HS SALAMIS

H.S. SALAMIS (F-455) is a type MEKO 200 HN multipurpose frigate of German design and was built at the Hellenic Shipyards of Skaramanga. She had the Greek flag raised on the 16th of December 1998, joined the Naval Forces of the Hellenic Navy in January 1999 and is of the same type as H.S. HYDRA, H.S. SPETSAI and H.S. PSARA. Apart from the continuous and successful participation in the operational training exercises of the Hellenic Navy since her commissioning, H.S. SALAMIS has taken part in various international missions. Suggestively, such missions were "Dynamic Mix" (May 2000), "Alexander the Great" (2001), "SNFM - Active Endeavour" (January - May 2004), "Marmaris International Maritime Festival" (April - May 2005) and "Neotapon"(May - June 2005).

H.S. SALAMIS is the second ship of the Hellenic Navy bearing that name. Initially, the name was about to be given to an under construction 19.000-ton Dreadnought type battleship that had been ordered in 1912 at the German shipyards of Vulcan. However, that ship was never delivered to the Hellenic Navy since the German shipyards interrupted its construction in December 1914 due to the outbreak of World War I. The first ship that finally received the name "SALAMIS" was a 1.963-ton fleet destroyer of maximum speed of 35 knots (29 knots under Hellenic command due to its aged boilers) that was granted on lend to the Hellenic Navy by the British Navy during World War II (former HMS BOREAS, built in 1929-1931). That ship was handed over to the Hellenic Navy in Liverpool on the 9th of February 1944 and remained under Hellenic Fleet command until September 22nd 1951. She was then towed to Malta and was returned to the British navy on October 31st 1951. The name "SALAMIS" was given to the ship in honour of the homonymous Hellenic island whose name has been linked for the past 2.500 years, in the Hellenic, European and international conscience, with one of the bigger in extent and consequences naval battle of all times that took place in the island's waters in 480 B.C. In this, substantially first, encounter between the East and West world, the united fleet of the Hellenic cities, including the Athenian triremes under the command of Themistocles, faced and defeated the invading Persian fleet under the command of Xerxes, even though Hellenic ships were significantly outnumbered .