ARmy Rumour SErvice

Very sad. Some excellent pics on the Daily Mail website.

Knowing how this current and previous Goverments work and the need to make a quick buck, I am surpised that it has not been sold to Argentina.

Bad timing but a quick check of the reality-o-meter means that just because the FI surrender was signed aboard doesn't make this a de facto tourist magnet. Which it would need to be to justify the huge costs of turning it into a tourist attraction and then keeping it as one.

How about making it one of those artificial reefs?

Doesn`t surprise me that she will eventually be cut up. The city of Plymouth has a wealth of naval history but no historic vessels and a council with no imagination.
There was an proposal to beach her in Hayle harbour to be used as an adventure centre/ cadet centre/ visitor attraction, but that fell flat due to someone reckoning that the draft was too deep for the mud. They`ve never heard of dredging in Cornwall apparently.
Then again look on the bright side, down here Hayle has the reputation as the drugs capital of Cornwall, what an inspiration for the many decent people living there.
Unfortunately the only people with money in this country are too busy reaming out the population for their next million.

It's just a big pile of scrap metal. The remains of a ship that took part in a very small war in a long line of small wars that we've fought. It's not as if she did anything particularly noteworthy there that other ships can't claim. If we preserved every ship that was used in a surrender ceremony of our enemies we'd fill up Plymouth harbour. They've tried to preserve her and the British public have voted with their wallets - she's not sufficiently of interest to save.

why aren't we using such chances to train up apprentices and vocational courses?

after all they do up vauxhall novas and get bits of paper for it so why not a ship - plumbers, sparkies, joiners, metalworkers etc.. the brickies can build the visitors centre - a better use of public money than HS2

I'd even warrant it would be something the bored shore based navy beached due to budget constraints could do or oversea without too much objection. its not as if there isn't a billion gallons of old formula grey paint in the stores. and we have plenty of admirals to act as tour guides and exhibits

The ship is over 50 year old and will be filled with asbestos and all sorts of other crap that would not be allowed these days. Even if it was saved from the scrap yard running it as some kind of training facility may be beset with all sorts of further problems and expenses

so an ideal example for training in industrial decontamination win win I reckon, if we built them we should also take them apart instead of carting it off to bangladesh.