HMS Illustrious
 

Yesterday I went up to Greenwich to see HMS Illustrious.

How magnificent she looked.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gal.../DSC_1134a.jpg

I shall upload some pictures with the Merlin. The helicopter looked rather large.

I could not get on the ship as they closed the queue at 12:30 !

Surely there is some life in the old girl yet ?

And the Ark !

Plenty of life left in Lusty.

The Ark, not so much. She leaves for Turkey next week having been stripped and declassified.

It is somewhat disappointing that there does not yet appear to have been a serious attempt made to preserve Lusty - despite last years announcment that the MoD would be receptive to offers, given a viable proposal.

If it were up to me, which unfortunately it isn't. I would keep The Illustrious and Ark Royal until the new carriers become operational. It might even be possible to operate the F35 for training purposes?

I would be pleased to know who gets the 'kick-back' on the scrap metal?

No. It wouldn't.

Not sure what you mean by "kickback"? The scrapper bids (ie he pays) to remove the ship from Naval base, dismantle it, dispose of all pollutants iaw relevant law and gets to sell the recovered metals to recover his labour and other costs and make a profit.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...g_report_u.pdf

Or did you think we pay someone to take it away for us?

I wonder what will happen to the rather nifty geo-tracking satellite TV receiver the ship's company paid for and got installed? Used to enable UK TV to be piped throughout the ship no matter where in the world she sailed - great morale booster. Was also a great 'gotcha' on the EW recce test when asked to identy what was under the non-descript satcom type dome on the front deck area. Always admired their reading of the '2 drinks' rule - if you divide all the drinks you consumed by the total number of days on the trip and then add 2 for every 'cross-mess' hosting event - as long as the answer was 2 or less - you were ok! :ok:Shame all that experience will shortly be dispersed and diluted.

N a b,
There is a phrase, "The state of that and the price of kippers."

These days,it's the price of copper, the price has gone through the roof with commodities.
There must be miles of stuff in the ship.
Ever met a poor scrap metal merchant?

I have been waiting for her to leave at 15:30 hrs.
The wind is too strong.
Now it will be 4am !

10000 te of ferrous @ £150/te

450 te of non-ferrous @£2500/te based on highquality PVC copper wire.

So about £2.6M then.

Less cost of tug charter UK to Turkey, insurance, manpower to dismantle and cost of disposal of non-recyclables.

Take your point about absence of poor scrap merchants, but I can't see how anyone is taking the p1ss here.

I just want Lusty and the Ark to remain until the new carriers are operational.

Historically , this is unlikely to happen.

The 1930's all over again. Cut back then PANIC !

Stuffy, thanks for posting. I had a very intersting month on board Lusty ahead of GWII. I have to say, even in that time, I was rather taken by her.

Here are some photos for Courtney Mil. Most welcome to share.

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3d8e8d48.jpg

The Merlin looks rather large....
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa3c1b38.jpg


May 13th. Too windy to leave.
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psb62465e3.jpg

ICT/CIS Kit
 

Sandy - don't worry about the potential loss of SatTV etc, the Comms gear will be stripped off and transferred to the new carriers. Everything that can be re-used will be: it's how to replace and regenerate on the cheap. You know that MoD cannot resist that temptation!

Its a shame it could not have been moored further up near Westminster, with the words "Sacrificed for the foreign aid budget" written on its side:ugh:

I'd like to sacrifice a few politicians.

Foreign aid budget ??

A number of journalists have cast aspersions about 'Kick-backs' with those deals, on both sides of the fence.

Then there is the Third world General who wants his new Mercedes.( that's what happened to some of the 2004 Tsunami money).

The senior third world politician who wants to add to his numbered Swiss bank account.

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4a1e1e84.jpg

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...ps84b0c8f9.jpg

Even with three large tugs. It was still too windy to leave.

Even with three large tugs. It was still too windy to leave.

The problem would have been getting through the Thames Barrier with that much wind on the beam.

She is a thing of beauty. Thank you for sharing the pictures. I still have my HMS Lusty guide book, handed to me as I went aboard. Invaluable for finding one's way around, a fascinating read and a great rememberance of my short time aboard and meny hours spent talking to the crew who made that their life. Hats off.

dhp41,
I be a landlubber boy. I didn't think about the Thames Barrier.

A friend sent me this:-
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" Portsmouth RN yard has Christos XXIII tied up alongside tonight. Ex-HMS Ark Royal was towed out of one of the inner docks today and will be hitched to this old tub sometime in the next 12-24 hours, and then, sadly, she's to be towed off to Asia to be broken up.
An MoD spokesman said that the work couldn't be done here as we had no industry capable of doing it.*What about that*company on Tyneside that controversially brought over those ex-USN asbestos-ridden destroyers to scrap a couple of years ago?
Anyhow, a light-aircraft carrier with one Lynx and a Merlin is not conducive to a projection of naval-power,methinks.

Linky no worky

West Coast,

It should be OK now?

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