Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve Fleet at Penarth Dock

I feel sure that some of the foregoing elements of the work and routine inspections, carried out on the ships stationed at Penarth Dock was undertaken by R. N. Fleet Reserve officers and ratings but most would have been undertaken by the personnel at the Penarth Pontoon, Slipway & Shiprepairing Co. Ltd.

The Ships of the Royal Navy and the Royal Naval Reserve Fleet at Penarth Dock

The records of the ships which formed the Reserve Fleet at Penarth Dock have been maintained mainly from the websites of those who have a love of Royal Navy history and heritage. My thanks to them all for their assistance. The ships are not presented in any particular order and I also include records of refits etc., from other years, not just from when the Reserve Fleet were stationed at the Penarth Dock.

H.M.S. Loch Dunvegan - (K 425) - She was a twin screw Loch Class vessel being a fast frigate built by Charles Hill of Bristol yard number 297, launched at their yard in March 1944.

She was one of three Loch Class frigates delivered to the British Admiralty during 1944. At that time, the peak production years, 1,350 men and 60 women were employed at the yard. For their services during the war years, six members of the Chas. Hill Company were awarded the British Empire Medal. By 1945, over 2,000 ships had passed through the yard for refits and repairs as well as the important task of arming merchant ships. It was during these wartime years that the company adopted as its motto the phrase "Shipshape and Bristol Fashion", being the name of the book from which I discovered the foregoing interesting information about the company. [265]

During the period January to April 1949 she was under refit at the Penarth Pontoon, Slipway & Shiprepairing Co. Ltd. and upon completion returned to Portsmouth. Early in 1956 she was returned to Bristol for the installation of dehumidication equipment etc. and in May that year she was towed to Penarth where she became part of the Reserve Fleet. She remained in Supplementary Reserve at Penarth until 1960 when she was placed on the disposal list. She was broken up at the Briton Ferry yard of T. W. Ward and arrived under tow in August 1960. [263]