HMS Bacchante (F69)- Leander Class Frigate Original Pencil Drawing by Naval Artist Len Hutton

Commissioned in 1969, HMS Bacchante served throughout the 1970s in a variety of roles, including time as part of Standing Force North Atlantic and escort to HMS Ark Royal and USS America.

She was to be damaged in the mid-1970s in a collision with HMNLS Holland and would be present at the Fleet Review for the United States Bicentennial. At the time of the Falklands War she been refitting but subsequently deployed on a protection mission to the Islands and it was during this cruise that her sale to the New Zealand Navy was announced. .

Re-commissioned as HMNZS Wellington and retaining her former pennant number of F69 the ship would serve until 2000 when final retirement came. She would eventually be sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of the New Zealand capital after which she had been named.

This is the original drawing from which our prints have been taken, it is A3 (42cm x 30cm : 16.5" x 12").