HMS Orkney (P299)

HMS Orkney was an Island-class patrol vessel of the Royal Navy. She is now TTS Nelson of the Trinidad and Tobago navy.

History
Orkney was built by Hall, Russell & Company in Aberdeen, launched on 29 June 1976 and commissioned in February of the following year. She was modelled on the ocean-going fishery protection vessels Jura and Westra. In 1993 she became involved in a fishing dispute with France around the Channel Islands.

Paid off in April 1999, she was laid up at Portsmouth Dockyard. Following decommissioning, her bell, name board and honours board were presented to Orkney Islands Council. She was sold to the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force and renamed TTS Nelson.

Service
As part of the Fishery Protection Squadron, along with her sister ships, she patrolled the waters around the UK (sometimes also Gibraltar) providing protection for Britain's fishing grounds, as well as providing oil and gas platform protection.

In 1978, Orkney coordinated the clean-up operation after the tanker Christos Bitas ran aground in the Irish Sea. She helped co-ordinate the search for survivors from the trawler Ocean Monarch off Fair Isle, in 1980 and recovered many of the bodies when the freighter Radiant Med sank off Guernsey in 1984.