New_Zealand_Navy_-_frigate_HMNZS_Canterbury_-_9

HMNZS Canterbury (F421) was one of two broad beam Leander-class frigates operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1971 to 2005. She was built in Scotland and launched in 1970. Commissioned in 1971, Canterbury saw operational service in much of Australasia and other regions like the Persian Gulf. She undertook operations such as supporting UN sanctions against Iraq and peace-keeping in East Timor. With her sister ship HMNZS Waikato she relieved the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amazon in the Indian Ocean during the Falklands War. Early in HMNZS Canterbury's career she relieved the frigate HMNZS Otago at Moruroa during anti-nuclear protests, in 1973, F 421 being the most effectively insulated frigate, from nuclear fallout, with the Improved Broad Beam Leander steam plant, for e.g., being remote controlled and capable of unmanned operation and therefore the ship a more effective sealed citadel for operations in areas of nuclear explosions.

Canterbury was decommissioned in 2005. In 2007 she was scuttled in the Bay of Islands to provide a dive wreck. She lies in 38 metres (125 ft) of water.

New Zealand
Name: HMNZS Canterbury (F421)
Namesake: Canterbury Region
Operator: Royal New Zealand Navy
Builder: Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down: 12 June 1969
Launched: 6 May 1970
Commissioned: 22 October 1971
Decommissioned: 21 March 2005
Homeport: Lyttelton
Fate: Scuttled 3 November 2007 as an artificial reef
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNZS_Canterbury_(F421)

I have many fond memories of exercises and "up top" meetings at sea with this old girl, like all kiwi ships she had a great ships company. Plenty of fights with them in Singapore...unless the USN or RN was in town then it was all together against the "yanks" or the "poms"