The Russian Type 11540 Frigate Neustrashimy seen outside the port of Le Havre today 5th July. She took her pilot before us and headed up the Seine towards Rouen for the Armada 2008 There was a bit of confusion when she was giving her details to the Pilot station, for starters she gave a draft of 9.8 metres. Her details on the Russian website Aeronatics gives 4.8m. The pilot station asked him to confirm his draft but he kept saying 9.8m? There was about 15 sailors on the focsle when she was heaving anchor and about 10 on the poop to take the pilot. All looking equally busy. When our pilot boarded he hardly had time to take off his jacket when he observed the Warship turning to port on the bend where she should have been going to starboard, we had to take evasive manouvres to avoid a close quarters situation. Our pilot spoke to his colleague on the warship, and there was plenty of air sucking and shoulder lifting, and “bateau de guerre” he had instructed the vessel to go to starboard but she turned to port instead….strange, then later she turned the wrong way again….very strange. There was no radar on the bridge either, so it was pilotage by compass and the Mark one eyeball method. Anyway she managed to steam away up the river before us escorted by a French navy patrol boat. Plenty smoke too.
Black & White photo of the LSL Sir Tristram which is permanently moored in Portland Harbour, and used for training purposes for the Royal Navy and other branches of the UK military apparatus. The name is painted out these days but it can be clearly seen on the bow and stern.
Front end view and below a rib passes ahead with 3 of the aforementioned military types on board.
Wikipedia has plenty more, about the Falklands and the Gulf and other stuff. I think if you asked the veterans of the Falklands about the Anglo/French carrier proposals, they wouldn’t be very positive after being on the receiving end of French military hardware, even if it wasn’t the French that they were fighting.
Or you play with a toy one?
According to leaks and reports here and there, the French and British Admiralties are in discussion about the possibility of sharing an aircraft carrier, more like the impossibility, French and British crew together on the same warship? It could be propelled by Nelsons revolving coffin , his own quote“You must hate a Frenchman as you do the devil”
However it certainly is an example of thinking outside the box, even if they appear to be completely out of their boxes, a few too many glasses of sherry perhaps? You could go further and forget about this sharing business altogether and build the carriers in China, everyone else is building their ships there why not warships too? Then they can have 2 or 3 for the price of one, they could even crew them from China too, just disband( or downsize) the military apparatus in Europe and outsource it.
Another alternative would be to buy a few from the cash strapped Yanks, it wouldn’t be too far away from buying from China seeing as how much China is owed from the US, but anyway the dollar at it’s current weak state must make an offer from the Brits of the Frogs for a few ships feasible, unless someone starts shouting about Freedom Fries again.
Or a completely different tack would be to think environment (and not build any at all !) and think recycling, and get out the spy satellite pictures of the ports around Murmansk or Google Earth there are a few disused ships lying around idle waiting for better weather that could be had for a gas pipeline deal or other, I’m sure they could be persuaded to help their old friends France and Britain.
At the end of the day when 2 old enemies start talking about sharing military equipment anything can happen.
The largest of the Swedish navy’s ships the HMS Carlskrona has an uncertain future, the lack of officers and government cutbacks have meant that she will be mothballed and maybe even scrapped. She was rebuilt a few years ago for 225 million kronor…..thats about $33 million, a sure sign of getting the chop in this country, pump in a shit load of money then pull the plug.
Anyway I sailed with a converted naval officer, that is he converted from military to civilian or the Merchant Navy/Mercantile marine call it what you will, and the same chap had served on one of HMS Carlskronas long voyages for which she was famous for. During his time there the ship was on an official visit to Finland, some Swedes still lament the loss of Finland to Peter the Great and Finland still has Swedish as one of it’s official languages, I digress. The commander knew he could speak Swedish with the Finns but wanted to make a special effort and do a greeting in the Finnish language for the visiting dignitaries from Finland’s Navy, so the word went out to all the officers and conscript crew if anyone could speak any Finnish, one conscript was found willing and was given the job of greeting the Finns in their own tongue as they arrived.
The Finns walked up the gangplank were greeted in Finnish they all looked slightly surprised at the speech they all individually received but maintained the official dignified look and the whole visit went down very well.
The next day before the ship was about to sail, a parcel arrived from the Navy of Finland, when unwrapped it was found to be a chainsaw painted in gray camouflage and naval insignia, the commander was baffled, it turns out the conscript either by accident or design was saying to each of the dignitaries ” Do you have a chainsaw?” so they got one. It apparently had pride of place in the ships mess and was taken down for parties and the like, the chain was removed for the sake of good order.
I wonder what will happen to that when the ship gets scrapped.
Leaving Oslo on a sunny September day, the glare would have burned out my optic nerves had it not been for the trusty sunglasses.
Picturesque villages and houses on the Fjord.
The Oslo pilot told us the story of the beginning of the invasion of Norway by the Nazis in 1940 and the resistance put up by the locals in the face of superior military might.
Oscars fort guns installed in 1893, made ironically by Krupps of Germany they put the German ship Blucher partly out of action. The official story is that because the guns were so old they waited until the warships were close before they started to fire, according to the story we heard from the pilot the commanding officer was over 70 years old and was hard of hearing and nearly blind so he thought the Germans were further away then reality. He ordered the guns to be elevated for a further away target, the shells hit high up on the structure of the Blucher, but by a stroke of luck for the Norwegians they put the forward guns out of action and set fire to a fuel depot onboard. The main damage was done when the torpedoes were launched from their secret under water firing position middle of picture below.
Unaware of the presence of torpedo capability installed in 1901 the Kreigsmarine Heavy Crusier Blucher sailed into her last manouever at the narrows of Dröback. The other ships in the convoy Lutzow and Emden on seeing the explosions from Blucher backed away down the channel fearing a minefield and delaying the eventual occupation of Oslo.
The weapons had been installed by the Norwegians in a military build up at the end of the 19th century when Norway was in a Union with Sweden, they said that the build up was a preventative measure in case of attack from Russia, of course this was a ruse, the real reason was in case of a war with Sweden as the Norwegians wanted out of the union, which they were successful in doing in 1905, there was no war. So this equipment had not been used in anger ever and the newest parts were the Austrian torpedoes from 1901, as the Blucher came in range the officer in charge fired not knowing whether his 40 year old torpedoes would work. They did. He was Norway’s most decorated soldier for his actions.On the 9th of April 1940 the Blucher sank down 80 metres and took 830 lives with her. She lies there to this day. For further reading check out Wikipedia.
Off to Kaliningrad now, more news later.
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