History & Modifications
All ships:
Only Scarborough, Eastbourne and Whitby were completed with torpedo tubes, and the other three
ships were fitted with them in the late 1950s. Due to the poor performance of contemporary torpedoes,
the tubes were removed from all ships by 1965. The STAAG mounting was also removed from all ships
due to maintainance problems and replaced by a single 40mm gun.
Blackpool:
Blackpool was loaned to the New Zealand navy between 1966 and 1971 while the frigate Canterbury was
being built. On return, her 4.5" turret was removed, and she was used for target practice for ships
based at Rosyth. She was sold for scrapping to J.A. White, St David On Forth, in September 1977 and
arrived for scrapping in May 1978.
Eastbourne:
Eastbourne was completed at Vickers Barrow yard. She had all her armament removed in 1973 and was
used as a training ship until 1979 when she was used as a harbour training hulk. She arrived for
scrapping at Inverkeithing on 7th March 1985.
Scarborough:
Scarborough was sold to Pakistan in 1974, but the sale was cancelled. She arrived for scrapping at
Blyth in August 1977.
Tenby:
Tenby was sold to Pakistan in 1974, but the sale was cancelled. She was scrapped at Briton Ferry in
1977.
Torquay:
From 1966, Torquay was used mostly as a training ship. Until 1974 she was part of the Dartmouth
Training Squadron, and was then used as a trials ship for CAAIS, or Computer Assisted Action
Information System.
Torquay was intended to be disposed of in the 1981 defence review, but was retained until
decommissioning in March 1985, and she was sold for scrapping in 1987.
Whitby:
Whitby was decommissioned in 1975 and arrived for scrapping in January 1979 at Queenborough.