NAVY NEWS, JULY 2010


15


Arches...


WE’VE lost count of how many arches there are in this wonderful shot of the Tyne.


But there’s only one Archer (she’s the bit of battleship grey with green foc’s’le in the foreground). Gateshead’s Millennium Bridge was tilted to allow the P2000 patrol boat to pass and begin her summer deployment.


in


background – the Tyne Bridge, the swing bridge, the High Level road and rail bridge, the Metro bridge and finally the King Edward VII bridge.) Newcastle is ‘second home’ to Archer, based in Aberdeen where she serves the city’s university. Maintenance on the P2000 is carried out on the Tyne.


(For the completist the other bridges the image are – foreground to


And it’s to the Tyne that the vessel came for her operational sea training with Newcastle native HMS Example and HMS Explorer from Hull. OST for these small craft is a 2½-day


affair (there’s no Thursday War...) with the exacting people from FOST testing the crew’s navigation and seamanship skills, maintenance, fire and flood – basically a safety check to decide


and Archer


whether the boats can take students to sea.


And they can, receiving a ‘very satisfactory’ from the FOST staff for their efforts.


First stop was London and 70th


With that tick in the box, Archer headed off on her summer deployment with 11 students and six young officers on board.


anniversary commemorations of General de Gaulle’s appeal to Frenchmen to continue the struggle against the Nazis; Archer carried First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope and France’s Ambassador to the UK, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, under Tower Bridge (which also had to be raised) to a reception in the Pool of London.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57