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NAVY NEWS, JULY 2002
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Olympus on her way home to UK
• Campaigners hope to bring Olympus back from Canada
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The group has won the agreement of the Canadian Department of National Defence for the sale of the Obcron-class submarine. Olympus was launched at Barrow in June 1961, and served with the Royal Navy for 27 years before being sold to the Canadian Navy in 1989. She has spent the last 13 years of her life as an alongside training
O BOAT HMS Otus has been saved from her Portsmouth Harbour resting-place at Pounds' shipbreakers to start a new life as a tourist attraction in Germany. The barge towing Otus to her new Kiel Canal home reported back that Otus had sparked the interest of a patrolling warship enroute, which had made attempts to contact the submarine before realising that she was under tow. Otus' sister Osiris remains waiting at Pounds' Shipyard in Tipner. • HMS Otus put through her paces in the Solent just off HMS Dolphin in 1982
submarine, and is now to be found in Nova Scotia at Dartmouth Harbour, Halifax. But since the British decision to sell the new Upholder class of submarine directly to Canada, Olympus is now surplus to requirements. Back in the UK, Olympus is wanted to form the centrepiece of the new heritage attraction planned for Barrow's original Furness Railway Station buildings. But first the boat has to be brought back by barge from Canada to the Centre opposite the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard where she was originally built. A sponsorship drive has been launched to raise the £600,000 needed to bring Olympus home. Each £2 raised is enough to bring Olympus 10 yards nearer her UK home. Information on the Submarine Heritage Centre and details on how to contribute can be found at: www.suhmarincheritagc.com or call: 01229 462617.
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ORGANISERS of a new Submariner Heritage Centre in Barrow hope that a 3,000-mile voyage home lies ahead for the Barrow-built submarine that was once HMS Olympus. A dedicated group of exsubmariners and shipbuilders have joined together to form the Submarine Heritage Centre that will celebrate the design, build and operation of submarines built at Barrow since 1886.
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HMS MANCHESTER has returned to her base port of Portsmouth after almost two years in refit at Plymouth and sea trials in home waters. The Type 42 destroyer, primarily equipped for air defence of a task group, was launched in 1982. With a ship's company of over 240, many of them with homes in the Portsmouth area, the arrival was a welcome event. The ship's Commanding Officer, Cdr Charles Ashcroft, said she had been well served during the extended time in the contractors' hands, but the crew had worked very hard during trials and were looking forward to being back with family and friends. Manchester will deploy on operational tasking later this year. On the same day as Manchester put in an appearance, the Navy's newest major warship, HMSSt Albans, also arrived in Portsmouth at the end of her first month at sea. The programme saw the Type 23 frigate put through her paces in a series of demanding trials in the North Atlantic. She was formally commissioned on June 6 and will undergo further trials over the summer before becoming operational in September. For one crew member, serving on board the frigate has special significance - Lt Al Dighton moved to St Albans from London last year. "It's pure coincidence - I have lived in St Albans for 12 months and only found out I was joining the ship in March," he said. "But it does seem extra special working in the ship which shares the name of my home town."
i An early air-sea operation involving HMS Handy during Belgian coast operations in October 1914
Rebirth hopes for Victorian gunboats A HAPPY ending is on the cards for HMS Gannct in Chatham Historic Dockyard, but sadly HMS Handy is still languishing in need of a home. Handy, a trials gunboat built in 1883, is thought to be one of the last surviving genuine gunboats in British waters. Pounds' Shipyard in Portsmouth bought her back in the 1970s when she was a crane barge working out of Dover. Her condition is described as rough, but recoverable. She still has her steam engine, and a couple of auxiliaries, but the decks need redoing with structural work. Pounds' Shipyard has held on to her in the hope that someone would want to do her up as a part of naval heritage, but 30 years on she is still in need of a home. On the positive side, a cash injection of £1.4 million has guaranteed the future of HMS Gannet, a Victorian composite screw sloop,
> HMS Gannet at Malta in 1890, as she will be restored at Chatham Historic Dockyard. This grant from the Heritage Since the 1878 naval sloop Lottery Fund brings the total arrived in Chatham in 1987, the award for the restoration work up main concentration of work has to £3 million. been in conserving the hull. But Gannet should be open to the the major restoration has been on public at Chatham Historic hold while funding was sought. Dockyard in 2004. In 2000, Gannet won a place on Bill Ferris, the chief executive of the prestigious Core Collection of the Dockyard Trust, said: "This Britain's Heritage Fleet, decided project will be fascinating for our by the National Historic Ships visitors to watch. Committee. "When completed Gannet will The plan is to restore the war- change the dockyard skyline, her ship to her 1886 appearance, when masts will be almost 100ft tall and she was involved in action defend- the ship will become a stunning ing the Sudanese port of Suakin. attraction."