BlackRat Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 well the good old Lusty arrived at Pompey yesterday and now awaits an unknown fate. Let's hope we don't need her in the next few years. a great ship from a once mighty Royal Navy, Let's hope,you,don't rust in peace xx Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted July 23, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 23, 2014 To translate me old sea dogs lingo http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-28405090 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 A shame that ship preservation isn't as comprehensive as railways. Driving down into Weymouth last week I saw a ship in the distance and I thought we were going to be lucky enough to see it before it sailed its last, but it turned out to be Ocean which we're solely reliant upon for a bit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Sadly I suspect that preserving a Warship requires resources well beyond even the substantial budgets required for railway preservation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 23, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 23, 2014 Ah, Good old HMS Ocean - now working up after long refit at Devonport. I wonder if it's now allowed into Malta - it was banned from entering port there due to the racket its engines make when underway. Very suitable helicopter/logistics ship for carting round Mr Black Rat's mates and getting them ashore but built on the cheap to merchant ship standards in order to save money (where've I heard that story before?). Nice pic all the same tho' Andy. Here it is in a less seagoing shape in the Fleet Base at Devonport back in May being prepared to go to sea - Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted July 23, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 23, 2014 Used to be known as Frigate Alley, how times have changed and at least two Black Pigs in as well. The previous helio carrier Argus was converted from Contender Bezant after the Falklands, We did a lash up job on her to go down there using the trusty old ISO container. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 A shame that ship preservation isn't as comprehensive as railways... The proven path to RN ship preservation: sell her on. Perhaps Pakistan needs a carrier as a counter to the last one the Indian Navy bought from us... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryMeerkat Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Didn't I read somewhere she is being turned into a museum in the Portsmouth area? Will do some digging at lunch and see if I can find the story. Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 23, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 23, 2014 Used to be known as Frigate Alley, how times have changed and at least two Black Pigs in as well. The previous helio carrier Argus was converted from Contender Bezant after the Falklands, We did a lash up job on her to go down there using the trusty old ISO container. Here's a better view of Ocean that day - Weston Mill viaduct lurking over in the far right background. There was only one full operational RN escort in Devonport that day, a type 45; there were however two German and one Portuguese plus two Type 23s under various levels of maintenance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith George Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Is there any recent information on HMS Plymouth.? Preserved for several years at Liverpool, but now threatened with the scrapyard. Keith. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptic Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Sad to see the 'old girl' t.o.u,, .Black Rat... Regarding the preservation of such a sturdy, well maintained vessel,...maybe, its time for a little Mercantile payback ?. This may sound like sacrilege,...But, how about converting 'Lusty' into a Ro/Ro cross-Channel ferry ?. Fit water-tight doors fore and aft. to accommodate freight marshalled on the Hanger deck, with cars / caravans / vans on the Flight deck. I'm sure the punters with pounds in their pockets, would pay over the odds, just to have their photos (selfies), and their mode of transport posted on FB. As an aside,...I'm afraid I don't have the readies to provide an up front donation.. Maybe someone else has ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 with ..... / caravans /...... on the Flight deck. Good entertainment with the catapult take-off ramp. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Good entertainment with the catapult take-off ramp. The Grocklewaggen launcher sounds like a laddish Top Gear bit to me. It would be funny though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Does the Royal Navy have any amphibious ships with a well deck? It looks like HMS Ocean is not so equipped. I remember HMS Fearless (mostly from the old Airfix kits, I have to admit). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 The Grocklewaggen launcher sounds like a laddish Top Gear bit to me. They nicked my idea for caravan conkers years ago. http://youtu.be/ZtztZz7A4xA?t=1m56s I keep my head down in the office. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Does the Royal Navy have any amphibious ships with a well deck? It looks like HMS Ocean is not so equipped. I remember HMS Fearless (mostly from the old Airfix kits, I have to admit). Yes, Albion and Bulwark. Fearless and her sister Intrepid have been retired for a while now. Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 23, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 23, 2014 Does the Royal Navy have any amphibious ships with a well deck? It looks like HMS Ocean is not so equipped. I remember HMS Fearless (mostly from the old Airfix kits, I have to admit). HM ships Albion and Bulwark are LPDs (Landing Platform Dock) and the view below, click to enlarge, shows the stern door on Bulwark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Sadly I suspect that preserving a Warship requires resources well beyond even the substantial budgets required for railway preservation. Not necesarily, since preserved warships tend to stay in the same place, so don't need to be seaworthy (they just need to be able to keep the water out). The bigger issue is raising the money to buy them for preservation as the scrap cost tends to be quite high, and the ongoing cost of maintaining/exhibiting them There are a fair number of preserved warships around - I've been on or seen the following: HMCS Haida (Destroyer - Hamilton, ON) HMS Belfast (Cruiser - London) HMS Victory (Ship of the Line - Portsmouth) USS Massachusetts (Battleship - Fall River, MA) USS New Jersey (Battleship - Camden, NJ) USS North Carolina (Battleship - Wilmington, NC) USS Olympia (Cruiser - Philadelphia, PA) USS Constellation (Sailing Frigate, Baltimore, MD) HMS Alliance (Submarine, Gosport) HM Submarine No1 (Submarine, Gosport) USS Nautilus (Nuclear Submarine - Groton, CT) USS Becuna (Submarine - Philadelphia, PA) USS Lionfish (Submarine - Fall River, MA) USS Torsk (Submarine, Baltimore, MD) USCGC Taney (Coast Guard Cutter - Baltimore, MD) Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Locally we have USS Blueback (SS-581) afloat in the Willamette River in downtown Portland and famous as a 'stunt double' in some scenes of "The Hunt for Red October". In my family history HMAS Diamantina (K377), drydocked in Brisbane, is infamous as the site of a tumble my sister took down a gangway. She was quite small and it was a big scare for her. USS Midway (CV-41), afloat in San Diego is a fun tour. While my favourite ship tour is HMS Victory, the USS Constitution (Boston, MA), afloat and seaworthy and Java's bane, gives it a run for it's money. I also enjoyed "Mighty Mo" USS Missouri (BB-63), afloat in Pearl Harbor. The Iowa class battleships were monsters. They are huge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 If push comes to shove the RN can always borrow the USS Intrepid from New York. http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/The-Intrepid-Experience/Exhibits.aspx Comes complete with a space shuttle, a concord, and several (outdated) but effective fighters.... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 I wonder if these new carriers will be any good, And after a long wait for the planes, we get the F35, which I'm told is a mongrel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Accord Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Albion and Bulwark (LPD) are both equipped with a floodable dock and were direct replacements for Fearless and Intrepid. However, just as Intrepid spent much of her latter career in permanent "extended readiness" and was basically an unmaintained source of spare parts for Fearless, so today Albion is fulfilling that role and should the proverbial hit the fan she is many months (possibly over a year) away from being serviceable, which is quite criminal for such a young ship. The three (used to be four, one was sold to Australia) RFA Bay class vessels - LSD(A) - also have a floodable dock, but those ships are of smaller capacity and reduced effectiveness compared to Albion/Bulwark. Also worthy of note, is that despite being built in the 21st century neither Albion/Bulwark or the RFA Bays were built with a helicopter hanger, despite helos being essential for the kind of expeditionary work they're expected to undertake. Should we ever need to run boots up the beach in an emergency, we'd be relying on our single active LPD and maybe two LSD(A)'s not being in a maintenance period, together with hoping Ocean was worked up and serviceable at the same time so as to provide the paraffin budgies and extra landing craft to move the green machine and other camp followers ashore. We'd also have to rely on a friendly nation to provide carrier borne aircraft to control the airspace around any landing zone and provide ground support. You don't have to go down the road of the Swiss cheese analogy to see some of the potential problems which would result due to current defence policy and funding... If we are to believe the Government, then 'on paper' we have 2 x LPD, 1 x LPH and 3 x LSD(A) available at any one time, which is of course total nonsense. Regarding preserved warships; the US has more than anyone else and I read recently that if all the preserved warships in the US were combined into an active fleet then they'd make up the worlds second largest navy - after the modern US Navy. Lots of different reasons for the larger numbers, but the US public and US government institutions do tend to take a rather different view to the UK towards their own military and history (short as it is). It also helps that the US doesn't tend to throw away warships or even merchant ships until they're often past the 50 year mark, by then they are in "extended readiness" (those words again) and by default their age and availability of spares makes those vessels more attractive to preservationists and fund-raisers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium kevinlms Posted July 24, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 24, 2014 Good entertainment with the catapult take-off ramp. They could re-enact this on the ramp. Keep increasing the slope until something breaks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted July 24, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 24, 2014 Just a little story which may amuse some of you, when Lusty was in Guzz for refit at the end of the 80's or may be early 90's our examiner went sick as he does not like heights I did the uptake surveys. This was carried out by using a "bucket" on the end of the cantilever crane (the big steel one you can see), me and the slinger had just come out from one of the uptakes, when the crane driver swung us over towards the road as one of the dockyard buses was coming down the road and dropped us down in front of it. We stopped about 18 inches off the ground about 5 foot in front of the bus, that was very nearly an incident in which me and the slinger needed to go home and change our underwear. When the bus was nearly loaded we were whisked up to the front of the cab where we gave the driver some verbal and then a bit more, he said to us " I thought you might like to look at the tottie" or words to that effect, where upon we reigned down some more verbal, they may have heard us in Torpoint. Later we saw the funny side and I have to give the crane driver his due he was very accurate in his placement as there were no proper hand signals given to him apart from up. SS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted July 24, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 24, 2014 If push comes to shove the RN can always borrow the USS Intrepid from New York. http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/The-Intrepid-Experience/Exhibits.aspx Comes complete with a space shuttle, a concord, and several (outdated) but effective fighters.... Best, Pete. Had a great day on Intrepid. but while queuing to go in there were 2 elderly American couples behind us, one of the ladies said "Oh look it's a Concorde" followed by "Why's it got the British flag on it" a husband replied "They musta borrowed it one time"..... I love NY. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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