Warship Preservation (Formerly HMS Plymouth - Urgent Campaign)

Hermes would be a wonderful museum ship, but I can't think of anywhere you could realistically put it!

 

INS Viraat has had several major refits and I suspect there is very little left to merit her use as a museum ship in the UK.

 

New radar and that's about it. If she was saved I hake off the ski jump, and restore her to fixed wing comfig.

INS Viraat.

She's a grand old ship, and well worth saving.



A few years ago there was a British WWII through deck carrier still around, but she's gone I expect.

 

I know her lox pump is on the Invincible.

 

'Lox pump is on the Invincible'.

Which one; the one lying on the bottom of the North Sea as a result of Jutland or the CVS which was cut-up at Aliaga about 4/5 years ago??

 

To help prove the point about the costs involved in naval preservation this popped up today

"
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded £2.6million to the HMS Warrior Preservation Trust to undertake vital repair works that will secure the future of HMS Warrior 1860, one of the most influential warships ever built and one of the principle attractions at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
The bulwarks and water bar that serve to make watertight the junction between the deck and iron hull have failed and are deteriorating to a point which places the future of the ship at significant risk. The project aims to carry out essential conservation work to replace the bulwarks and water bar on both sides of the upper deck. This complex and skilled work will now be undertaken in sections over the next two years and will safeguard both the ship and ongoing public access.

A Victorian powerhouse, launched in 1860 HMS Warrior was the pride of Queen Victoria’s notorious Black Battle fleet. The world’s first iron-hulled, armoured warship, she was the largest, fastest and most powerful ship of her day and rendered every other warship afloat instantly obsolete. In the 1980s, she was fully restored before being towed into Portsmouth Dockyard and opened to visitors.

These restoration works are part of a wider £3.6m project – HMS Warrior 1860 – Revealing the Secrets of Shipwrights and Sailors. The project will also digitise the archival collections and enhance the visitor experience to the ship with exciting new interpretation. This secured funding also provides a great opportunity to create valuable new learning resources with a wide reaching programme of opportunities including outreach, community and volunteer projects, training and skills."

 

Interesting.

Please remember she was a forgotten hulk used as a fueling pontoon and was just a hull.

It is an amazing restoration from such a state, to what you see today, and as she is floating, which will be a costly job to repair the hull whilst afloat.

I wonder how her sister hulk the Foudroyant is doing these days? She used to be parked in Portsmouth sound as a training ship, and was towed to Hartlepool for restoration back in the 80's.

 

True, but she is also the 4th ship in the historic dockyard that has been awarded a multi million pound grant to help with its upkeep in the last few years. Living in Portsmouth I would love to see a newer ship preserved (thats why I want a type 42) but I just cant see it happening. Several of my friends work on these ships as volunteers (I'm the werid one on trains) and they are the complete opposite to steam locos. Most steam locos are in good condition but cosmetically are bad take Bodmin for example where as the ships look in good condition but they are rooting. If I had a few million quid kicking around I would purchase HMS Gloucester (best of the survivors) and try and stick her in the moorings behind M33.

 

None of these ships make money, because the older they get, the more money need to be put in, but that's no reason to keep them.

They are all part of the history of this country. The loss of the ex Falklands War veteran HMS Plymouth was a real blow, as she really did see action, and paid for it. She was a tangible link to that war, and of great value to future generations.

There is a chance to save Lusty, while she is in fairly good condition, and find a place for her, where people can visit and continue to enjoy her.

The ships your talking about are the 4 ships parked up not far from the old weapons depot? They have been there several years now, and I bet they are stripped of loads of equipment, which would be a nightmare to replace, so one ship could look complete again. But, hey, I'm a railway guy, who likes ships too.

 

4 ships are the historic ships, (Warrior, Victory, Mary Rose and M33) between them I believe the total grants awarded from the Hertiage Lottery is over £10 million.

Where would we put Lusty? not many places you could put a carrier

 

Lusty is nothing like as big, as Hermes is, and Hermes has a lot more history to it, than Lusty, so for me it would have to be Hermes, in a perfect World.

But, in a realistic a choice between Hermes, Lusty, or a Type 42, Lusty wins in my book, although she does not have a direct Falklands War connection. I feel we are forgetting all our sailors and ships which we lost in that war, and Hermes would be a great memorial ship to the Navy Sailors, Ships, FAA, and Army Helicopters, Planes and Pilots, but Lusty would be a good second best.

As to where to park it, there would be loads of proposals once the ship is safe, so buy it first, and then find somewhere. How about on the Clyde?

 

I'm a 42 man and just think its a far more realistic opportunity. The history of the class has more than enough interesting things to keep Joe Public happy with things like the loses of Sheffield and Coventry in the Falklands, Gloucesters combat record in the first Gulf War, Liverpool coming under fire in the Libya civil war and various other duties they have done over the years. But hey ho with no real organisations or teams trying to save the ships think we are doomed to lose them all.

 

Well. maybe the RN should be allowed to preserve historic ships, or be able to pass them on to groups who will look after them. As you point out we have very few ships from the Cold War era left, so they become more valuable to the country as the number of them dwindles. It's a nation scandal that we could loose these ships.

 

Should be something in Plymouth!

 

I can see your point but there are no groups who could take them. A good comparison could be the MNLPS, when BR annouched the end of steam they had a few years to fundraise and bought Clan Line straight out of BR service. We had several years notice of these ships being decommissioned if we there was a group who where serious about saving one of these ships they had plenty of time to prepare. The RN wants a ship being saved but if there are no suitable hosts what are they meant to do?

 

I spent a week on The Foudroyant back in the 60's.

 

She ran aground in Blackpool in the late 1890s and was scrapped on site as she couldn't be refloated. HMS Trincomalee was renamed Foudroyant in the late 1890s in honour of the original Foudroyant, but was renamed back to Trincomalee 1992.

The original Foudroyant was an 80 gun third-rate, and the Trincomalee was a Leda-class frigate, neither being sisters to Warrior. HMS Trincomalee has a surviving sister ship, HMS Unicorn, but Warrior's sister ship, HMS Black Prince, was scrapped in 1923.

 

I suspect the above is a typo and you mean Great Britain - however I really wish you did mean Great Western....

 

We still await news of what is happening with H.M.S. Whimbrel in Egypt & the ex-R.N. destroyer which is also in Egypt.

Bob.

 

HMS Whimbrel/Tariq would be a heck of a save as well....only surviving WW2 sloop I think