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● Go Forth into the world in peace... Gleaner leaves the Firth of Forth, her survey work complete
Q
UESTION: Which ship
Allen, LSRs ‘Tab’ Hunter and Andy Humby,
has been continuously
LMEMs ‘Dickie’ Bird and Iain Hammond
on deployment since July
and finally AB(SR) Stuart Goldsworthy-
Trapp.
2005? “The size of the team means that all
A bomber perhaps? A frigate on anti- personnel are called upon to carry out
terror patrol in the Gulf? Maybe a tasks across a wide range of disciplines,”
minehunter on NATO duties? explained Lt Cdr Fox.
Nope, all wrong. The answer is the “How many other ships are driven
smallest ship in the Senior Service, by LMEMs? And all the ship’s systems
Gleaner. (The large picture of the ship’s operate so effectively it’s easy to forget
badge was probably a clue – Ed.) that they are the junior marine engineers
So small, in fact, she’s not even an in the RN.
HMS, but Her Majesty’s Survey Motor “It’s very gratifying as a CO to work with
Launch Gleaner to be precise. such a tight-knit team – all working together to
You will currently find her on the Tyne on the achieve a common aim, even if at times we all feel
latest leg of a marathon deployment which began in like one-armed paper hangers.”
the summer of 2005 when she left Devonport... and The ship’s company is divided into two watches
ends only when she enters refit towards the year’s which permits almost constant operations (weather
end. permitting), whilst alongside in makeshift offices
By then, Commanding Officer Lt Cdr Trefor Fox – currently at HMS Calliope, Gateshead’s RNR
will finally have taken his boat into her home port headquarters – the remainder of the team process the
– for the first time. data gathered.
So what has kept Gleaner away from home for so That data is collected by Gleaner’s multibeam
long? sonar, a hi-tech motion sensor and a differential GPS
Charting. A lot of charting. positioning system... and, with a bit of computer
First she worked her way up the West Coast, via wizardry, it turns ones and zeroes into a 3D image of
Milford Haven, Liverpool, Crossapol Bay (near Mull the seabed. So accurate are the 3D models produced
and Iona) and Faslane. that you can pinpoint a feature 12ft
3
in size to within
Then, via Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal, 8in of its actual position.
she began to work her way down the East Coast The result is that the already excellent charts of
via Aberdeen, Rosyth and the Forth Estuary, to her the approaches to some of Britain’s principal ports
current stomping ground of Newcastle. are even more excellent (This is starting to sound like
It’s rare when we feature a ship to name every crew Bill & Ted – Ed) as the rapidly-changing details of the
member. It would probably consume most of the underwater environment are updated.
page. With Gleaner, we can do it in a paragraph. Gleaner will finally enter her home port in the
So, deep breath, they are: Lt Cdr Fox, executive autumn and undergo an overhaul which should allow ● Gleaner heads down the Tyne beneath Gateshead’s Millennium Bridge on the latest leg of her marathon
UK survey officer Lt David Ives, coxswain PO(SR) ‘Darby’
her to continue operating for another decade.
Beamer Rock
ForthForth Bridge pileBridge pile A Forth for good
ForthForth Bridge pileBridge pile
THE Forth estuary has proven to be one of the most interesting – and
challenging – waterways to survey.
Challenging because, as the colourful 3D image shows, the estuary is
cavernous in places – the seabed drops from 8ft to 250ft in a matter
of a few square yards, and is littered with numerous rocky
features.
North Sea
That meant lots of bottom sampling (Careful – Ed)
by the survey team, whose efforts weren’t helped by
marine growth on Gleaner’s hull which played havoc
with the data originally collected. With the growth
removed, the survey resumed and became one of the
largest the small ship has yet conducted.
Beyond the cavernous nature of the estuary, one thing stood
out in particular to the crew: the wreck of HMS Campania. The ill-fated
former liner (she was twice involved in fatal accidents) was converted into
a fledgling aircraft carrier. At anchor in the Forth on November 5 1918, she
began dragging her anchor in a Force 10 gale, bashing into dreadnought
HMS Royal Oak, then colliding with battle-cruiser HMS Glorious before
eventually sinking. All her crew managed to escape, and her crumpled
● A 3D sonar image of the decaying remains of earlier aircraft
remains lie on the seabed as a protected wreck.
carrier HMS Campania in the Firth of Forth
20_NN_Apr.indd 1 5/3/07 13:58:01
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