RFA Engadine (K08)

RFA "Engadine" (K08) was a helicopter support ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The need for "Engadine" was seen in the mid-1960s as more and more helicopters were deployed from Royal Navy aircraft carriers and surface combatants. The ship was ordered in August 1964, from Henry Robb of Leith , and commissioned in December 1967, replacing HMS "Lofoten"

"Engadine" was homeported in Portland for its whole career. The most notable events in that twenty-five year span were the 1976 crisis in Lebanon, where she was deployed as part of contingency planning to evacuate British citizens, the Silver Jubilee fleet review in 1977 when she followed HMY "Britannia" and the Falklands War during which she operated as a helicopter support and refuelling base in San Carlos Water. By the mid-1980s, "Engadine" was rapidly approaching obsolescence, and so the container ship MV "Contender Bezant" was purchased for conversion, becoming RFA "Argus". "Engadine" was decommissioned in 1989. Initially she was sold to new owners in Greece where it was intended she would return to service. This came to nothing, and so she was broken up in India in 1996.