HMS FIFE (D20)

The final voyage for the Royal Navy's County-class destroyer, HMS FIFE (D20) was a Great Lakes tour. Working down on Toronto's Harbourfront had it's benefits for boatlubbers like me and while taking an extended lunch one afternoon in May 1987, I took these photos of the FIFE as she left Toronto harbour destined to Chicago, Milwaukee and other ports of call. Commissioned in June 1966 and the fifth of eight ships in her class, the FIFE was under refit and missed action in the 1982 Falkland conflict. In 1986 she became a moving training ship and was deployed in the Mediterranean before her North American and Great Lakes tour. On her returned home in June 1987, the FIFE was decommissioned and then later sold to the Chilean Navy. Renamed BLANCO ENCALADA, she sailed the southern seas for another  17 years before being sold for scrap in November 2005.