down at Hall, Russell & Company's Aberdeen shipyard as yard number 986 on 25 April 1980 as the second Castle-class patrol vessel. This was in advance of a formal order for the two ships being placed, which did not take place until 8 August that year. She was launched on 3 June 1981, and was completed on 12 March 1982. Service Dumbarton Castle commissioned at Rosyth on 26 March 1982, and was assigned the pennant number P265. In April 1982, the Falklands War began when Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April. Dumbarton Castle sailed from her base at Rosyth on 26 April for HMNB Portsmouth to be fitted with additional communications equipment and a desalination plant to better suit her to support the British task force sailing to retake the Falklands. Dumbarton Castle left Portsmouth on 1 May, arriving at Ascension Island on 11 May, where she was employed as a despatch vessel, ferrying stores between Ascension and the Task Force, and between warships of the task force. She returned to Rosyth in August 1982. Dumbarton Castle was awarded the battle honour "Falkland Islands 1982" for her service in the war. Both Dumbarton Castle and sister ship were employed as guardships for the Falklands as well as for more normal fishery protection duties in home waters. In August 1991, Dumbarton Castle relieved Leeds Castle at the start of a three-year deployment to the Falklands, and from 1998 to 2000, carried out another three year deployment to the South Atlantic. In 2001, Dumbarton Castle was converted to serve as a command ship for mine countermeasures vessels Dumbarton Castle was replaced by the , , in 2007, returning to Portsmouth after her last patrol on 22 November that year. Both Dumbarton Castle and her sister were sold to Bangladesh in April 2010. Dumbarton Castle left Portsmouth on 21 May 2010 towed by the tug Multratug 7, for A&P Group facility in Newcastle upon Tyne for a major regeneration project with her sister ship Leeds Castle. The project was completed in December 2010. In March 2011, Leeds Castle and Dumbarton Castle were recommissioned as and of the Bangladesh Navy respectively. On 4 August 2020 BNS Bijoy, was damaged in the 2020 Beirut Port Explosions while part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Notes References External links Royal Navy site A history – the Royal Navy’s Falkland Islands patrol