The ship also provides a training venue for RN courses. Military training teaches students to fend off intruders, and slingers move heavy machinery in the confines of the engine rooms. Medics, divers, chaplains also gain from training in, around and under Bristol. Bristol, as a Type 82 destroyer, was first conceived to provide escort cover for the new 53,000 tonne carriers proposed in the 1960's. When these carriers were cancelled in 1969, the escort destroyer programme followed. But the first of the class was well advanced, and approval was given to complete this one ship. In her time, Bristol was considered a versatile with three modern weapons systems backed by a sophisticated Action Data Automation system involving four types of radar and two sonar. She also had the capacity to act as a Flagship and Command and Control platform for a Task Group commander with an extensive communications suite. It was in this role as Flagship that she relieved HMS Hermes in the later stages of the Falklands Conflict in 1982. In 1987 Bristol became flagship to the Dartmouth Training Squadron where she offered sea training for officer cadets. The current HMS Bristol is the seventh ship to bear the name, a title that was also briefly carried by a shore establishment in Bristol from 1942 - 43. The first Bristoll - with the extra 'l' - was part of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth Fleet in the war against Holland. Launched in 1653, this 48-gunship foundered in April 1709 after successful battle with a French raider. On her loss, the second Bristol was promptly ordered, and the 4th rate served her country for 57 years, 1711-68. The Bristol of 1773 to 1810 had one particularly notable member of the ship's company. In less than six months, Lt Horatio Nelson rose from Third Lieutenant to become First Lieutenant in 1778. The next Bristol only held the name for two years from 1812-14, changed from Agincourt when she became a prison ship. The fifth Bristol was a wood screw frigate powered by sail and steam that served from 1861 to 1883. The penultimate Bristol was a protected cruiser of the Town class, the only one with two screws rather than the standard quadruple propulsion. She was launched in 1910, and survived World War I to be broken up in 1921. Facts and Figures Class: Type 82 destroyer Pennant Number: D23 Builder: Swan Hunter, Wallsend-on-Tyne Launched: 30 June 1969 Commissioned: 31 March 1973 Decommissioned: July 1991 Recommissioned: 7 May 1993 as National Cadet Forces and Royal Navy Harbour Training Ship Displacement: 6,300 tons Length: 154 metres Beam: 16.5 metres Draught: 5 metres INITIAL COMMISSION Speed: 30 knots Range: 5,000 miles at 18 knots Complement: 407 (29 officers and 378 ratings) Weapons: Ikara homing torpedo system (removed 1985); Sea Dart; mortar system; 4.5in Mk8 GP single-mounted rapid-fire gun; 20mm Oerlikons; 20mm GAMBO BMARC and 30mm twin BMARC close range Main machinery: Two AEI steam turbines in tandem with two Rolls Royce gas turbines; 60,000shp; twin screw CURRENT COMMISSION Complement: 43 officers ratings and contract civilians Numbers trained (2001): 5,122 RN; 12,307 youths; 17,429 total Numbers trained (to end of April 2002); 1,378 RN; 4,857 youths; 6,235 total Boats: Bosun dinghies, Lasers, Cheverton champs, Toppers and Admiralty Sailing Craft (Ship of the Month August 2002) . (HMS.BRISTOL was the only TYPE 82 guided missile built destroyer for the Royal Navy.)

HMS BRISTOL Was an escort destroyer launched in 1972 and the only one of its type ever built. The 6,000 ton warship had 600 crew, was 507 ft long and could travel at 30 knots. In her day she was Britain's most powerful missile ship. She was armed with Sea Dart missiles, a 4.5 inch gun, Ikara anti-submarine torpedoes and an anti-submarine mortar, and was packed with state of the art technology. And she was one of the first to have her interior designed by fashion consultants, and to have her own television studio and cameras. She could be the last HMS Bristol - the Admiralty says that no ship is being built or planned that is suitable to carry the name of this great city...