THE
Royal Navy’s former HMS Chatham today started a sad exodus of frigates from
Portsmouth Harbour.
The former Type 22 frigates
Chatham, along with her sister ships Campbeltown and Cumberland, are all
leaving Portsmouth for the last time this week, bound for a Turkish scrapyard.
A fourth frigate, Cornwall, will
remain until a later date.
The four ships, which were all
axed in the government’s 2010 defence cuts, were sold to two different firms
for recycling.
Three of the frigates will go to
Leyal Ship Recycling, the same firm which is cutting up Ark Royal. The fourth
frigate will go to a UK shipbreaker.
Pete Sandeman, of
savetheroyalnavy.org, told The News: ‘It was a very sad day for the navy when
the Type 22s were scrapped.
‘They had capabilities that the
remaining Type 23s don’t have.
‘The navy made the right choice
to get rid of them because they are very expensive to run, but it’s the
government’s fault for forcing them to do it.
‘If they were being scrapped to
make way for new ones, that would be one thing.
‘But we’re not likely to see the
next generation of frigates until after 2020, which is a huge gap.’
Chatham is due to leave
Portsmouth under tow today at around 2.30pm.
Campbeltown will leave on either
Thursday or Friday.
Cumberland may leave next
Tuesday.
There is no date yet for the
departure of Cornwall.
A spokesman for the MoD said:
‘Following competitions, two contracts have been awarded to recycle the four
former Type 22 frigates Cumberland, Campbeltown, Chatham, and Cornwall.
‘A contract for three of the
ships, Cumberland, Campbeltown, and Chatham, has been awarded to the Turkish
recycling company Leyal Ship Recycling.
‘The contract for the fourth
ship, Cornwall, has been awarded to Swansea Drydocks, a UK recycling company
based in South Wales.
‘All four ships will be recycled.
‘The sale of all four ships will
result in a total receipt to the MoD of just under £3m.’
Source:
Portsmouth. 8 October 2013
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