Speaking of ships scrapped at Helensburgh, here’s HMS Duke of York in 1958.
Tag Archives: scrapyard
Former Royal Navy submarine HMS Onyx towed to scrapyard
HMS Onyx has left Barrow-in-Furness and is on her way to the ship breakers at Helensburgh. If nobody could raise the funds to preserve her as a museum ship during the last eight years, then it’s unlikely that anyone is going to step in at the last minute and save her.
Story from the North West Evening Mail follows:
Falklands veteran sub leaves Barrow and embarks on her final voyage
Thursday, 01 May 2014
A SUBMARINE left rusting in docks has been towed away after eight years.
HMS Onyx, an Oberon-class vessel which saw service in the Falklands War, was brought to Barrow in 2006 by businessman Joe Mullen as part of plans to use it as a museum.
Mr Mullen paid £117,000 for the sub after an idea by the Barrow branch of the Submariners Association, led by Terry Spurling, that it could become an interactive centrepiece at a submarine heritage centre.
Yesterday HMS Onyx was towed from Buccleuch Dock, in Barrow.
Mr Spurling said: “It is a hope more than anything that she is saved but at the moment she is going to Helensburgh for scrap.
“I happen to know there are people in Helensburgh trying to do what we tried to do here.
“It would be a tragedy if she was to be scrapped, she’s in such good condition internally and she is one of the Falklands boats.
“She’s one of the last O-boats available for a heritage centre, I do hope she is not scrapped.”
HMS Onyx (S21) was built at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1967. She served throughout the Cold War and saw honourable service during the Falklands War, landing special forces along the coast. Decomissioned in 1991, Onyx was placed on display in Birkenhead by the Warship Preservation Trust. In 2006, the trust went into liquidation and Onyx was sold to Barrow businessman Joe Mullen for £100,000. Funds to preserve Onyx as a museum ship were not forthcoming… and so we reach the end of her story.
Veteran US Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal sold for scrap… for just 1-cent!
Talk about a bargain! The USS Forrestal has been sold for scrap… for just 1 cent!
The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the lead vessel of her class and was commissioned into the United States Navy in 1955, serving until 1993. All four Forrestal-class aircraft carriers are slated for scrapping, despite strong campaigns to preserve at least one as a museum ship and to sink one as an artificial reef.
USS Forrestal, Navy’s first ‘supercarrier,’ sold for one cent
The aircraft carrier USS FORRESTAL (CV 59), escorted by a pair of tug boats, passes under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge as it approaches New York City for Fleet Week on April 29, 1989. (U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) — The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, out of service for 20 years, is being sold to a Brownsville, Texas, scrap company for a penny, the Navy says.
All Star Metals bid $0.01 for the job, the Navy said in a news release Tuesday. The company’s offer was based on its estimate of how much it can net from the sale of metal from the Forrestal.
The Forrestal, the first of the Navy’s “supercarriers,” was launched in December 1954 in Newport News, Va., and commissioned on Sept. 29, 1955. It was named after James V. Forrestal, the last Navy secretary to sit in the cabinet and the first secretary of defense, who committed suicide in 1949.
The carrier was decommissioned in 1993. The Navy offered to donate it as a museum or memorial but no suitable organizations offered to take the vessel.
The Forrestal is currently docked in Philadelphia.
Royal Navy frigates will be towed to Turkey for scrap this week
Well said, Pete Sandeman: ‘If they were being scrapped to make way for new ones, that would be one thing. But we’re not likely to see the next generation of frigates until after 2020, which is a huge gap.’
Frigates head for the scrapyard
HMS Cumberland, HMS Cornwall, HMS Chatham and HMS Campbeltown in Portsmouth Harbour. Picture: Sarah Standing (121766-5274)
by Sam Bannister
sam.bannister@thenews.co.ukTHE Royal Navy’s former HMS Chatham today started a sad exodus of frigates from Portsmouth Harbour.
The former Type 22 frigates Chatham, along with her sister ships Campbeltown and Cumberland, are all leaving Portsmouth for the last time this week, bound for a Turkish scrapyard.
A fourth frigate, Cornwall, will remain until a later date.
The four ships, which were all axed in the government’s 2010 defence cuts, were sold to two different firms for recycling.
Three of the frigates will go to Leyal Ship Recycling, the same firm which is cutting up Ark Royal. The fourth frigate will go to a UK shipbreaker.
Pete Sandeman, of savetheroyalnavy.org, told The News: ‘It was a very sad day for the navy when the Type 22s were scrapped.
‘They had capabilities that the remaining Type 23s don’t have.
‘The navy made the right choice to get rid of them because they are very expensive to run, but it’s the government’s fault for forcing them to do it.
‘If they were being scrapped to make way for new ones, that would be one thing.
‘But we’re not likely to see the next generation of frigates until after 2020, which is a huge gap.’
Chatham is due to leave Portsmouth under tow today at around 2.30pm.
Campbeltown will leave on either Thursday or Friday.
Cumberland may leave next Tuesday.
There is no date yet for the departure of Cornwall.
A spokesman for the MoD said: ‘Following competitions, two contracts have been awarded to recycle the four former Type 22 frigates Cumberland, Campbeltown, Chatham, and Cornwall.
‘A contract for three of the ships, Cumberland, Campbeltown, and Chatham, has been awarded to the Turkish recycling company Leyal Ship Recycling.
‘The contract for the fourth ship, Cornwall, has been awarded to Swansea Drydocks, a UK recycling company based in South Wales.
‘All four ships will be recycled.
‘The sale of all four ships will result in a total receipt to the MoD of just under £3m.’
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/frigates-head-for-the-scrapyard-1-5562698
Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal at Cairnryan breaker’s yard 1980
HMS Ark Royal. Seen at Cairnryan – her last resting place prior to being broken up here in 1980. She arrived at Cairnryan on the 28th Sept 1980 demolition completed by 1984. (via Jim Bavin)
Four Type 22 frigates laid up in Fareham Creek
HMS Cumberland, HMS Cornwall, HMS Campbeltown and HMS Chatham.
Naval Matters 