ATLANTIC CONVEYOR AND DESTROYER SHEFFIELD

Atlantic Conveyor was a British transport ship (so-called container ship) from the Cold War period. The ship was built at the Swan Hunter shipyard in Great Britain. The launch of the unit took place in 1969, and the unit entered service a year later. The overall length of the ship was 212 meters and a width of 28 meters. The maximum speed was 23 knots. The carrying capacity of the vessel was up to 14,950 tons. The Atlantic Conveyor was originally built for the civilian shipping line Cunard Line for container freight, but was also adapted to the transport of rolling loads (CONRO type). The ship was mobilized for service in the Royal Navy in April 1982 in connection with the Falklands War. Later that month, it was converted at the Davenport shipyard into an aircraft and helicopter carrier. In total, it could take 23 aircraft on board. The reconstruction mainly involved a significant strengthening of the structure, adding residential containers and tanks for aviation fuel. Interestingly, the unit was not armed. The Atlantic Conveyor was sunk in May 1982 as a result of an AM.39 Exocet rocket hit.HMS Sheffield (D80) was a British Cold War missile destroyer. The keel was laid in 1970, the launch took place in June 1971, and entry into service with the Royal Navy took place in February 1975. The total length of the ship was 125 meters, total width 14.3 meters, and the full displacement - approx. 4,800 tons. The maximum speed was around 30 knots. The on-board armament consisted of two Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile launchers and a single 114 mm gun. The unit could be based on one in-flight helicopter such as the Westland Lynx. HMS Sheffield was a type 42 in the Batch 1 version. Destroyers of this type were designed in the late 1960s and were intended to provide anti-aircraft cover for Royal Navy ships. They were also designed to complement the much larger Type 82 destroyers (the so-called Bristol type). No doubt, at the time of launch, HMS Sheffield had good electronic equipment and good seagoing prowess, but it was far from underarmed and had no direct defense armament, which proved to be a fatal mistake. The unit was damaged in the course of the Falklands war in 1982 as a result of an air attack with an Exocet rocket, which it was unable to destroy with the available on-board weapons. Worse still, single rocket damage caused such severe damage that on May 10, 1982 (six days after the attack), HMS Sheffield sank.