HMS Plymouth will be towed away for scrap within weeks
THE last surviving warship from the Falklands War is only weeks away from being towed to a scrapyard, The Herald has been told.
The derelict ship has been tied up in Vittoria Dock in Birkenhead since the 2006 failure of the Warship Preservation Trust.
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MADE IN DEVONPORT: HMS Plymouth tied up at Vittoria Dock in Birkenhead
The Argentine surrender was signed in HMS Plymouth's wardroom after the 1982 Falklands War.
Last year a new HMS Plymouth Trust was set up in a bid to acquire the Devonport-built ship after her owners, Peel Ports, said they were selling her to a Turkish ship breaker.
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The trust said it needed to raise £400,000 to turn her into a floating museum and training ship.
But Rodney Anderton, chairman of the Merchant Navy Association in Merseyside, told The Herald this week he had learned that HMS Plymouth would soon be going into dry dock for a £250,000 hull survey before she could be towed to Turkey.
"Things are moving along and I should imagine her departure is imminent – within weeks," he said. He added the loss of HMS Plymouth would be "a disaster".
Mr Anderton said there was a lot of specialist, high-quality steel on the ship, which made it a worthwhile project in spite of the high export cost.
A spokeswoman for Peel Ports confirmed that the sale to a Turkish ship breaker had been completed late last year but refused to name the company involved. She could not say whether there were any plans to put the ship in dry dock or when the export would happen, but said the Turkish company was waiting for licences.
Laurence Sharpe-Stevens, the last remaining director of the HMS Plymouth Trust, dismissed the reports. He said he had evidence that Peel Ports had never been given formal ownership of the ship and was therefore not in a position to sell it.
"The fight goes on," Mr Sharpe-Stevens said. He told The Herald that the trust had contacted every Turkish ship breaker and none of them had admitted buying HMS Plymouth.
The Herald contacted Dido Shipping, a Greek company which owns Turkey's biggest ship breaker, Leyal, which is based in Aliaga. No one was available to comment on HMS Plymouth.
Leyal has won the contracts to recycle several British warships, including the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and the Type 42 destroyers HMS Cardiff, HMS Newcastle, HMS-Exeter and HMS Southampton.
Meanwhile, the ship's chapel from HMS Plymouth has been removed and reassembled at the Fort Perch Rock museum on Merseyside.
Doug Darroch, the museum's curator, said the chapel arrived a week ago. "We were very pleased to acquire it and we are hoping for a few more items from the ship," he said. "It's nice that a little bit of the ship stays on the Wirral, which is like her second home.
"If any ship should be saved it's HMS Plymouth. It's a shame."
Baz Gregory, chairman of the Merchant Navy and Seafarers Association, Plymouth and Southwest, said they were "upset and disturbed" to learn of her fate. "We from the Merchant Navy know the feeling of seeing your ship being sunk. Plymouth let an important part of it's maritime history go to the scrapyard due to apathy. Shame upon us."
Comment – Page 11
27 Comments
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by Laurence_ss
Saturday, March 16 2013, 2:58PM
“by harrydylan
"So how much would it cost to actually buy, refurbish and exhibit the ship as a paying attraction? Set against the money being squandered on the 'Ocean City' re-branding and Tudor Evans' silly little road signs, I'd much rather see HMS Plymouth gracing the Barbican shoreline.
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HMS Plymouth is in fact in VERY good condition but Peel ports and those that want to dispose of her for profit appear to want you all to think she is to bad to save.
The cost of making her ready would be minimal as she has already been converted for tourist.
Less than road signs and as for ongoing costs HMS Plymouth is entitled to very many grants to cover most costs once up and running again.
She would generate an income and surplus so would contribute to the local economy not be a drain on it.
In Birkenhead she supported the whole fleet of ships that was the WPT with cash she made.
On her own like most other preserved ships she would make a nice profit from tourism.
Grab the chance of HMS Plymouth before it is too late for you.
Laurence Sharpe-Stevens
HMS Plymouth Trust
http://tinyurl.com/d5j8534”
by LHPlymouth
Saturday, March 16 2013, 1:10PM
“Theotherside - agree with you but as you say Devonport has received money for regeneration meanwhile at the other end where the incinerator is rising from the ground NOTHING has been spent on regeneration.
Our council are letting the company who will make millions out of this and send it back to Germany are tinkering by handing out a few measly scraps to give the impression they are helping the local community...even the PCT expresses concern but then agrees its ok if MVV pay for a new GP surgery. Immoral or what!!!!!
If the reclaimed land had been used to site a Maritime Museum and other related facilities, the Dockyard and Warships tours could have also embraced it and used it as a stop off for refreshments and further items of interest. Maybe HMS Plymouth could have either been berthed there or secured in the land and made into a restaurant or used for tours etc.
The whole project would have employed more jobs than the 33 that the incinerator will, would have been less intrusive and would have been a start to regenerate the rest of the area.
As it stands now Plymouth may as well delete all this area from it's map as we are the forgotten ones....dump the waste on us and then abandon us.
An area of land wasted on waste!!”
by Laurence_ss
Friday, March 15 2013, 11:49PM
“Laurence Sharpe-Stevens
HMS Plymouth Trust
http://tinyurl.com/d5j8534
Ok Plymouth WAKE UP you need HMS Plymouth. If you let her slip through your hands any attempt at a Maritime Heritage setup would be treated as a joke.
You have a lot going for you.
You have Flag officer Plymouth backing you.
Get counciler Tudor and others to stop wasting money.
HMS Plymouth has ans can pay her way, I know because I have seen her do it.
I am a Plymouth born boy up here in Birkenhead trying my best to protect the ship. You guys need to start to make a noise to save her. Public servants are there to serve YOU not the other way around.
Portsmouth has all year round tourist income because of their ships. You in Plymouth have a lot more to offer if you could only see it, not least in the fact you have better beaches.
Perhaps you should get rid of the TUDORS and bring back the Elizabethan spirit of Francis Drake. Not afraid to take a gamble.
Lady N Astor "Plymouth AWAKE "!”
by Laurence_ss
Friday, March 15 2013, 11:48PM
“Laurence Sharpe-Stevens
HMS Plymouth Trust
http://tinyurl.com/d5j8534
Ok Plymouth WAKE UP you need HMS Plymouth. If you let her slip through your hands any attempt at a Maritime Heritage setup would be treated as a joke.
You have a lot going for you.
You have Flag officer Plymouth backing you.
Get counciler Tudor and others to stop wasting money.
HMS Plymouth has ans can pay her way, I know because I have seen her do it.
I am a Plymouth born boy up here in Birkenhead trying my best to protect the ship. You guys need to start to make a noise to save her. Public servants are there to serve YOU not the other way around.
Portsmouth has all year round tourist income because of their ships. You in Plymouth have a lot more to offer if you could only see it, not least in the fact you have better beaches.
Perhaps you should get rid of the TUDORS and bring back the Elizabethan spirit of Francis Drake. Not afraid to take a gamble.
Lady N Astor "Plymouth AWAKE "!”
by Laurence_ss
Friday, March 15 2013, 11:47PM
“Laurence Sharpe-Stevens
HMS Plymouth Trust
http://tinyurl.com/d5j8534
Ok Plymouth WAKE UP you need HMS Plymouth. If you let her slip through your hands any attempt at a Maritime Heritage setup would be treated as a joke.
You have a lot going for you.
You have Flag officer Plymouth backing you.
Get counciler Tudor and others to stop wasting money.
HMS Plymouth has ans can pay her way, I know because I have seen her do it.
I am a Plymouth born boy up here in Birkenhead trying my best to protect the ship. You guys need to start to make a noise to save her. Public servants are there to serve YOU not the other way around.
Portsmouth has all year round tourist income because of their ships. You in Plymouth have a lot more to offer if you could only see it, not least in the fact you have better beaches.
Perhaps you should get rid of the TUDORS and bring back the Elizabethan spirit of Francis Drake......Not afraid to take a gamble.
Lady N Astor.............. "Plymouth AWAKE "!”
by Nevman
Friday, March 15 2013, 10:44PM
“The Mayflower may have left from Plymouth, but it didn't start its voyage in Plymouth. It set out from London, and would never have come to Plymouth at all had the voyage gone as planned. The Pilgrim Fathers weren't the first Europeans, or even Britons, to settle in America. And they weren't fleeing religious persecution; they were leaving what they saw as a permissive society to found a settlement where they could enforce their own strict Puritanism.
This might be why we don't make too much of the Mayflower story, incidentally, as the facts tend to contradict the story taught to Americans and they tend not to like being contradicted.”
by Tibbsy123
Friday, March 15 2013, 9:33PM
“Great point Pogle! Can keep hold of some old decommissioning subs waiting for the nuclear half life to start no problem what's wrong with an old 100 meter frigate?!”
by Luvsthenews
Friday, March 15 2013, 9:32PM
“Nevman so having the Mayflower a steam ship and a nuclear submarine. A naval museum and the very rich history that Plymouth could offer would not attract tourist? Thousands come to the south west every year. This would drag them into Plymouth. Most Americans can name the Mayflower and the Pilgrim fathers but think they set sail from London not Plymouth. A huge Naval/Council run Museum would do more good for Plymouth than bad and would attract people to Plymouth for more than 4 months.
At this present time we could not attract anyone for a weekend. Hence why Plymouth needs to do more work before it trys striving for a City of Culture it needs to Nourish what its got.”
by Nevman
Friday, March 15 2013, 3:47PM
“Well, that's the trouble with tourism, waltersmith: it only contributes anything to the economy for four months a year. And this isn't one of them.”
by Waltersmith
Friday, March 15 2013, 3:37PM
“@Nevman
It could have been an addition to the little Plymouth offers tourists.
You are correct about Cornwall. I was in Penzance yesterday and was faced by people picking up fag ends, blokes swigging white diamond in the bus shelter making the rest of the people waiting for buses uneasy and a couple of real alchoholics swearing and arguing by the railway station. Half the shops were shut and the restaurants that were open had one or 2 people in them.”