NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2007 3
Chatham goes
Dutch
GGo forth on a Daring venturo forth on a Daring venture
WHAT do you do if the Dutch
request British presence at
YOUR eyes do not deceive Those trials involve testing will fire at the range in Benbecula
celebrations of their greatest
you. This is not some computer Daring’s innovative all-electric – not to test the gun itself, which is
admiral who ransacked
wizardry. This really is HMS Daring propulsion system, and her a proven weapon, but to measure
Chatham?
making her maiden voyage. manoeuvring and navigational the loads and stresses it places on
Why, you send HMS
Nearly 15 years after being first systems to ensure the ship is Daring’s hull.
Chatham naturally.
mooted, eight years since Britain seaworthy and safe to sail on the This is the beginning of a very
The Devonport frigate
decided to pull out of the Anglo- high seas. long road for Daring; she will
represented the Senior Service
Italian-UK Project Horizon, four “This is a great moment for not see her future home base of
in Vlissingen, birthplace of
years after being laid down, 17 everybody who has been involved Portsmouth before the end of next
Admiral de Ruyter, scourge of
months on from her launch, the in the Type 45 Destroyer project year and will not officially be in
the RN in the 17th Century.
first of the Navy’s next-generation since its inception – the first time service until 2009.
Among other achievements
destroyers slipped her moorings Daring has moved and steered There is also the small matter of
the Dutchman led a force up
at Scotstoun and headed down under her own power,” said Cdr her missile system to test.
the Thames, destroyed 16 ships
Glasgow’s great artery under her David Shutts, Daring’s Marine As Daring sailed, so too trials
of the line, cut the flagship
own power for the first time, aided Engineer Officer and Senior Naval barge Longbow, leaving Pompey
HMS Royal Charles from her
by the tug Bruiser. Officer. for the Mediterranean to marry
mooring at Greenwich, and
A mixed crew of Daring’s ship’s “I and the rest of the ship’s the Sampson radar (hidden inside
sacked Chatham.
company and engineers and company – and the many the ‘Sputnik’ ball on a Type
A few score years later, the
shipwrights from BAE Systems contractors’ staff on board – had 45’s main mast) with the
Dutch are among Britain’s
– who have shared construction been looking forward to this event Aster missile.
strongest allies, and ships from
of the Type 45 warship with the for a long time. It’s not every day
many European navies, plus the
VT Group in Portsmouth – took the you take a First-of-Class warship
Picture: PO(Phot) Tam McDonald,
US, gathered off Vlissingen for
destroyer down the Clyde for sea to sea.”
FRPU Clyde
a review and sail past.
trials off Scotland’s west coast. Following that, her main 4.5in gun
“The Dutch Navy took part
in our celebrations of Trafalgar
and it’s the least Chatham can
do to repay the compliment,”
said Cdr Martin Connell, the
frigate’s CO.
“There is a certain irony
in Chatham being sent – but
look at it another way: there
couldn’t be a more appropriate
ship to send to celebrate the
close relationship which now
exists between our two great
nations.”
Review over, the ship spent
two days alongside for Navy
Days, where she hosted more
than 6,000 visitors.
She then sailed with Belgian
frigate Westdiep and towed
... WHAT A HUGE A
CHIEVEMENT B
Y THE WHOLE DETERRENT FOR
CE OVER SOME 38 YEARS...
a target for Belgian F16s to
attack with bombs and cannon,
before the Navy Days theme
continued, this time in Den
Helder.
Again the Dutch public
couldn’t get enough of the
British warship: 10,000 visitors
filed around Chatham during
Acts of Vengeance
the three-day maritime festival.
Before heading to the
Netherlands, the frigate found
certainly unseen and invariably unsung.
a use for veteran assault ships
“What a huge achievement by the
HMS Fearless and Intrepid.
whole deterrent force over some 38
The two decommissioned
years,” Admiral Band told Cdr Lister.
Falklands veterans are laid up
O
N FRIDAY June 14
single second when a strategic missile Admiral David Cooke.
1968, HMS Resolution
submarine has not been safeguarding Once safely aboard, the VIPs were
slipped away from her
the British people. given a thorough tour of the 16,000-
Most of the crew of Vengeance, the tonne leviathan by Commanding Officer
berth at Faslane. fourth and final of the Vanguard-class of Vengeance’s starboard crew Cdr Mark “After a perfectly-executed patrol,
in Portsmouth Harbour awaiting
There were no wives to wave farewell, boats which currently carry Britain’s Lister, while his boat slipped beneath your people can be rightly proud of their
being broken up (or ‘recycled
no Royal Marines Band to wish the nuclear arsenal, were not born when the waves. achievements across the board.”
retirement as it’s now known) in
submarine godspeed, no reporters or Resolution began that first patrol with Both Mr Browne and Admiral Band Mr Browne added: “The completion of
a British yard.
photographers to mark the moment. Polaris missiles aboard – forerunners of were quick to praise the crews o f 300 strategic deterrent patrols highlights
But the sisters proved rather
Thus began the first nuclear deterrent today’s Tridents. the ballistic missile the major contribution the Submarine
useful to HMS Chatham when
patrol by the Royal Navy. The boats, the technology, the boats, whose Service makes to the peace and security
she needed to stock up on
With the same understatement – and uniforms, the hairstyles have all changed, deeds are of the United Kingdom.”
ammo.
resolve of purpose – HMS Vengeance but “the awesome responsibility” as then The Resolution-class handed the
Not a problem... except
returned to UK waters after completing Defence Secretary Denis Healey called it torch to their successors in the mid-
that this was July. In Blighty.
the 300th deterrent patrol. in 1968 has remained the same and 90s. Since 1996, patrols have been
Blowing a hooley. Blowing a
Upholding the right of the line has been borne with the same resilience. performed exclusively by Vanguard-
hooley so much, in fact, that
devoured some 50 million ‘man hours’ Mr Healey’s latest successor, Des class boats (Vanguard herself is pictured
ammunitioning was ruled out.
on patrols. Browne, was waiting for Vengeance off below returning from a patrol earlier this
Ruled out, that is, until
The round-the-clock presence actually the Isle of Arran as she returned from year).
Naval Base staff decided to tie
began in April 1969, ten months after that 300th patrol, accompanied by First
Chatham to the disused ships,
Resolution’s inaugural patrol. Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, Picture: PO(Phot) Tam McDonald,
sheltering the frigate from the
Since then there has not been a and the head of the Silent Service, Rear
FRPU Clyde
inclement summer weather.
As the wind speed increased,
crates of ammo were hurriedly
shifted. The final missile
transport box was craned off as
the heavens opened, heralding
a week of rotten weather in the
Solent.
“It’s great that Fearless and
Intrepid have been hugely
handy for Chatham,” explained
Weapon Engineer Officer Lt Cdr
Chris Smith.
“This was pretty much
our last option – had the
Portsmouth team not
succeeded we would have
been looking to recall people
over summer leave or shorten
our much-needed engineering
period.”
Richmond on
station
FRIGATE HMS Richmond
has traded places with HMS
Cornwall as the RN’s ‘Gulf
guardian’, protecting the oil
platforms which account for 80
per cent of Iraq’s wealth.
Beyond safeguarding the two
structures, the Portsmouth-based
warship will work hand-in-hand
with the Iraqi Navy to help them
defend the terminals – a task they
will eventually perform on their
own.
Cornwall returns to Devonport
later this month.
NNEW 003_NN_Aug.indd 1EW 003_NN_Aug.indd 1 225/7/07 13:21:585/7/07 13:21:58
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