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MINISTERS HAVE confirmed the names of five new warships planned for the Royal Navy and to be ordered as batch two of the Type 26 programme. During a visit to the Scottish capital on 29 November, defence secretary Gavin Williamson announced the seventh of eight Type 26 frigates would be called HMS Edinburgh.
She will be the seventh ship since 1707 to carry the name, in the wake of arguably its most famous of forebears, the Town-class light cruiser, which served on the Arctic Convoys in the Second World War. The flagship of Rear Adm Stuart Bonham Carter, she was scuttled on 2 May 1942 after being torpedo by U-456 while escorting Convoy QP 11. She sank carrying 4.5 tons of gold to the UK – partial payment by the USSR for supplying military equipment. On 30 September Williamson had validated the fourth ship as HMS Birmingham, a name previously assigned to two light cruisers and a Type 42 destroyer.
On 22 November, defence minister Stuart Andrew revealed that a new ship would be called HMS Sheffield, the fourth ship known by the famous title. The first Sheffield was a Town-class cruiser that played an important role in…
