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14 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2007
624
Beam me down, Scotty
A
FTER almost an
the Survey department is at the
entire year away from
heart of this ship, churning its way
home, ocean survey
through the compendious navi-
ship HMS Scott arrived
gational and swathe bathymetric
back in Devonport in late
data that the ship collects during
her sweeping journeys.
September.
As the ship passes overhead
During her 308 days away, she
a three-dimensional picture
surveyed 236,000 square miles
of the seabed is drawn for the
of the ocean floor and covered
Hydrographic and Meteorological
nearly 60,000 miles. In fact in her
specialists within.
ten-year life, she has notched up
Once checked this data is then
a total of half a million nautical
passed back to the Hydrographic
miles.
Office back in Taunton.
Scott’s ten-month journey has
Successful operation of the
taken her from South Africa to the
surveying sensors requires taut
Seychelles, Jordan to Bermuda,
control of the draught and trim
and Nova Scotia to Reykjavik,
of the ship, which is achieved by
and now back home in Devonport
pumping water ballast through 23
she’s in the full swing of extended
Zeebrugge ................... 1918
connected tanks.
maintenance as she readies herself
Norway ......................... 1941
The ship’s retractable bow
Normandy .................... 1944
to return to the deep ocean once
Battle Honours
thruster handles slow-speed
more.
manoeuvres and precise station-
Despite her impressive size of
Class: Lloyds Register
keeping.
13,500 tonnes and length of 131
Altantic Reefer class
The present HMS Scott is the
metres (a similar length to a Type
Pennant number: H131
third Royal Navy ship to bear the
23 frigate but almost four times
Builder: Appledore, North
name – although there was also a
the displacement), Scott operates
Devon
trawler Scott hired as a minelayer
with a tiny crew of just 44 people
Motto: To strive, to seek, to
in 1915, however her career was
on board.
find... and not to yield
cut short by a mine in the same
Due to her long and enduring
Launched: October 13
year.
operational tasking, she runs a
1996
The first was a 1,800-ton
three watch system, with a full
Commissioned: June 30
destroyer built in World War 1 by
complement of 66 people, but
1997
Cammell Laird.
only two of the three watches on
Displacement: 13,500
She was commissioned in
es
board for survey operations at
tonnes
January 1918, but lost eight
any time.
Length: 132 metres
months later when she was torpe-
Her size is determined by the
Beam: 21.6 metres
doed, probably by the submarine
multi-beam sounding system that
Draught: 9.1 metres
UC17, in the North Sea off the
she houses in two large arrays
Speed: 18 knots
Danish coast.
along and across her hull.
Range: Up to 25,000nm for
The first surveying Scott was a
This Sonar Array Sounding
90 days endurance
Halcyon-class survey ship which
Sysem (SASS IV) can collect
Complement: 66 in total,
was used during World War 2 in
depth information of a strip of
but sail with 44 – two out of
tasks ranging from mine barrage
seabed several kilometres wide.
three watches
and escorts, to the survey work
Scott can survey 150km
2
of
Propulsion: Two Krupp
which dominated her career.
MaK 9M32 9-cylinder diesel
ocean floor every hour, swallow- Built in 1938, the 830-ton sur-
engines (5,400 BHp each)
ing up the world’s seabeds in swift vey ship flourished until finally
Armament: Five 7.62mm
progress. arriving in Troon to be broken up
guns, two Mk 44 Mini Gun
It comes as no surprise that in 1965.
Facts and figur
9OURFRIENDLY AFFOR
HERO
DA
ES OF T
BLE
HE ROYAL NAVY No.43
,ONDON#LUB
SBA George Beeching, AM
IN Germany the Volksempfänger – the Algiers mid-morning on Tuesday November 10
cheap radios produced at the behest of
as waves of Italian torpedo bombers attempted
Dr Goebbels – were still ringing with the
to destroy the invasion fleet.
words of Adolf Hitler.
At least three enemy bombers succumbed
Stalingrad, the German leader assured his
to the wall of fire belched by Ibis’ anti-aircraft
listeners on the 19th anniversary of his botched
guns, but one of the attackers succeeded in
coup in Munich, would soon fall. He chided
dropping a torpedo.
Roosevelt “the chief gangster”. And with typical
At two minutes past ten, Ibis was rocked by
hubris he brushed aside the Allied threat.
an explosion amidships, stunning Sick Berth
“It matters not where the front is. Germany
Attendant George Beeching as he scurried
will always fend off the blows.”
between decks.
And as Hitler spoke, the Allied navies were
Ibis immediately listed 15˚ to starboard. The
creating a new front as an invasion force
emergency lights began to fail. The mess decks
mustered off the coast of French North Africa.
filled with fuel oil.
The sloop HMS Ibis was among the smaller
And all the while, Beeching helped his
ships assigned to Operation Torch. Laid down
wounded comrades as best he could. Lifesaving
barely three weeks into the conflict, the bulk
was his talent; before the war he volunteered
of Ibis’ 14-month active life had been spent
with St John Ambulance in his native Wallasey.
escorting convoys on the West Africa run.
He provided morphine to a shipmate with
That day she was charged with safely
terrible burns to his hands and face. As he did
shepherding convoy KMF1 towards Algeria,
so, Ibis began to heel over.
depositing troops on Apples, Beer and Charlie
Beeching ushered his stricken shipmate on to
beaches.
the upper deck, gave him a life belt and helped
Adolf Hitler could be glib about such landings.
him into the water, before jumping in himself.
His naval leaders could not. They realised the
Of the 180 men on HMS Ibis, 102 were
s#LOSETO-ARBLE!RCHAND/XFORD
enemy had struck “the decisive blow
3TREET
. The focal eventually picked up after dark by HMS Scylla.
point of the conduct of the war now lies in the George Beeching was not among them.
s!FFORDABLEROOMRATES
Mediterranean.” The 23-year-old was gazetted for the Albert
The Allies, too, realised that – and did Medal in gold for saving life at sea the following
s#HOICEOFRESTAURANTSANDBARS
everything they could to safeguard the invasion April.
force, surrounding it with a bodyguard of His family later loaned his medal to the
s#ONCESSIONARY.#0#AR0ARKRATES
frigates, destroyers and sloops. Museum of the Order of St John in London, from
And so HMS Ibis could still be found off where it was sadly stolen in 1992.
s&UNCTIONROOMSFORDINNERS RECEPTIONS
REUNIONSANDPRIVATEPARTIES
4HE6ICTORY3ERVICES#LUB
3EYMOUR3TREET
,ONDON7(&
4EL   
&AX  
%MAILINFO VSCCOUK
7EBWWWVSCCOUK
-EMBERSHIP/PENTOALL3ERVINGAND2ETIRED-EMBERS
OFTHE!RMED&ORCESANDTHEIRFAMILIES
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