NAVY NEWS, MARCH 1999 Options
Ships of the Roval Navy
5
No 520 Also known as Diligence... number of ships have been named Diligence but many, like the current RFA vessel, had other names as well. A brigantine, originally HMS Intelligence, was renamed as the first Diligence in 1692 and
A
sold in 1708.
The second, a 6th Rate, was bought in 1709 and sold three years later, to be followed by a sloop built in 1756.
As a fireship she became HMS Comet in 1779, and was sold the following year. The fourth Diligence was the brig-sloop Spencer, renamed in 1795, but she was wrecked in the Caribbean in 1800. In 1801 the sloop Union was bought and renamed as the fifth Diligence, followed by the lugger Thistle, which became Diligence in 1812. The seventh was a 567-ton
transport. Built in Ipswich in 1814, she became a coal hulk
in 1861 and was eventually sold in 1904.
Apart from a 33-ton dockyard hoy of 1859, the next scheduled Diligence, a wooden screw sloop, was laid down in Chatham in 1862 but cancelled the following year, so the eighth was a destroyer depot ship, ex-Tabaristan, which was bought in 1913. Matters become somewhat confusing at this point, as a 1906 tug already named Diligence was renamed Security in 1914, and served as a drifter during the war.
The penultimate Diligence was a 4,023-ton Lend-Lease destroyer repair vessel which came to Britain in 1944 but was returned to the US Navy in 1946.
Facts and figures Class: Forward repair ship Pennant number: A132 Builder: Oesundsvarvet AB Landskrona, Sweden Completed: 1981 Displacement: 10,765 tonnes Length: 112 metres Beam: 20.5 metres Draught: 6.8 metres
• Ready for anything - RFA Diligence Is packed with equipment and engineering facilities
Global role for versatile RFA D it year saw something of departure for Royal leet Auxiliary repair ship Diligence.
The vessel acted as mothership for the Third Mine Countermeasures Squadron deployment to the Gulf - far from her normal operating base in the South Atlantic. And it was in the Falkland Islands that Diligence first took on a defence role, for she started life as the MV Stena Inspector, a multi-purpose support vessel for North Sea oil operations, but was taken up from trade in May 1982 as a fleet repair ship during the Falklands Campaign. She was subsequently purchased from Stena (UK) Line by the Ministry of Defence in October 1983 and entered the Clyde Dock Engineering facility, where she was converted and military features added, including a large workshop for hull and machinery repairs, supply facilities, accommodation, armaments and magazines and communications fits.
She is designed to provide forward repair and maintenance facilities to ships and submarines operating away from their home ports, so in addition to a variety of workshops she can also provide auxiliary electrical power, fuel, water and sullage reception. Diligence is the Royal Navy's primary battle damage repair unit, and is on short notice to react to developing situations worldwide. During the mining of the Straits of Hormuz in 1987-88 she provided forward support to the multinational minesweeping operation based in the UAE. While there she provided repair and towage to HMS Southampton after collision damage, and in 1991 Diligence was again in the Gulf during the war, where helped to repair American ships damaged by
One of the key features of the ship's design is her computerassisted dynamic positioning system which can keep the vessel static in poor conditions, using the ship's range of thrusters and the variable-pitch propeller. She is fitted with a decompression chamber, and has a helicopter deck on the roof of her bridge. As her hull is built to the highest ice class specification, she can operate anywhere the Navy does. She deployed to the Far East as submarine support ship during Ocean Wave 1997, and, following the Gulf deployment last year with MCM3, she spent just two weeks back in the UK before sailing to the Falklands to support RN units in the South Atlantic. She returned to Faslane in December and is now on her way back to the Falklands.
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SH V t>f I1/J e MOMTH
Speed: 10 knots Complement: 38 civilians Machinery: Diesel-electric drive; five Nohab-Polar diesel generators; four NEBB motors; one propeller; two 360 degree azimuth thrusters; two bow thrusters Aircraft: One landing spot for Sea King, Chinook or Lynx
AIRCRAFT OF THE ROYAL NAVY
No 29
The Attacker - short but significant service.
Supermarine Attacker ORIGINALLY intended for the RAF, the Supermarine Attacker became the first jet fighter to be standardised in Royal Navy service.
Work began on the design in the latter stages of World War II, the first prototype flying in 1946, followed almost a year later by the naval prototype. The first of 145 production
aircraft flew in 1950, and the Attacker entered service with 800 Naval Air Squadron in 1951. By 1953 Attackers also equipped 803, 890
and 736 Squadrons, all of which took part in the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead that
year.
But the Attacker's reign in front-line service was fleeting. It was replaced in 1954 by Sea
Hawks or Sea Venoms and relegated to four
Reserve squadrons, the first of which - 1831 RNVR Squadron - became the first Naval Reserve unit to fly jet aircraft. By 1957 the Attacker had disappeared altogether from Fleet Air Arm service. The Supermarine Attacker F.1 was powered by a Rolls-Royce Nene 3 jet engine producing 5,100lb of thrust giving a maximum speed of
590mph at sea level and a climb rate of 6,350ft
a minute. Range was 590 miles or 1,190 miles with an auxiliary tank carried ventrally. Service ceiling was 45,000ft. The Attacker was armed with four 20mm cannon, and the FB.1 fighter-bomber version could carry eight 60lb rockets or two 1,000lb bombs.
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