The Royal Navys newest, HMS Defender, enters harbour (6 images in total, keep scrolling)

grebeman

Old Codgers Group
HMS Defender, a type 45 Daring class air defence destroyer, commissioned into service in March 2013 and weighing 8000 tons with 2 x 28,800 shaft horse power Rolls Royce gas turbines capable of 29 knots enters Devonport dockyard from her anchorage off Cawsand, Plymouth Sound on 20th May 2013

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Leading proceedings is the Admiralty pilot launch Tamar Racer to make sure the weekend and amateur sailors give them a wide berth

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The tug SD Adept has a line to the bows of HMS Defender to assist in steering the ship through the narrow and winding buoyed channel up to the dockyard. In the background is the helicopter and commando carrier HMS Illustrious, 22,000 tons and now one of the older ships in the service, having been launched in 1978

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Lead tug SD Adept

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Assisting tug if needed SD Careful

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Passing between Mount Batten and Drake's Island

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Swinging round in the buoyed channel having passed to the port side of the West Mallard buoy in a stretch of the waterway known as the Hamoaze, rather inappropriately thought to mean "the manor close to the shallow, muddy creek", not applicable to this stretch of the Tamar.

Barrie
 
I'm laughing silly at myself. I looked at the first photo and thought to myself, "Is Barrie joking about the new destroyer??"

Then I scrolled down and saw the HMS Defender. Very "stealthy" looking.
 
I'm laughing silly at myself. I looked at the first photo and thought to myself, "Is Barrie joking about the new destroyer??"

Then I scrolled down and saw the HMS Defender. Very "stealthy" looking.

Don't feel alone ... lol ... I'm thinking, man, if that's a Type 45, what's a 'Type 44' ... an inflatable?
 
Well, I didn't scroll initially and your first shot, though photographically sound, didn't look like the pride of Her Majesty's Navy. The second shot was more like it.:th_salute:
 
Barrie, your father was on the HMS Exeter?? Wow. I grew up reading about tons of books about warships and the HMS Exeter was one of the books I have!! Great battle hunting down the Graf Spee. What was your father's role?

As for the lack of windows, I surmise that it's due to the stealth characteristics of the ship.
 
Barrie, your father was on the HMS Exeter?? Wow. I grew up reading about tons of books about warships and the HMS Exeter was one of the books I have!! Great battle hunting down the Graf Spee. What was your father's role?

As for the lack of windows, I surmise that it's due to the stealth characteristics of the ship.

Hi, Father served in the engine room of HMS Exeter. The link below takes you to a web site that is actually devoted to memories of Exeter, the county town of Devon, rather than the ship. However a distant relative of mine who I've never meet has posted some information on father following on from the sinking of HMS Exeter in 1942. When I was alerted to this web site by a neighbour of mine I added more information.

Exeter Memories - letter from a POW

The success of the River Plate incident owed a great deal to the mind of Commodore Henry Harwood in charge of the squadron of the three allied ships involved who reasoned where Captain Langsdorff might go with the Graf Spee and arrived on station with his ships less than 24 hours before the Graf Spee.

After the battle the severely damaged HMS Exeter made for the Falkland islands. On arrival in Port Stanley the elderly captain of HMS London who'd been bought out of retirement came on board HMS Exeter. He was piped aboard by the youngest crew member, a 16 year old seaman and meet by the officer of the watch. The protocol was that he should salute the poop deck, then turn and salute the officer of the watch and ask permission to come aboard. On this occasion he broke with protocol and turned instead to the young seaman and saluted him and asked for his permission to come aboard your gallant ship.

When HMS Exeter returned to Plymouth in February 1940 it is said that 250,000 people were on the shore to see her arrive, a locally built and mostly locally crewed ship. With 4 x 20,000 shaft horsepower steam turbines HMS Exeter could achieve 32 knots, 34 knots with the boiler safety valves gagged, so faster than HMS Defender.

A poor reproduction of the photograph hanging on my wall (the glass is dirtier than I realised)

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Barrie
 
I followed your link. God bless your father Barrie, for all that he gave and endured. Tom Brokaw penned our parents, "The Greatest Generation", there is much truth in that.

Gary

PS- My father was a Marine at Guadalcanal.
G
 
What a story Barrie. Thank you for sharing the link.

And Barrie and Gary, thanks for your fathers who fought the good fight. Extra special during the Memorial Day holiday here in the US.
 
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