Attenborough’s visit to Plymouth - but no Boaty McBoatface

The Captain has been heavily involved in a refit in the last few weeks, but is now back on task. There has been a lot going on in the Sound over the last few weeks. Two Federal German Navy ships – the missile corvette Erfurt was here for operational training with FOST for a month from the end of August and the air-defence frigate Nordrheim-Westfalen arrived a couple of weeks after her for a period of training with FOST too.

This week’s foreign naval arrival has been the Royal Netherland’s Navy’s frigate Evertsen (the equivalent of the RN’s Tyre 45 destroyers). The terms destroyer and frigate are somewhat interchangeable and will be the subject of an article in the not too distant future. It is not yet known how long the Evertsen will be working from under FOST’s tuition. The eagle-eyed will also have noticed the RNLN’s amphibious ship HNlMS Karel Doorman outside the breakwater a couple of times in the last week. She may be helping the Royal Marines with their training now that both the RN’s amphibious ships have been sold to Brazil.

The less usual visitor to Plymouth at the moment is the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough. She is unusual in several ways – amongst which, it is rare to have a ship named after a living person (I think we can ignore HMS Prince of Wales for historical reasons).

The polar research ship is making a pitstop in Plymouth before departing on a seven month voyage to Antarctica. Exactly why she is here is unclear - she departs next Friday. I can report however that Boaty McBoatface (the autonomous underwater vessel that usually travels with the Sir David) is presently in Southampton.

And tomorrow (Thursday Oct 16) we expect the cruise ship MS Artania, formerly the Royal Princess. She is operated by the German company Phoenix Reisen and was built in 1984 for Princess Cruises. She was the first cruise vessel to feature all outside cabins and can accommodate up to 1,200 guests. Most of the passengers will be German-speaking.