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34 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2007
● Holm sweet Holm... Ledbury’s sea boat carries Bristol’s mayor Royston Griffey with a marker
stone to the island of Steep Holm
Pebble dash for Ledbury
FILE this one under: obscure English customs. More stones were left on two other islands in
HMS Ledbury revived a 700-year-old tradition the channel – Flat Holm (strictly speaking it’s in
when she visited Bristol by helping the city pro- Glamorgan) and Steep Holm – before Ledbury
tect its domain. and the flotilla of small boats following her
‘Beating the bounds’ is a ritual which appar- returned to Bristol.
ently dates back two millennia. Away from upholding long-standing customs,
Civic or church leaders would mark the extent Ledbury has been, er, upholding long-standing
of their town or parish by ‘beating the bounds’ customs.
– walking around the perimeter of the district About the first time that Bristolians were beat-
with a group of boys carrying green boughs to ing the bounds, the navy’s fishery ships took up
thrash the marker stones. their duties around these isles.
The aim was to keep evil spirits away – and Ledbury, of course, wasn’t among them then,
trumpet the size of a parish or town’s domain. but in recent months the minehunter has been
Bristol has been beating the bounds since attached to the Fishery Protection Squadron,
1373 – extending its domain over the land to the devoting her time to the Irish Sea and Western
sea in the 18th Century. Approaches.
And that explains why HMS Ledbury became The ship and her crew took a break from
involved on a visit to the city. ‘doing fish’ with a weekend break in the French
Lord Mayor Cllr Royston Griffey climbed port of St Nazaire.
● Engineers watch as a dummy Spearfi sh torpedo shoots into Astute’s basin
aboard the Hunt-class warship to reaffirm his Some sailors headed to Nantes to watch
Picture: BAE Systems
city’s status (there had been no ‘beating the England triumph over Samoa in the group stage
bounds’ in Bristol since 1901 and the mayor, a of the Rugby World Cup.
local historian, decided it was time to renew the Others paid homage to the men of 1942 who
tradition). crippled the dry dock in the famous raid on the
Ledbury left Avonmouth Dock bound first for port, or toured the port’s submarine museum
Denny Island, a small rocky outcrop in the Bristol – housed in the imposing pens built by the
Channel, to leave a marker stone (actually little Germans to protect their boats from British air
Top of the plopsop of the plops
more than a large grey pebble). attacks.
A PLOP is a sign of success.
All 120 of the hunter-killer submarine’s
And ten times in a row, dummy torpedoes
ship’s company, plus around 80 guests,
and cruise missiles plopped out on to the
toasted the Queen, downed a tot… followed
surface of the basin at Barrow-in-Furness as
by a dram of The Famous HMS Astute whisky
HMS Astute fi red her main arsenal for the
(personalised bottles of Famous Grouse
fi rst time.
were provided for the submariners by the
It’s another 15 months before the boat
Scottish distillers).
joins the Fleet, but as many tests and
Recent feverish activity on the boat,
trials are being conducted now, while
which is rather hidden at present behind
fi tting out continues at BAE’s yard, to
a maze of scaffolding and wires, has seen
spare time at sea.
engineers from Thales fi t the eyes of the
And that meant seeing that launching
boat in the form of two ‘optronic’ masts.
the boat’s principal weaponry from her six
The masts are the next-generation
bow tubes would work.
periscopes, fi tted with hi-resolution colour
High pressure water forces either the
TV and thermal imaging cameras; the images
Spearfi sh torpedo or the Tomahawk cruise missile
picked up are beamed into Astute’s command centre.
with its 1,000-mile range out of the tubes – and that
There submariners can study live ‘feeds’ or record the
was a system which could be tested safely in the
images to work on later.
confi nes of the Barrow basin.
The masts and the software which drives them have
The one-tonne dummy weapons emerged on the
been ten years in the making and mean that there’s no
surface a short distance from the boat, while engineers
periscope and mounting taking up a sizeable chunk of
checked both the dummies and the tubes to ensure
the boat’s control room.
that the weapons had left the tubes safely. ■ ANOTHER fi rst in the land of the deeps has
More extensive weapon trials are lined up for the been achieved by HMS Torbay which has ditched
hunter-killer when she goes to sea next year, ahead traditional charts.
of live fi rings. WECDIS, the RN’s electronic map and navigation
Other weapons tests proved rather more painful. system, has been fi tted to 40 surface vessels from
Fifteen members of the boat’s warfare department hit minehunters to carriers and auxiliaries, and there are
the paintball range for a (messy) teambuilding day, half a dozen systems installed in land establishments
roughly split along offi cer/rating lines. for training purposes.
The day ended with a Quentin Tarantino-esque Squeezing it inside the tight confi nes of a Trafalgar-
shoot-out as the two opposing sides lined up and fi red class submarine was a challenge… but one met
off 60 rounds apiece at their foes. admirably by the team from Lockheed Martin who
Back aboard the submarine, a rather more have developed the snazzy piece of kit.
conventional manner of bonding was staged as Astute Torbay now joins a handful of submarines in the
spliced the mainbrace. navies of the world with digital navigation – although
The Duchess of Cornwall, the ship’s sponsor, her control room team have to receive thorough
launched Astute at Barrow-in-Furness in June and WECDIS training before they can take the hunter-
promptly gave the legendary order in a message to killer to sea without paper charts.
the boat’s CO Cdr Mike Walliker, in reward for a job A further ten boats will receive the system in due
well done by his team. course.
From Fit 4C to fi t for sea
LAST month we proclaimed HMS Cumberland the Fleet early in the new year.
‘fi t 4C’ thanks to a communications and computer Another old friend emerging from TLC at the hands
system upgrade. of DML is veteran hunter-killer HMS Trafalgar.
Now the Type 22 frigate is fit for sea after an
She’s been out of action for the past 11
extensive refit in her home port – two weeks ahead
months undergoing her Revalidation and Assisted
of schedule.
Maintenance Period (commonly known in ‘deep
Teams from Devonport support organisation
world’ as RAMP), where DML have managed to
DML have been swarming over the warhorse since
shave a considerable sum off the cost of previous
the beginning of the year.
Work on the Mighty Sausage was finished earlier
similar projects.
than planned thanks, in part, to speeding up the blast
The workload on a RAMP has ballooned in
programme on Cumberland’s hull, finished in a third
the past three or four years (it’s roughly increased
of the usual time.
fourfold).
The ship’s entire hull, superstructure and decks
In Trafalgar’s case, she devoured 230,000 man
exposed to the elements received a thorough blast,
hours since beginning her overhaul in October 2006.
a new water production plant has been fitted, living
Experts fitted a new communications and computer
spaces have received a very welcome revamp, there’s
system (CCSM), overhauled Trafalgar’s coolers, and
a new torpedo defence system and, in all, 1,800 items
generally tweaked and revamped the boat – work
of equipment have been given a makeover. which will take the Devonport-based submarine to
After trials, the frigate is due to be handed back to the end of her career in late 2009.
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