HMS Puma (F34)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Puma (F34)
Ordered:	28 June 1951
Builder:	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd
Laid down:	16 November 1953
Launched:	30 June 1954
Commissioned:	27 April 1957
Decommissioned:	1972
Fate:	Scrapped 1976
General characteristics
Class & type:	Leopard-class frigate
Propulsion:	8 x ASR1 V16 diesel engines, turbocharged, 1,260 BHP @ 900 RPM.
Speed:	25.4 kn. clear weather, calm, no wind.
Range:	7,500 nmi @ 16 kn
Complement:	228

HMS Puma (F34), was a Leopard-class Type 41 anti aircraft frigate of the British Royal Navy, named after the puma (Puma concolor).

Operational Service

In 1958 Puma began her third commission from Portland. During this commission she visited many foreign ports including Gibraltar, Las Palmas, Dakar, Bathurst, Freetown, Monrovia, Abidjan, Port Harcourt, Takoradi, Simonstown, Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island, East London, Diego Suarez, Durban, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Ascension Isles, Port Elizabeth, St. Helena, Copenhagen, and Gdynia. She was paid off at Plymouth in 1961. During this commission she took part in naval exercises and served in the Iceland Patrol.^[1]

A major refit of Puma took place in Portsmouth Dockyard between 1963 and 1964 and the ship eventually re-commissioned for service in 1965, where she spent the year touring the UK recruiting.^[2] In 1966 she sailed for a foreign leg of her commission travelling to West and South Africa, as well as the South Atlantic, and South America, before returning to Plymouth in 1967.^[3] In 1971 she undertook a Fishery Protection patrol in the Arctic and Barents Seas, using the northern Norwegian town of Honingsvag as a base, before paying off in Chatham in early 1972.

Commanding officers

^[4]

From	To	Captain
1957	1958	Commander M F Fell DSO DSC RN
1958	1960	Captain Richard Clayton RN
1961	1963	Captain D B N Mellis DSC RN.
1964	1966	Captain M N Lucey RN
1966	1967	Captain C J Cunningham DSC RN

References

1. Thompson, P (ed), The Third Commission of the Frigate HMS Puma, 1959-1961(NAAFI, London, S.E.11. 1st.ed., N.D. c1961)
2. http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/pdf-docs/puma01.pdf
3. http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/pdf-docs/puma02.pdf
4. Royal Navy Senior Appointments, Colin Mackie

Publications

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Marriott, Leo, 1983. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983, Ian Allen Ltd. ISBN 07110 1322 5