Overseas Service
Leander-class frigates were also successfully exported to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy and Chilean Navy; in the latter they were designated as the Condell class. Further Leander-class frigates were built under licence in Australia as the River class for the Royal Australian Navy, India as the Nilgiri class and the Netherlands as the Van Speijk class. Royal Navy ships were sold to the navies of Chile, Ecuador, New Zealand (Bacchante becoming HMNZS Wellington and Dido becoming HMNZS Southland), India and Pakistan.
No original Leanders remain in service, but the Indonesia ex-Van Speijk class are still in service. Pakistan decommissioned the last of its Leander-class frigates, Zulfiqar, in January 2007, Ecuador decommissioned both her Leanders in 2008. India decommissioned her last Leander on 24 May 2012.
HMNZS Canterbury, the last steam-turbine driven Leander-class frigate in the Royal New Zealand Navy, was decommissioned in Auckland on 31 March 2005 after 33 years operational service. In 2006 it was announced that the ship was to be sunk as a dive attraction in the Bay of Islands, and this was carried out on 3 November 2007 at Deep Water Cove.
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Famous quotes containing the word service:
“O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)