Warship

- Season 1

(1973)

HMS Hero, a Royal Navy frigate, has lost her captain to mental illness and her first lieutenant to the bottle. While in the middle of an overhaul, she gets a new first lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander Beaumont (David Saville) and almost immediately afterward a new captain, Commander Mark Nialls (Donald Burton). As the two officers work hard to get Hero back into shape, the ship is called on to assist in capturing a gun-running freighter.

HMS Hero are sent on a hush, hush mission to the North African coast to pick up a British asset, code named Max without anybody knowing. Unfortunately if the mission goes wrong Captain Niles is on his own.

HMS Hero's mission is to test out a new underwater submarine system, Mongoose, with a simulated war game against the US Navy. With leave cancelled below decks the have started turning on themselves.

PO-Wtr. Willows discovers his wife is ill and needs compassionate leave. Returning home, he is visited by Spooner from Navel Vetting, who has major concerns about his wife Angela's debts which makes him a security risk.

Hero puts in at Malta, where corrupt, violent ship's storekeeper CPO Donovan attempts to renew old business connections and recover loot made years before from selling RN supplies on the black market. After his former girlfriend and business partner is murdered, Donovan is blackmailed into procuring a secret electronic warfare device and handing it over to Soviet agents. When British intelligence gets involved, Donovan and Hero's crew find themselves caught in a deadly web of espionage and intrigue.

AB Tom Drew is a new recruitment to HMS Hero but struggles to adapt to a new environment. When an abandoned ship, Drew joins the boarding party in what becomes a dangerous insurance fraud that goes wrong.

Two sailors from Hero, AB's Wallace and Pomeroy volunteer to go on the submarine HMS Omega during an exercise testing out new sonar equipment. When Lieutenant Commander Aubrey attempts to bottom hits submarine it hits an isolated mine.

Hero is docked in North Africa where the crew are given shore leave. At the Consolute, Niles is warned they are in imminent danger. Later local police inform him 20 of his men have been arrested for fighting and he can not leave his ship.

Master at Arms Heron's extension for service is turned down due to a black mark from HMS Boadicea's Commander Murton. At a stopover in Gibraltar, and a drunken party, Nials challenges Murton to a bet over who has the quickest ship.