventional sense, but for the crews who served in them, they were physical, stressful, and genuinely dangerous, a form of maritime brinkmanship played out at close quarters in the North Atlantic, where frigates and Icelandic gunboats manoeuvred around British trawlers at high speed, with the constant risk of collision.

Andromeda served in both the Second and Third Cod Wars, and she bears the scars, literally, of all three.

During the Second Cod War in 1973, Andromeda patrolled Icelandic waters to intervene in case of interference with British fishing vessels. On 11th August 1973, she was rammed by the Icelandic gunboat Odin.

Then came the Third Cod War, which was more intense and more politically charged. On 28th December 1975, the Icelandic gunboat Týr rammed Andromeda, damaging her guardrail and a chaff launcher.

The worst collision came on 7th January 1976, when the gunboat Thor struck Andromeda. The Imperial War Museums hold a record of the incident: "Andromeda had been on a steady course designed to prevent Thor making a cutting run at the trawler Portia. Without warning, Thor altered course violently to starboard and rammed Andromeda's port quarter with his starboard bow." Ten minutes earlier, Thor and Andromeda had been passing close by the trawler Ross Resolution at 20 knots when Thor deliberately altered course in an attempt to force Andromeda onto the trawler.

Andromeda received a 12-foot (3.7m) dent in her hull. Thor was holed. British defence officials called it a "deliberate attack on a British warship without regard for life." The Icelandic coastguard insisted Andromeda had done the ramming. It was the kind of contested, high-stakes confrontation that defined the Cod Wars, and it meant Andromeda had to return to Devonport for repairs.

The Third Cod War ended with a NATO-negotiated agreement on 6th June 1976. Britain was limited to 24 trawlers within a 200-mile zone for an annual catch of up to 50,000 tonnes. The restrictions cost 8,000 British jobs. For the men aboard ships like Andromeda, who had put themselves between trawlers and gunboats in freezing North Atlantic waters, the political outcome was bittersweet.

1974: Cyprus - Evacuation and Rescue

Between the Cod Wars, Andromeda was called to a very different kind of operation. In July 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus, and the Royal Navy mounted an emergency evacuation of British civilians from the island. Andromeda was one of the ships immediately available, alongside Hermes, Devonshire, Rhyl, and others. The Royal Navy evacuated over 1,500 civilians from northern Cyprus during the operation.

One incident from this deployment deserves special mention. During the invasion, Turkish aircraft mistakenly attacked and sank their own destroyer, TCG Kocatepe, in a friendly-fire incident. Lieutenant Ian McKechnie, flying Andromeda's Westland Wasp helicopter, helped rescue survivors from the water. He is credited with saving 72 Turkish sailors in a single night, a feat later recognised as one of the Fleet Air Arm's great lifesaving actions.

1977: The Silver Jubilee Fleet Review

In 1977, Andromeda took part in the Fleet Review of the Royal Navy during the Silver Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II. It was one of the last great ceremonial fleet gatherings of the era,  and remains, to date, the most recent full Fleet Review.

1977–1980: Reborn - The Sea Wolf Modernisation

Shortly after the Fleet Review, Andromeda entered Devonport Dockyard for a major reconstruction that would fundamentally change what she was and what she could do.

Between November 1977 and December 1980, every weapon and every radar was stripped out and replaced. Andromeda was the first of only five Broad-Beamed Leander's to receive the Sea Wolf conversion,  a programme that cost approximately £70 million per ship. She emerged as one of the most capable frigates in the fleet: a sextuple Sea Wolf surface-to-air missile launcher forward, four Exocet anti-ship missiles, two triple STWS-1 torpedo tubes, a completely new radar suite, the Type 2016 long-range search sonar, and an enlarged hangar and flight deck for the Westland Lynx helicopter.

The ship that left Devonport was barely recognisable as the one that had entered it three years earlier. Navy News later described her as one of the most complex and powerful ships of her class. Her displacement had increased to 3,300 tons full load and her top speed had dropped to 25 knots, but what she could do in a fight had been transformed.

The full technical details of both her original and modernised configurations can be found on our Technical Specifications page.

1982: The Falklands War

When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982, Andromeda was on deployment in the Western Atlantic. She was recalled to the UK and then sailed south as part of the Bristol Group,  the second wave of reinforcements sent to join the main task force. She exercised at Ascension Island en route.

On 25th May 1982, Andromeda entered the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands. She arrived off the islands on 26th May and was immediately assigned to the role that would define her war: close escort to the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible.

Andromeda was the goalkeeper,  the last line of defence. Her Sea Wolf system made her one of only three frigates in the fleet capable of close-in anti-air defence (the others were Broadsword and Brilliant). Her job was to keep Invincible alive. If a missile or a submarine had got through to the carrier, the consequences would have been catastrophic. Andromeda's job was to make sure that didn't happen.

The Exocet Incident - 30th May 1982

The most dramatic moment of Andromeda's war came on 30th May, and it was witnessed first-hand by her own Lynx pilot, Lieutenant Larry Jeram-Croft.

Three ships were on picket duty to the west of the main task force that day: Avenger to the south, Exeter in the middle, and Andromeda to the north. Jeram-Croft was airborne at 6,000 feet ahead of the picket line, listening for Etendard radar emissions on ESM equipment.

They picked up the signal. Two Argentine Super Étendards were inbound. The fleet went to "Zippo 1" - Exocet attack warning.

One Exocet was fired. It was Argentina's last air-launched Exocet missile of the war.

The missile locked onto Andromeda. This was confirmed in the ops room, Exocet seeker-head lock-on was detected by the ship's UAA1 ESM equipment. HMS Exeter also tracked it passing astern of them, heading straight for Andromeda.

Andromeda's Sea Wolf should have been capable of shooting it down. But the Exocet ran out of fuel and splashed into the sea before it reached engagement range.

Jeram-Croft recalled: "An interesting day all round."

The surviving Argentine A-4 Skyhawks bombed HMS Avenger and missed. HMS Invincible was miles away and was not damaged in any way, a fact that Jeram-Croft has publicly stated to counter persistent Argentine claims to the contrary. As an eyewitness to the entire incident, his account is the definitive one.

Jeram-Croft's helicopter had been fitted with an experimental Exocet jammer, which he had personally trialled against a live missile at Aberporth. He later wrote the novel Sea Skimmer, based on his experience flying from Andromeda during the Falklands, and has since published non-fiction books on the Lynx and Wasp helicopters and an autobiography covering his Royal Navy flying career.

After the Surrender

Following the Argentine surrender on 14th June 1982, Andromeda was among the first British warships to enter Port Stanley. Her white ensign was flown over Port Stanley to mark the recapture of the Falkland Islands.

The iconic aerial photograph from the Imperial War Museums shows the task force conducting a victory sail past of Port Stanley shortly after the surrender, with Andromeda leading the line: Andromeda, Bristol, Invincible, Broadsword, RFA Tidepool, RFA Tidespring, RFA Regent, and Hermes.

After visiting South Georgia in August 1982, Andromeda sailed for home, arriving at Devonport on 10th September to jubilant crowds.

The ship's company earned the battle honour "Falkland Islands 1982."

Captain James Weatherall

Andromeda's Commanding Officer during the Falklands was Captain J.L. Weatherall, who went on to become one of the most distinguished naval officers of his generation. He later commanded HMS Ark Royal, served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, and was appointed HM Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, serving from 1992 to 2001. He was knighted as Sir James Weatherall KCVO KBE.

After the Falklands, Captain Weatherall personally visited Doncaster Mansion House and presented the white ensign that had flown over Port Stanley to Doncaster Council, a gift that remains on display there today. Sir James Weatherall died on 18th March 2018.

1983–1985: Armilla, the Falklands, and Refit

After the Falklands, Andromeda resumed the pattern of worldwide deployments that characterised the later Cold War Royal Navy.

In 1983, she deployed on the Armilla Patrol in the Persian Gulf, protecting merchant shipping during the Iran–Iraq War. Ports visited during this deployment included Djibouti, Cochin, Singapore, Mombasa, Mauritius, Réunion, and the Maldives.

She returned to the Falklands in 1984 for post-conflict stabilisation duties. In late summer 1984, she docked at Baltimore Harbor in the United States for ten days, en route from the Falklands back to England.

In 1985, Andromeda entered refit at Devonport. On completion, she carried out operational work-up at Portland — the gruelling assessment process that every Royal Navy warship had to pass before returning to front-line duties. On leaving Portland, her base port moved from Plymouth to Portsmouth, bringing her back to the city that had built her seventeen years earlier.

1985–1987: Captain of the 8th Frigate Squadron

Andromeda emerged from her refit and work-up as a renewed ship and took on a new role: she became Captain of the 8th Frigate Squadron (F8), under the command of Captain Jeremy Sanders.

The first major deployment in this new chapter was an Armilla Patrol from October 1986 to February 1987, operating alongside HMS Nottingham in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. The Iran–Iraq War was still raging, and the Gulf was one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world for merchant shipping.

The outward journey took Andromeda through the Suez Canal. While transiting, part of the ship's company took the opportunity to visit the Pyramids, one of those unexpected perks of a naval career that no recruiting poster ever quite captures. Those who stayed aboard were treated to a visit from the Gully Gully Man, the legendary Egyptian conjurer who had been entertaining Royal Navy ships passing through the Suez Canal for decades, performing close-up magic tricks on the flight deck for a mesmerised audience. It was a rite of passage; if you transited Suez, you met the Gully Gully Man.

The patrol took Andromeda through Gibraltar, where she paused for engine room repairs. The timing turned out to be remarkably fortunate. On 26th October 1986, while Andromeda was alongside, HMS Ark Royal hosted Ark Royal: The Rock Show on her flight deck, Rock Around the Rock Gibraltar 1986 as it is sometimes called, a concert featuring Cyndi Lauper, Alison Moyet, Bob Geldof, and Paul Young, filmed for broadcast on BBC television on Christmas Day. With Andromeda in port and her crew at a loose end while the engineers worked, the ship's company found themselves with front-row access to one of the more surreal events of the 1980s Royal Navy: rock stars performing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, with the Rock of Gibraltar as a backdrop. Crew members met and mingled with the artists during the event, the kind of unexpected run-ashore that becomes a dit for life. Andromeda sailed on the Monday after the show ended, resuming her deployment.

For the men who were there, it remains one of the more unlikely highlights of a commission that also included Gulf escort duty and the routine grind of keeping merchant shipping safe in a war zone. Some of them later spotted themselves on television when the show aired on Christmas Day,  by which time they were several thousand miles away, watching it during their Christmas stopover in Mombasa.

On this patrol, Andromeda visited Djibouti, Mombasa, the Seychelles, Sharjah, and Haifa. The return journey brought one final chapter. After passing back through the Suez Canal, Andromeda diverted to Cyprus to embark a group of British Army personnel for passage to Gibraltar. It should have been a straightforward Mediterranean transit. It wasn't. Shortly after leaving Cyprus, the weather deteriorated rapidly and the Mediterranean produced one of its notorious winter storms, with conditions reaching Force 10,  whole gale, with wind speeds of 48 to 55 knots and sea states that could test any ship. For the soldiers aboard, most of whom had never been to sea in anything more demanding than a ferry, it was an introduction to the Royal Navy they hadn't bargained for. For Andromeda's crew, it was a reminder that the sea doesn't care what your programme says. The ship made it through, the soldiers were delivered to Gibraltar rather greener than when they'd embarked, and Andromeda returned to Portsmouth.

Former crew members recall that during this deployment, Andromeda responded after a tanker she was escorting was struck by an Iranian missile, and later helped recover missile fragments for technical analysis. Published sources confirm that Andromeda was serving on Armilla Patrol at the time, and that Iranian Silkworm missile attacks and gunboat operations against shipping were taking place in the Gulf during the same period. The precise tanker involved has not yet been firmly identified from open sources, but the recollection is strongly in keeping with the operational conditions faced by the ship in 1987. For the crew, it was the moment the Gulf deployment stopped being routine and became very real.

1987: Second Gulf Deployment

A second Armilla deployment followed almost immediately, from July to December 1987, this time under the command of Captain Neil E. Rankin. The Gulf remained volatile. British warships on Armilla Patrol were escorting merchant vessels through waters where mines, missile attack, and air threat were constant concerns. It was demanding, unglamorous, essential work, the kind of sustained operational commitment that rarely made headlines but kept the sea lanes open.

1988–1989: Wilhelmshaven, JMC 32, and the Sinking of HMS Galatea

In March 1988, Andromeda visited Wilhelmshaven in Germany,  a port call that reflected the routine NATO engagement and flag-showing that was part of every frigate's programme. In June 1988, she was at Rosyth.

In July 1988, Andromeda took part in Joint Maritime Course 32 (JMC 32), one of the Royal Navy's major multi-ship exercises. It was during this exercise, on 21st July 1988, that one of the more memorable episodes of her later career took place: the sink exercise (SINKEX) in which the decommissioned frigate HMS Galatea was used as a target and destroyed in the North Atlantic.

Former crew members recall Andromeda's direct involvement in the firing. Published accounts consistently confirm Galatea's loss on that date, and reports linked to the exercise describe the target being hit by Sea Skua and Exocet missiles,  a combination that aligns closely with Andromeda's late-service weapon and helicopter capability. Although an official published source naming Andromeda as the firing platform has not yet been identified, the recollections of her crew are consistent with the known date, setting, and weapons involved, and remain an important part of the ship's remembered history. For any crew member, watching a Leander-class frigate, a ship of their own class, go down under missile fire was not something easily forgotten.

Under the command of Commander Charles Style, Andromeda deployed again on Armilla Patrol from November 1988 to March 1989. By now, the Iran–Iraq War was entering its final phase,  a ceasefire had been declared in August 1988, but the Gulf remained tense, and the threat to merchant shipping had not fully subsided. Andromeda continued to provide escort and presence until her return to Portsmouth in the spring of 1989.

West Indies deployments and routine NATO exercises also featured during this period. Throughout the late 1980s, as Captain of the 8th Frigate Squadron, Andromeda was at the heart of the Royal Navy's forward-deployed frigate force, always somewhere, always working, always on call.

1990–1993: Final Refit and Decommissioning

Between 1990 and 1991, Andromeda underwent her final refit. She was decommissioned from the Royal Navy in 1993, after twenty-five years of service.

1995–2012: A Second Life - INS Krishna

Andromeda's story did not end with the Royal Navy. In 1995, she was sold to the Indian Navy and commissioned on 22nd August 1995 as the training ship INS Krishna (F46), assigned to the First Training Squadron.

Her armament was reduced to two Bofors 40mm guns and two Oerlikon 20mm cannon, and she was configured for her new role: training the next generation of Indian naval officers. Over seventeen years of Indian service, Krishna trained more than 1,300 officers, steamed approximately 323,750 nautical miles, and visited 32 ports in 23 countries. She carried approximately 80 cadets alongside a ship's company of 221 sailors and 18 officers.

In January 2012, INS Krishna cast off from Kochi Naval Base for the final time, sailing to Mumbai for decommissioning. Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command, said at the departure: "She will go to her decommissioning with great pride, and she is going on her own steam. She has trained generations of cadets to make them fine leaders."

INS Krishna was decommissioned at Mumbai on 24th May 2012 - exactly 44 years to the day after her launch at Portsmouth. Later that year, she was towed to the Bay of Bengal and sunk during live-fire target practice exercises by Indian Navy ships.

The Ship May Be Gone

HMS Andromeda was built at Portsmouth, served for twenty-five years under the White Ensign, trained a generation of Indian naval officers under a different flag, and ended her days in the Bay of Bengal, 44 years after she first touched the water.

She was the last warship out of Portsmouth. She rescued crews, evacuated civilians, was rammed by gunboats, survived an Exocet lock-on, guarded an aircraft carrier through a war, and led the victory sail past at Port Stanley. She served in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Far East.

The ship is gone. But her story isn't finished, and that's partly what this association is for.

If you served aboard HMS Andromeda at any time between 1968 and 1993, and you have stories, photographs, or memories you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at hmsandromedasecretary@gmail.com.

A Note on Sources

This history draws on published naval records, Imperial War Museums archives, Jane's Fighting Ships, Indian Navy press releases, the Historical RFA, the Doncaster Mansion House, first-hand accounts from crew members posted online, and the research of the association's members. Where accounts differ, particularly around the sequence of events at Port Stanley after the Argentine surrender, we have noted this honestly. If you can help fill any gaps, please get in touch. The best history of any ship is written by the people who served aboard her.