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NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2008 5
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● Two tugs and HMS Liverpool’s Lynx shepherd the veteran
destroyer into Portsmouth at the end of her deployment Wizard show
Picture: LA(Phot) Alex Cave, FRPU East
life off Kenya in Norway
THE fl iers and medical team of
TWO Merlin maestros headed
HMS Northumberland saved
to Norway to give fellow airmen
the life of a dying sailor in tough
an insight into the world’s
conditions off Africa.
number one anti-submarine
The frigate was sailing into the
helicopter.
Kenyan port of Mombasa at the
The Norwegians are buying
end of an anti-piracy and anti-
a dozen NH90 helicopters – the
smuggling patrol in the Indian
slightly smaller (and younger)
Ocean when she picked up an
sibling of the Merlin.
SOS from local authorities.
With that in mind, the
One hundred and ten miles Norwegian Navy was
away, a sailor aboard the particularly keen to know what
Ukrainian merchantman Katia Merlin could do.
Zelenko was suffering from a And there’s only one place
peptic ulcer which had caused to go for Merlin expertise: 824
hypovolemic shock – severely Naval Air Squadron, the unit
restricting the fl ow of blood which trains Fleet Air Arm fliers
throughout his body. in the art of using the complex
Northumberland immediately aircraft.
scrambled her Merlin with the The squadron’s aviation
ship’s medical team of Surg warfare officer Lt Si Laurence
Lt Bentley Wallah and LMA and Lt Cdr Gary Jaggers, the
Marland joining the normal fl ight senior observer at the Merlin
crew. training facility in Culdrose,
Several minutes later and headed across the North
fl ight commander Lt Cdr Stuart Sea for five days with their
Bainbridge was deftly hovering Norwegian cousins.
the helicopter over the freighter’s They visited the Norwegian
deck in marginal conditions – Navy’s Training Academy in
the ship was rolling heavily, it
was extremely hot and the Katia
Zelenko’s 30ft mast presented a
diffi cult obstacle.
Nevertheless, the medics and
fl ight observer Lt Chris Newby
were winched aboard. The former
Delivering promises
Bergen to explain the potency
of Merlin (the NH90 has similar
potency, plus ‘fly by wire’
controls).
As a thank-you for their
insights, the Brits were invited
on board frigate KNM Otto
stabilised the critically-ill sailor Sverdrup, the brand-new
before he was winched aboard the addition to the Norwegian Fleet.
Merlin and fl own to Kenya where ALMOST seven months to the Falklands, from Portugal
Away from the cold, the ‘Liver in 2008 from arduous training That was quite a sedate
ambulances were waiting for him.
the day that she last saw
South Africa, Ghana and Senegal
Bird’ berthed in Victoria and Alfred in January to a demanding experience. Certainly more
The helicopter returned to
the distinctive outline of
on this side of the Atlantic to
Dock (Cape Town’s counterpart to deployment in the South Atlantic,” sedate than a night-time
the frigate with just ten minutes’
the Spinnaker Tower, HMS
Brazil and Uruguay on the other
the Gunwharf Quays complex in said CO Cdr Craig Wood. exercise in the fjords.
fuel remaining, but despite the
Portsmouth) and took part in the “We have come through as a The fliers joined fast craft
tricky rescue mission, Cdr Martin
Liverpool graced the Solent
side of the great ocean.
The ship’s Lynx also paid flying
African Aerospace and Defence team – we have grown together, CB90 for a night navigation
Simpson, Northumberland’s CO,
once more as her South
visits (as things which fly tend
Exhibition. and faced challenges together.” patrol. In a fjord. Without radar.
said there was only one thought
Atlantic deployment came to
to do – Ed) to the isolated island
The long journey home (the He continued: “People who join Using night-vision goggles. At
when the mayday arrived. an end. community of Tristan da Cunha
Type 42 covered almost 30,000 the RN do so for the promise of high speed.
“All seafarers share a common She left Pompey before spring and Sierra Leone.
nautical miles in her time away) going to sea and experiencing a “It was extremely exhilarating
bond with the sea and those who kicked in in earnest (if it actually The last port of call for ship
finally ended on the final day of varied, unique career. – a visual navigation exercise
lawfully operate upon it,” he kicked in at all...), spent the boreal and helicopter was Gib, where she
October with a welcome somewhat “In 2008, HMS Liverpool at night in the fjords at 35kts,”
added. summer (if you can call it that) collected some friends and family
warmer than the cool Hampshire has certainly delivered on that said Lt Laurence (who’s
Northumberland is currently enduring the austral winter, and for the passage home.
weather. promise, but there is no substitute probably just got his breath
attached with HMS Cumberland returned home with the nights The core of the deployment was
“We’ve achieved a great deal for coming home.” back...).
to Operation Calash, the rapidly drawing in and the devoted to providing reassurance
anti-piracy/anti-drugs smuggling/ temperatures rapidly dropping. to the people of the Falklands
anti-people traffi cking/ Still, it’s not been all bad. and Britain’s South Atlantic
anti-terrorism sweep of the Indian The destroyer clocked up 11 dependencies, including the idyllic
Ocean (see page 8). countries on her way to and from (if icy) South Georgia.
Refl ecting on a fi rst year
NOW here’s an exhortation every sailor will Roughly one in every ten Stanley residents
gladly follow: Go out and enjoy yourselves on a – some 200 people – visited Clyde during the
well-earned run ashore. birthday weekend.
Such were the words of the Falklands Governor Most of the ship’s company spend six months
Alan Huckle at the end of a birthday ‘party’ to attached to Clyde – enough time to get to
mark HMS Clyde’s fi rst year on patrol in the know not just Stanley but also all the outlying
South Atlantic. settlements and many islands which make up
Yes, it really is 12 months (well, 14 by the time the Falklands archipelago.
this appears in print) since the warship took over “When I fi rst arrived I was surprised by just how
from HMS Dumbarton Castle as the permanent much like home it is here,” said Lt Phil Burgess.
guardian of the waters around the Falklands. “Visiting the farms in Port San Carlos, I was made
Some of the islands’ leaders were invited to feel very welcome – it was as though I was no
aboard Clyde on a typically blustery Falklands further from home than Derbyshire.”
evening for an offi cial birthday reception. Shipmate PO Ali Benzie is on his seventh tour
Fortifi ed by a few drinks and snacks provided of duty in the islands. “I fi nd the wildlife and the
by the ship’s company, the guests braved the scenery here amazing – a deployment to the
cold on the upper deck for a ceremonial sunset. Falklands fl ies by.
A guard of honour stood to attention as the “We are busy in our work, but there’s a lot of
Ensign was lowered with the lights of Stanley fun to be had as well.”
twinkling in the background and the strains of This was Clyde’s seventh visit to Stanley in her
the Last Post drifting across the natural harbour. inaugural year in the South Atlantic; she has also
And then it was time for that run ashore. notched up visits to Rio, Montevideo, Valparaiso
“Stanley has everything a sailor wants in a run in Chile, navigated the Patagonian Canal, and
ashore – a friendly pub and somewhere good to while doing so her crew have dispatched 11,440
eat,” said ET Dave Cantrill. eggs among other items on the menu…
Suitably recovered from their evening in the
Falklands capital, the ship’s company opened ● Clyde enjoys the serene waters of the
the gangway to visitors the following afternoon. Patagonia Canals
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