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NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2001
Ships of the Royal Navy
5
No 544
Facts and figures Class: Landing Logistic (LSL)
Ship
Pennant number: L3505 Builder: Alexander Slevens, Glasgow Completed: 1967 Entered Service: 1970 Post-Falklands repairs and modifications: Tyne Shiprepairers, 1985 Lloyd's Classification: +100 A1 +LMC Class 1
RO-RO Passenger Port of Registry: London
Displacement:
6,400
tonnes Length: 135.8 metres Beam: 18.2 metres Draught: 4 metres Speed: 16 knots max Complement: 53 Military lift: 340 troops (534 hard lying); 18 MBTs; 34 mixed vehicles; 120 tons POL; 30 tons ammunition; one 25-ton crane; two 4.5-ton cranes.
Capacity for 20 helicopters (11 tank deck, 9 vehicle deck) Main machinery: Two tencylinder turbocharged Mirrlees National diesels plus one 400hp bow thruster Aircraft: Aft flight deck: one spot for Sea King of Lynx; vehicle deck: one spot for Chinook, Sea King or Lynx Weapons: 20mm Oerlikons and 7.62mm machine guns
r
[MWILE CG@Gfl(oM s^ . Normandy... ....... 1944 South Atlantic 1982
• RFA Sir Tristram, with Mexeflote self-propelled floating platform strapped to her side.
Versatility is RFA's strength F
OR a ship that was once bombed and abandoned, RFA Sir Tristram has proved a very useful asset. Sir Tristram is one of five landing ships logistic (LSLs) in the RFA, supporting amphibious operations by landing troops, tanks, vehicles and other heavy equipment in port or on any suitable shore. To allow this, she has doors in the how and stern, allowing rapid loading and unloading, and her shallow draught allows her to run on to a heaeh to unload in areas where there is no secure port. As such, she is part ro-ro ferry
and part landing craft. She can operate large helicopters from her flight deck aft and the vehicle deck amidships, and such versatility makes her a valuahle addition to operations hy UK, NATO and United Nations forces. Sir Tristram can also act as a command and support ship for RN mine countermeasures vessels (MCMVs) when they deploy overseas, her role as mother-ship including full engineering support. Sir Tristram's superstructure was hadly damaged when the ship was homhed at Fit/roy during the Falklands War, and although she was initially abandoned, she was later used as emergency accommodation before heini> sea-lifted back to the UK.
Trawler amongst the honours RFA SIR Tristram's only predecessor was a modest vessel - but she still managed to win a Battle Honour. That ship was an Admiralty trawler of the Round Table class, built by Lewis in 1942, and weighing in at 440 tons. The eight-strong class were for the most part employed as minesweepers, and could be equipped with a range of devices and systems to counter the threat of mines, including acoustic and magnetic. HMT Sir Tristram was just over 40 metres in length,
with a beam of a little over seven metres and a draught of 3.5 metres. She had a single-shaft, triple-expansion engine, giving around fiOOihp, giving her a speed of around 12 knots. The Round Table class had a complement of 35, and each ship's armament consisted of a single 12pdr quick-firing low-angle gun and three 20mm anti-aircraft guns on single mountings. HMT Sir Tristram won her Battle Honour during the Normandy Landings in 1944, and she was sold in 1947.
AIRCRAFT OF THE ROYAL NAVY
No 53
Henri Farman THE HENRI Farman pusher biplane was among the first aircraft to equip the fledgling Royal Naval Air Service, and reputedly it was this type that in August 1914 led the Battle Fleet to sea. Underpowered even by the standards of its time, the two-seat Henri Farman F. 20 was too slow, at 60mph, and too difficult to maintain in the field - and could not carry a useful bomb
However, a version made of steel and reengined with the 140hp Canton Unne in place of the 80hp Gnome - the F. 27 - proved more effective and in 1915 was capable of dropping a SOOIb bomb, the biggest available at that time.
The type was among those that made the earliest bombing attacks on Zeppelin sheds,
assorted types equipping the first RNAS units sent to France and in support of the
an aircraft piloted by S/Lt J. S. Mills dropping four 20lb bombs to destroy LZ 38 in its hangar at Evere. Some aircraft were fitted with a Lewis gun in
Dardanelles campaign.
the forward cockpit.
load. Nevertheless the aircraft was among the
She was then completely rehuilt and up-dated, with almost ten metres added to her length, and her new superstructure was of steel rather than aluminium. She returned to service in 1985, and supported British forces in the Gulf War and the former Yugoslavia, as well as playing her part in numerous exercises and operations around the world. In November 1998. Sir Tristram played a major role in the relief operations following the devastation caused bv Hurricane Mitch in
Central America. As part of a RN task group, she worked with British and Dutch marines, helping with relief supplies and medical aid to Honduras and Nicaragua. The year 2000 was a busy one for the ship. She spent the first half in the Amphibious Ready Group, taking part in exercises in the Mediterranean and in operations in Sierra Leone. After a spell of maintenance in Portsmouth, she supported the Royal Logistics Corps millennium event, berthing alongside HMS
Belfast in London, then went to the Baltic as command and support ship for MCMVs, visiting Stockholm and Riga. Since the beginning of this year she has been supporting the Royal Marines in Norway for their winter deployment, and is due back in her Marchwood base at the end of this month. But it will only he for a few days, as she is due to take over from RFA Sir Percivale in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, supporting British forces ashore.
Self Catering Apartments
from under ÂŁ16
p.p.p.n.
(April to October 2001)
Naval personnel and families especially welcome