HMS Bristol (D23)
HMS Bristol (D23) was a Type 82 destroyer, the only vessel of her class to be built for the Royal Navy. Bristol was intended to be the first of a class of large destroyers to escort the CVA-01 aircraft carriers projected to come into service in the early 1970s but the rest of the class and the CVA-01 carriers were cancelled as a result of the 1966 Defence White Paper which cut defence spending. Following a long career which included the Falklands War, she was converted into a training ship in 1987. In 1991 while part of the Dartmouth training squadron, she suffered a boiler explosion that damaged the vessel beyond economical repair. No longer having enough value to be sold to another navy, she became a Harbour Training ship at HMS Excellent. She was decommissioned in Portsmouth on 28 October 2020. Origin The CVA-01 fleet aircraft carrier was designed to replace the World War II vintage aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy. The first plans were for two carriers and to protect these carriers four new Type 82 area air defence destroyers were to be built. In 1963, the Minister of Defence Peter Thorneycroft, announced in Parliament that one