I8
NAVY NEWS. OCTOBER I978
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NEWSVIEW the Bucket In the precincts of the Royal Naval Museum .it Portsmouth rests the Beira Bucket. bizarre symbol of one of the more unlikely operations which has been the Navy's lot since the Second World War. On display. too. are the badges of the many ships. large and small. which took part in Beira patrol. As these ships ploughed up and down the African coast to blockade the Mozambique port in the name of Rhodesian oil sanctions. s0l‘TlC of the sailors‘ spare hours in the long weeks were occupied by inter-ship sporting rival to gain the undistinguished but inora e-boosting bucket. Regularly. Navy Vcws carried reports from ships proudly '
claiming
their successes. While the patrol could be a chore and a and bore. there were enjoyable times too some beneficialeffects. It was sea time. a real operation with trainin experience. and patrols were invariably into ships‘ passages to and from the Far East. —
slotted
Counting the cost —
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Another job
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For the Navy it was simply another job. then to be done and now water under the brid e [or perhaps oil up the railway tracks wou d be more appropriate). However. there may be wistful reflection on how situations which seem clear-cut at the time often take on a different complexion with the perspective of history. lnevitablv the sanctions issue debate will continue. liut whatever the outcome. and whoever might get egg on their faces. the Navy has good reason to look back with pride without demur and with on the discharge good humour of the thankless task it was —
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given.
How gratifying it would be to believe that everyone had such a clear conscience.
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Mi
Clansman takes the Navy deeper Seaforth Clansman. the 1.977-ton commercial diving support ship on charter to the Royal Navy. gives the Navy a facility to dive deeper. for longer. than ever before. The charter is expected to continue until the Navy's own purpose-built diving support vessel is ready in 1982. There is a full-time naval party of IS drafted to Seaforth Clansman. composing divers. maintainers and a medical assistant. 'l1iey concentrate solely on leaving the running of the ship crchant Navy crews under masto alternatin ters Capt. Jo n Richie and Capt. James Jackson. Their draft is likely to take them anywhere In home waters on an “as required" basis to recover equipment or investigate objects on the sea bed. When not specifically tasked. the Portsmouth-based ship is likely to head for the deep waters around Scotland's west coast. whet: training will continue. Lieut. Gerry Martin. officer in charge of the
diving‘. .
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All of it will be recalled by the men still serving who took part. as well as those now outside. but to today‘s young ratings mere the name Beira will boys when it started mean little. Latest disclosures that the patrol was ineffective in that such large quantities of oil continued to flow by another route will have caused raised eyebrows in the Fleet as well as elsewhere. While "guesstimates" of the cost of the naval operation vary widely. it must be virtually impossible to be precise because the patrol formed part of more extensive activity. One politician has made the interesting suggestion that company profits from the sale of oil to Rhodesia at that time should be used to pay the cost of the blockade.
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naval party in Sealorth Clansman. told Navy News the ship would do everything H.M.S. Reclaim is ex cted to do. and more. Reclaim. t e oldest o rational ship in the Fleet, is e uipped for iving to about 35tlft. Seitforth Cansman's divers can go down to
l.fll0ft.
diving system in the new ship allows divers to work at great depth for days on end. Between dives they live in s cial pressurized chambers in the ship and un ergo the lengthy decompression process only when their task is completed. PFIESSURIZED ‘CABINS’ The system will normally support up to four divers at a time. although twice that number can be accommodated in the ship's two pressurized "cabins." There they eat. sleep and relax between dives, to which they are lowered in a pressurized bell A control room in the ship constantly monitors A saturation
the divers at work. the divers learn the theory of satuAlthough ration diving in H.M.S. Vernon, Seaforth Clansman provides the practical training. When
she the
oes to sea. a
senior
and four divers from Unit‘-i saturation team.
rate
xperimental Diving
based in Vernon. will join the ship. thus ensuring a steady trickle of trained men. Life on board is comfortable. Chief diver (‘I-’()(D) Hill Hauckham HM there was plenty of room for the nasal party and that the food was first class. The red~hul|ed Seaforth Clansman was completed last year. She looks like a modern deep-sea trawler. but is ur ise-built for seabed operations and will give I e any time to develo saturation diving techniques while a naval rep acement is being built. The Navy has chartered Seaforth Clansman for with an .1! .1 cost of £fi.S(Xl a day a year option of renewing the charter for a further four .
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vears.
proposed Although
The Royal Navy diving support shi is expecte to be at least twice the size of Seafort C lansmttn. and to be capable of far more. her diving capacity will probably be much i e same. she is also expected to operate manned and unmanned submersibles the latter capable of probing all but the world's two or three —
deepest places.