NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 1997 Options
5
No 501
Ships of the Roval Naw
Facts and figures Class: Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessel Pennant number: A388 Builder: Swan Hunter, Wallsend-on-Tyne Launched: March 1, 1991 Commissioned: July 16, 1993 Displacement: 36,580 tonnes Length: 204 metres Beam: 30.4 metres Draught: 9.75 metres Ship's company: 128; 95 RFA, nine Royal Navy and 24 civilian stores personnel, plus up to 154 aircrew Machinery: Two Crossley-Pielstick PC2 diesel engines, two shafts Designed power: 23,680hp per engine Speed: 18 knots normal, 21 knots maximum Cargo capacity: 12,505 cubic metres liquid, 6,234 cubic metres solids Port of Registry: London Lloyds classification: +100A1 DTsm Oil Cargoes, Ice Class 1D, (c.c.) +LMC, UMS, IGS +Lloyds RMC Landing platforms: Two-spot flight deck for Merlin, Sea King or Lynx; hangar and maintenance facilities for five Sea King sized helicopters Replenishment: Four dual-purpose abeam replenishment rigs for simultaneous transfer of liquids and solids; stern refuelling Countermeasures: Decoys; four Plessey Shield of four Sea Gnat six-barrelled 130mm/102mm launchers; Graseby Type 182; towed torpedo decoy Radars: Navigation: Kelvin Hughes Type 1007; Iband; aircraft control: Kelvin Hughes NUCLEUS; Iband Combat data systems: Marconi Matra SCOT 1D SATCOM
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Floating supermarket and more - RFA Fort George.
More than a floating store I
N HER three years of service to date, Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fort George has already proved her versatility as store ship, tanker, helicopter platform - and rescue vessel. Fort George, and her sister ship RFA Fort Victoria, combine the functions of ocean-going fast fleet support tanker and stores support ship - a new concept in logistics support policy at the time, as the prevailing fashion had been for single-role support ships and tankers. They were designed with Cold War anti-submarine patrols in mind, giving them the capability operate independently in support of groups of frigates on patrol. To enhance this capability they were built to run very quietly, and their superstructures slope at different angles to disperse radar reflections - one of the world's first stealth tankers, perhaps? Fort George is built to RAS replenish at sea - in three ways. The four dual-purpose replenishment rigs amidships allow Fort George to transfer fuel, ammunition and stores simultaneously to two ships. The fuel is transferred by suspending a hose from a tensioned cable, known as a jackstay, which runs between Fort George and the ship receiving fuel. The hose is fitted with a quickcoupling probe which connects with the receiving point on the other ship, at which point Fort George pumps the fuel across. The jackstay can also support a traveller device, which can carry loads of up to two tonnes.
In addition, Fort George carries a stern refuelling rig called a Hudson Reel. The fuel hose is trailed over the stern by Fort George, picked up and hauled aboard by the ship to be refuelled. Although this system is not as efficient as beam replenishment, it is safer in severe weather, where it could be difficult for two ships buffeted by wind and high seas to hold a steady course side-by-side. The Fort Victoria-class ships have a two-spot flight deck which can accommodate helicopters the size of Merlin or Sea King, which allows for an efficient vertrep vertical replenishment - operation. Aircraft ferry stores from the Fort ship, either to speed up the replenishment process while fuel is being pumped, or to allow a ship to take on stores when there is no requirement to take on fuel. The ship was also designed to provide Merlin helicopter maintenance facilities for Type 23 frigates.
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FA Fort George has been on Ocean Wave, along with auxiliary oiler RFA Olna, RFA Fort Austin (auxiliary fleet support, helicopter) and forward repair ship RFA Diligence. The current Fort George is the second ship to bear the name, and the two vessels could not have been more different. The original Fort George was a trawler of 180 tons, built just after the turn of the century, which was hired by the Admiralty as a decoy ship between 1917 and 1919. RFA Fort George was laid down at Swan Hunter on Tyneside in
March 1989, and was launched by Lady Annie Slater, wife of the then Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Sir Jock Slater, just under two years later. The ship was commissioned in July 1993. She was originally going to be the second of six of this type of vessel, but there are now no plans to build any more of the class.
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acilities are spacious and comfortable; the ship can accommodate 280 people, and officers and ratings have single cabins with en-suite facilities. Recreational spaces include lounges, a library, a cinema, gym facilites, a dark room, laundries and a NAAFI canteen. There is also an operating theatre. The versatile ship added another string to her bow in June 1996, when she aided a stricken yacht. The ship, under the command of Captain carew, picked up a distress signal from the yacht Tiberias, with three people on board, which was on fire in mid-Atlantic. Fort George, returning to the UK from her role in Exercise Purple Star, off the American east coast, altered course and increased speed to reach the Canadian yacht. The yacht's wiring had been damaged, knocking out the generator and reducing radio range. The crew went to Fort George for a shower and meal, while the RFA ship's mechanics and electricians repaired the generator and jury-rigged the radio. Fort George stayed in attendance for that night and most of the following day, until another yacht arrived to escort Tiberias to the Azores.
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