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Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 17:26
Devonport-based helicopter carrier, HMS Ocean, is set to begin a new lease of life after 12 months of maintenance and repair work by Babcock Marine.
The ship’s company has now moved back on board and are continuing to prepare her forthcoming deployments at sea.
The upkeep period has concentrated on modernising the 11-year-old warship’s systems and making improvements to the living conditions onboard for the ship’s crew and Royal Marines when embarked.
Since October last year, hundreds of Babcock Marine workers have been refitting the huge 21,000-tonne vessel as part of a £30million maintenance contract.
A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: “The pace of work onboard has speeded up considerably as the end of the work comes in sight.
“Major ship systems such as diesel generators and air conditioning plants have been brought back to life after laying dormant for almost a year.
“Although still secured to the wall in the Dockyard basin, the propellers turned again under power of the main engines bringing the ship another crucial step further in the transformation from busy industrial site back to sea-going warship.
“With the physical engineering challenges of bringing such a large ship alive again nearly overcome, the next challenge is for the large number of new members of the ship’s company to train as a team in how to operate their ship in the many roles for the multiple tasks she could be asked to carry out.”
The future for HMS Ocean is bright and she prepares to rejoin the fleet for deployment in early 2009.
As a helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ship, HMS Ocean is seen as a critical part of the Royal Navy’s ability to land forces from the sea.
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