Tribal class frigate

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Type 81-class
HMS Eskimo
General Characteristics
Displacement:	2,300 tons standard/2,700 tons full load
Length:	360 ft
Beam:	42.3 ft
Draught:	17.5 ft
Propulsion:	1 shaft, 2 (one steam and one gas turbine) Combination of Steam and Gas (COSAG), 1 boilers, 12,500 shp (steam)/7,500 shp (gas)
Speed:	28 knots (gas)/20 knots (steam)
Range:	5300 nautical miles at 12 knots
Complement:	253
Armament:	2 x 4.5-in gun 2 x 40mm (replaced with 2 x 20mm Oerlikons) 8 x SeaCat later added 1 x Mk 10 Limbo ASW mortar
Aircraft:	1 Westland Wasp

The Type 81 (Tribal) class were a seven ship class of general-purpose frigates, the first of the Royal Navy, designed during the 1950s due to the increasing cost of having single-role vessels such as the Type 14ss. They were also designed to be self-contained warships, at a time when British foriegn policy was still concentrated colonially, specifically, in the Middle East, and thus were designed with air conditioning to allow them to operate effectively in such humid regions, as-well as all bunk sleeping.

The class were the first class of the RN to be designed from the start to operate a helicopter. The class were better armed than many previous classes, with two 4.5-in guns, and also later, three of the class were armed with the Seacat missile launcher. The Tribals also had another first, being powered by a Combination of Steam and Gas (COSAG).

The costs for the Tribals escalated above the costs first envisaged, and the original amount of ships, over twenty, were cancelled after the first seven ships had been completed. The class were still good warships despite their cost, proving the usefullness of the general purpose frigate, a type of frigate type that can now be seen in the modern Type 22 and Type 23s.

The ships were still rather small, at 360 ft, which prevented much modernisation, and all were decommissioned from the Royal Navy during the 1970s, the manpower crisis for the RN also attributing to the removal of the class from RN service. Three Tribals were sold to Indonesia.