LÉ Deirdre (P20)

History
Ireland
Name:	Deirdre
Namesake:	Deirdre
Builder:	Verolme Cork Dockyard, Cork
Yard number:	819
Laid down:	10 August 1971
Launched:	21 January 1972
Commissioned:	19 June 1972
Decommissioned:	2001
Struck:	2003
Homeport:	Cork
Identification:	P20
Fate:	Sold for scrapping
General characteristics
Type:	Offshore patrol vessel
Displacement:	972 tonnes max
Length:	56.1 m (184 ft) overall
Beam:	10.42 m (34.2 ft)
Draught:	4.38 m (14.4 ft)
Speed:	33.3 km/h (18.0 kn) maximum
Boats & landing craft carried:	3
Complement:	47 (6 officers and 41 ratings )
Armament:	1 × 40 mm/60 Bofors 2 × 12.7 mm machine guns

LÉ Deirdre (P20) was a ship in the Irish Naval Service. She was named after Deirdre, a tragic heroine from Irish mythology who committed suicide after her lover's murder.

Deirdre was built as a replacement for the Ton-class minesweepers. She was to have longer range and be a more seaworthy ship for work in the Atlantic. Deirdre became the prototype for the later Emer-type vessels.

Deirdre was one of the vessels involved in the 1979 Fastnet race rescue operations, assisting the crews of two yachts - SV Regardless of Cork and SV Silver Apple of Howth.

Deirdre was sold at public auction for IR£190,000. She was purchased by the English yacht chartering company Seastream International for conversion into luxury charter yacht Tosca IV for the company's owner, businessman Christopher Matthews. Speaking on the radio, a Seastream spokesman appeared pleased with their bargain as they had been prepared to bid up to IR£500,000. The auction starting price had been IR£60,000.

The conversion in a Polish shipyard was not completed as the English owner died. In 2007 she was towed to Brazil for further refit and completion.^[1] Substantially complete, she arrived at Jacksonville, Florida in September 2012 for final outfitting as Santa Rita I. However, in August 2014, Santa Rita I was towed to Green Cove Springs, Florida, for breaking.^[2]

References

Fleet of the Irish Naval Service
Active fleet	Eithne Orla Ciara Róisín Niamh Samuel Beckett James Joyce William Butler Yeats
Decommissioned	Macha Maev Cliona Setanta Ferdia Grainne Banba Fola Deirdre Emer Aoife Aisling
On order	Unnamed Beckett-class OPV