Antelope's magazines exploding on 24 May 1982
Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	23 March 1971
Launched:	16 March 1972
Commissioned:	19 July 1975
Decommissioned:
Fate:	Sunk by Argentine bomb on 24 May 1982.
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	3,250 tons full load
Length:	384 ft (117 m)
Beam:	41 ft 9 in (12.7 m)
Draught:	19 ft 6 in (5.9 m)
Propulsion:	Two Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines, plus two Rolls-Royce RM1A Tyne gas turbines for cruising
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	4,000 nautical miles at 17 knots (7,400 km at 31 km/h), 1,200 nautical miles at 30 knots (2,220 km at 56 km/h)
Complement:	177
Armament:	One Mk8 4.5 inch (110 mm) gun Two 20 mm Oerlikon guns Four SeaCat SAMs Two Corvus chaff launchers One Type 182 towed decoy
Aircraft:	One Westland Wasp when built, refitted later for one Westland Lynx
Motto:	Audax et vigilans (Daring and watchful)

HMS Antelope (F170) was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy that participated in the Falklands War. Her keel was laid down March 23, 1971 by Vosper Thornycroft in Woolston. She was commissioned July 17, 1975. She was the only unit of the class never to be fitted with Exocet launchers.

Antelope took part in the Falklands War. On May 23, 1982, while Antelope was on air defence duty at the entrance to San Carlos Water , protecting a beachhead established two days earlier, she came under attack by Argentine A-4 Skyhawk jets.

A 1100-pound bomb entered the ship's starboard side, just aft of the funnel. Another bomb hit the ship forward in the vicinity of the petty officers' mess, killing a steward. Both bombs failed to explode, but that night Army EOD specialists triggered one of the bombs during attempts to defuse it, and the ship was torn open from water line to funnel. The blast started major fires in both engine rooms, and the fires spread very quickly. The starboard fire main was fractured, the ship lost all electrical power, and the commanding officer, Commander Nick Tobin, gave the order to abandon ship. Tobin was the last person to leave the ship, and about five minutes after his departure, the missile magazines began exploding.

Explosions continued throughout the night, and the following day Antelope was found to be still afloat, but her keel had broken and her superstructure melted into a heap of twisted metal. Antelope broke in half and sank that day. TV and stills pictures of Antelopes demise became one of the defining images of the Falklands War and appear repeatedly in histories of the event.

On January 27, 2002, a diving team from HMS Montrose replaced the Naval Ensign on Antelope.

See HMS Antelope for other ships of the same name.