HMS Exeter D89 Type 42 Destroyer 26 September 1985 Port Side Photo Print

HMS Exeter (D89), a Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer, steams across a grey, rippled sea under a heavy overcast sky on 26 September 1985, seen side on from close to the water with her port side to the camera and her bow on the left. Her 4.5-inch gun is on the forecastle with the Sea Dart launcher just behind it, and the two white radar domes stand fore and aft. A string of signal flags flies from her foremast, beside the White Ensign. A thin trail of dark exhaust drifts from her funnel, a Lynx helicopter sits ready on her flight deck aft, and members of her ship’s company are out on the upper deck. Like the frigate HMS Jupiter, photographed by the US Navy on the same day, she carries no pennant number. Exeter was built by Swan Hunter on the Tyne and commissioned on 19 September 1980, the first of the modified Batch 2 Type 42s. In 1982 she was sent south to the Falklands to replace her lost sister HMS Sheffield. There her Sea Dart missiles shot down two Skyhawks on 30 May, a reconnaissance Learjet on 7 June and a Canberra bomber on 13 June. In 1985 she and Jupiter were on the Armilla Patrol, protecting British shipping in the Gulf region. In the 1991 Gulf War she provided air defence for American battleships and minehunters. She was decommissioned in 2009 and towed to Turkey for scrapping in 2011. You can read more about the history of HMS Exeter HERE This print is ideal for those who served in HMS Exeter on her 1985 Armilla Patrol, Falklands veterans and anyone with a connection to her ship’s flight. Product Details Image Taken: 26th September 1985 Photographer: PH2 Frank Davidson, USN © Public Domain - Restored by Hampshire Prints