Tide-class replenishment oiler

The Tide class was a series of six replenishment oilers built for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary of the United Kingdom, the Royal Australian Navy and, after a later sale, the Chilean Navy. The design was based on the wartime fleet tanker Olna, and three ships were laid down for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 1953 while a fourth was ordered by Australia at the same time. Tidereach was the ship built by Swan Hunter at Wallsend and launched on 2 June 1954, alongside Tideflow from J. L. Thompson and Tidesurge from James Laing, while Tide Austral came from Harland and Wolff in Belfast. Two modified ships, Tidespring and Tidepool, followed in 1962 from Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn with a helicopter platform. The ships refuelled other vessels while under way and served worldwide, including during the 1956 Suez Crisis, and Tidespring and Tidepool took part in the Falklands War. The first three were scrapped in the late 1970s, Tidepool passed to Chile and Tidespring was scrapped in 1992. This entry covers the class as a whole, with Swan Hunter as the make of Tidereach.