MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands Navy Hero Dies.
The Commander of the frigate which saved the crew of the doomed destroyer HMS Sheffield in the 1982 Falklands conflict, Captain Paul Bootherstone, has died of a heart attack, aged 62, only nine years after leaving the Royal Navy.
He commanded the frigate HMS Arrow in the first line of defence for the Task Force aircraft carriers when Sheffield was hit by an exocet missile and set ablaze. Commander Bootherstone skilfully manoeuvred Arrow so close to the burning destroyer as to allow 225 of her crew to jump the gap from the abandoned ship. Only 20 men were killed and 24 wounded. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
HMS Arrow was the first Task Force vessel to bombard Stanley Airport, the first to be hit by Argentine air attack, leaving one sailor wounded by shrapnel, and one of the last of the ships still intact at the end of the conflict, bombarding Argentine positions at Sapper Hill and Moody Brook , in the final assault on Stanley.
She was only one of two of the original escort ships to escape damage, but she did develop cracks in her hull from design and construction faults.
The Task Force Commander, Admiral John "Sandy" Woodward, afterwards declared: "The fact that Arrow was still there, still firing shells, was a bit of a miracle".
Arrow herself narrowly escaped being sunk when the Argentine submarine San Luis launched a torpedo which hit her towed decoy in the Sound between East and West Falkland.
Bootherstone was born and educated in Blackpool, joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aged eighteen, and served for 26 years, qualifying as a pilot and serving first on mine sweepers.
He was promoted Captain in 1983, commanded the destroyer Battleaxe, and retired in 1992 after a posting at the British High Commission in Canada. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.
Harold Briley, London
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