Farewell voyage: The Royal Navy's flagship the Ark Royal arrives on the River Tyne before making the short journey down the coast to Newcastle where she was built by Swan Hunters at Wallsend
(from the Daily Mail)
Posted on 11/21/2010 6:42:36 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Might HMS Ark Royal's final farewell
Nov 21 2010 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun
THE outline of the iconic Harrier jump jet casts a striking image as the winter sun sets on the horizon.
It’s like a scene from 80s blockbuster Top Gun as workers tinker around the small GR9, ensuring it’s secured firmly to the deck in the fading light of this cold November afternoon.
It’s 3pm on Friday and I’m standing on the deck of the HMS Ark Royal, the Wallsend-built Royal Navy flagship less than an hour after it docked on Tyneside for the very last time in its 25-year career.
Alongside Northumbria Quay, North Shields, hundreds of people are gazing up at the 22,000-tonne ship, many brandishing cameras, snapping away for the last time at the vessel some of them will have had a hand in building at Swan Hunter back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Built at a cost of £320million and delivered four months early, she entered service on July 1, 1985, and was commissioned in the presence of the Queen Mother four months later.
Affectionately dubbed The Mighty Ark, this is the fifth ship to bear the name of the famous HMS Ark Royal which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, and she played an integral role in the Bosnian War in 1993, and the invasion of Iraq a decade later.
But in this, her Silver Jubilee year, it will all end.
HMS Ark Royal will soon be taken out of service as part of the Government defence cuts announced last month.
I’m one of a lucky few journalists invited onboard as the crew prepare for a busy five days docked here, just a couple of miles up-river from where the first steel was cut back in 1978.
Public openings, corporate receptions and a number of tours are planned before the ship sets sail and leaves the Tyne for the final time on Tuesday, and already the deck is a hive of activity.
Aircraft Engineering Technicians (AETs) are hard at work securing four Harriers which share the huge deck with two Sea King helicopters, while more hands are working on a Merlin helicopter in the hanger in the bowels of the ship.
A dozen of them are towing one of the four jump-jets up the ski-jump ramp in preparation of the thousands of visitors due on deck yesterday and today.
The Harriers arrived just a few hours earlier and the mood is tinged with sadness.
Not only is this the end of the ship, but the jets too, which have also been decommissioned. And this week the ship will cut ties for good.
After sailing down the Tyne and out towards Hamburg, the birds will fly as the GR9s leave the decks for good.
For the AETs, this is the last time they will work on these jets on these decks. It’s clear in their body language as they spend longer than normal carrying out the tasks they’ve done hundreds of times that this a huge moment.
One tells me that his career path had been based on wanting to work on the Harrier and admits that it will be hard saying goodbye to these and the ship in the same year, while another simply says “it’s the best jet they ever made”.
With the end of two very big eras looming this week, it’s no surprise that this visit to Tyneside brings mixed feelings for the crew
I’m joined on deck by Petty Officer Darren Dinsdale and Lieutenant Geoff Hughes, both of Sunderland.
Petty Officer Dinsdale has sailed up the Tyne several times on Ark Royal. “It brings a certain poignancy, knowing this is the last time here,” he said.
“You just had to look at the people lining both sides of the river as we sailed in to know how important this is to the people of Tyneside.”
Lieutenant Hughes agrees that this trip is the perfect goodbye.
“Once it was announced this was to be our final voyage, everyone was pleased to hear we were coming back.
“We were built on the Tyne and we felt it was important to say our farewells on the Tyne.”
Farewell voyage: The Royal Navy's flagship the Ark Royal arrives on the River Tyne before making the short journey down the coast to Newcastle where she was built by Swan Hunters at Wallsend
(from the Daily Mail)
GB should sell it to Venezuela.
Will they keep it in reserve, sell it off, or scrap it?
If they don’t mothball this perfectly good ship and keep her in reserve, then we will know the Brits have completely lost their minds.
With only 25 years of service, she’s probably not even reached half her useful life.
That’s a carrier? Must be strictly helo’s and VTOL’s.
China will buy it.
She is to be the tender for the George Soros.
In following a kinds of news stories about Britain over the past 10 years, it seems pretty clear that they have completely lost their minds, and their soul.
Britain is finished.
ping
That would be a sad day. I served on board the USS Ranger and th JFK, both are gone,I believe.
Ungland... they were England when they were an Empire,but then they became meek and became england.
Now they are appeasers and have become undone,
they are now UNgland...
I remember seeing seeing one of these in the Gulf the last time I was there but I don’t remember which one it was. For some reason I think it was HMS Invincible.
She will probably be scrapped. The story I have is that she is not in particularly good condition - a function of a very active service life.
It is strictly helos and VTOL’s - but for its size (20,000 tons?) its a very useful ship.
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Well, one place it won’t go to is Argentina, f’sure..But I’m surprised they don’t sell it to India...which is looking to upgrade its Navy..as a bulwark to China..so it would be in GB interest..
Well, one place it won’t go to is Argentina, f’sure..But I’m surprised they don’t sell it to India...which is looking to upgrade its Navy..as a bulwark to China..so it would be in GB interest..
Thanks..one follow-up..a few comments on the thread suggest that 25 years is NOT a long life..our CVNs last 50+ years..with one refueling at 25-30 years..
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