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HMS Chatham

Welcome to HMS Chatham's website.

HMS Chatham is the fourth and last of the Batch 3 Frigates and she is the seventh ship to bear the name. She was built on the Tyne by Swan Hunters Shipbuilders Ltd and was launched in 1988 by Lady Roni Oswald. HMS Chatham's design was modified after experience with earlier versions of the ship in the Falklands Conflict.

One of the most famous of our predecessors, built at Chatham Dockyard and launched in 1741, had the sad, but great, honour of transporting the body of Lord Nelson from HMS Victory, to Greenwich Hospital where he was to lie in state until his funeral at St Pauls.

The ship's company is very proud of her battle honours from Quiberon Bay in 1759 and the Dardanelles from 1915 to 1916.

HMS Chatham has the rare honour of having an English motto, subsequently translated into Latin. Shortly before the completion of the ship in 1989, it was decided that the traditional cry of "Up and At 'Em', familiar from rugby and football pitch touchlines within the towns of Medway where the ship was built, would be a fitting tribute. From this phrase, translated into Latin we have "Surge et Vince", or "Arise and Conquer".

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