Operational History
Spartan was ordered to sail south for the Falkland Islands two days before the Argentine invasion of the islands on 30 March 1982. Spartan was the first ship to arrive in the islands and began to enforce a 200-mile (370-km) maritime exclusion zone imposed by the British. Shortly after, Spartan sighted Argentine merchant shipping mining the harbour at Stanley, but was not ordered to attack. This was partly due to British concerns about escalating the war too early, but also to avoid scaring off more lucrative targets such as the Argentine aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo. Unlike HMS Conqueror, Spartan did not fire in anger during the Falklands War, she did however provide valuable reconnaissance to the British Task Force on Argentine aircraft movements. Spartan's presence also ensured that the Argentine Navy would not dare leave its port.
In November 2010, it was reported in Hansard that Spartan had ran aground off the west coast of Scotland in October 1989.
In 1999, Spartan was fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Read more about this topic: HMS Spartan (S105)
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“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)