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HMS Vanguard moved from Coulport to Faslane under cover of darkness and with heavy escort
At 3.00am on Friday (20th February) HMS Vanguard was moved, under cover of darkness, from the explosive-handling pierhead at Coulport on Loch Long into the nearby naval base at Faslane on the Gare Loch. The entire operation is thought to have taken around seven hours.
Vanguard was filmed by peace activitists as she came into the submarine base at Faslane with a heavy escort convoy of tugs, Royal Marine inflatables, Military Police boats and overhead helicopters.
The British nuclear submarine, carrying armed Trident missiles at the time, was involved in the now notorious collision on 3rd February with an equally armed French Navy nuclear submarine, Le Triomphant ,somewhere in the Atlantic. She was seen but not photographed coming into the Clyde on 14th February to unload her missiles at Coulport – and described then as bearing clear visual evidence of hull damage in dents and scrapes.
The ships’s move into Faslane in the hours of darkness is likely to be interpreted as an attempt by the MOD to disguise from the public the extent of the damage she has suffered.
For Argyll has already compared the widely varying return times to port of the two submarine’s involved and asked if this disparity can be interpreted by anyone as other than evidence that Vanguagrd was badly damaged and had to come home at very low speeds. She took over ten days to get back to Coulport from wherever the collssion occurred. Le Triomphant took three days to get back to her home port of Ile Longue near Brest in Britany.
So far, although our reports have received heavy viewing traffic, no one has come up with any other intrerpetation. It is hard to identify a possible location for the collision which would allow two relatively undamaged submarines, travellling at approximately the same speeds to return to these two ports in their respective known times.
All that the MOD has said of Vanguard’s post-collision condition is that the incident created ‘no compromise to nuclear safety’.
QE2 situation in Dubai threatened by economic downturn
The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 sailed into her new home in Dubai facing significant restructuring and re-engineering to fit her out for a very different life there as a floating five-star hotel, permanently moored at the Palm Jumeirah. Since she arrived nothing at all has happened to her.
There are now widespread concerns for her future. The company who bought her and brought her there have let it be know that the major job planned is in limbo for the time being but that they are considering simply opening her to the public as she is, as a tourist attraction.
This, of course, means that her engines will not be removed – or not just yet. And if her engines stay in place, the hope remains that she could return to the UK. There are two groups with a special interest in this. One is at her birthplace on the Clyde in Scotland and one is at her home port of Southampton where there is a move to try to buy her back and install her permanently there.
Scott Becker, a former member of QE2′s staff and who has set up a tribute website that aims to become the fullest possible online record of the life of the ship, says: ‘The news of QE2 having an uncertain future in Dubai is a bit disconcerting. Especially when one considers the current global economic crisis, the costs of converting her to a permanent shore-side facility will be enormous.
‘I recently mentioned to someone that it will be interesting to see whether QE2 has the same hand of providence that RMS Queen Mary has had in Long Beach. Through so many dire situations, she has remained. Every attempt to remove her has failed. Sadly, what will put an end to QM is neglect. The corrosion in her superstructure is getting very serious now.
‘QE2 is a far more delicate creature. Extreme care will have to be made for her future existence. Especially where the aluminium superstructure and the steel hull meet. They cannot touch but must remain apart with separators. (Ed: This is because of the process of galvanic corrosion that would otherwise occur.)
‘I would be thrilled if she were to come back to the UK, her true home. Who knows, the very thing that seems so threatening (the economy) could actually save her from a life of obscurity.’
HMS Daring homes in on Portsmouth
HMS Daring, the new Clydebuilt Type 45 Destroyer – the Daring class, has now arrived at her home port of Portsmouth. The first of six and giving her name to the class, she will be progressively joined at Portsmouth by her five sister ships: Dauntless, Diamond, Dragon, Defender and Duncan.
Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch her come in to a 15 Gun salute.
Daring is a very fast, highly manoeverable fighting ship with an unparalleled air defence capability. Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord, told the BBC: ‘Daring means a lot of things for Portsmouth, the Navy and the country.
‘There are people I know who question the cost and the capability and the need for the ships but this really is a world which has significant air and missile threats to deployed forces.
‘If we are to fulfil an expeditionary strategy and go where the government wants us around the world, we must go with the right air cover and this is exactly what Daring provides’.
The Daring is almost twice as big as the older ships it is replacing but carries a smaller crew – 190 sailors, compared with the 280 required on the older ships. She will spend the rest of 2009 undergoing an intensive programme of sea trials.
Read all about her arrival in the Royal Navy Ndewletter.