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À l'eau, c'est l'heure!
Jun. 20th, 2007 10:10 pmThe most exciting things that happen in Barrow tend to be launches, and there hadn't been one for years, not until a couple of weeks ago while I was offline when HMS Astute, first in a new class of hunter-killer subs, was unveiled to be named by Camilla Parker-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Hohenzollern-Battenburg-Bowles (or whatever).
Actually they don't do these things the way they used to. Subs used to go down the slipway sideways, to land in the Walney Channel with a satisfactory splash. Now they just open the doors of the shed, do the ceremony, and then shift it forward on rails very slowly, over several hours, before lowering it into the Devonshire Dock on a lift.
That's the theory, anyway. Something went wrong, so the Astute was left high and dry for all to see (I expect subs to be long and slender, don't you? This one is short and fat,)
It was a week before Astute finally made it into the water. Ah well, such is life...
The shipyard is run from Bristol these days. I did a double-take seeing a brace of Turner's Ambassadeur buses, liberated from their usual role of running a cheap commuter service up the M4 to bringing up minor BAE functionaries in their Sunday Best. Real BAE luminaries, of course, fly directly from Filton to Walney International Airport.
Actually they don't do these things the way they used to. Subs used to go down the slipway sideways, to land in the Walney Channel with a satisfactory splash. Now they just open the doors of the shed, do the ceremony, and then shift it forward on rails very slowly, over several hours, before lowering it into the Devonshire Dock on a lift.
That's the theory, anyway. Something went wrong, so the Astute was left high and dry for all to see (I expect subs to be long and slender, don't you? This one is short and fat,)
It was a week before Astute finally made it into the water. Ah well, such is life...
The shipyard is run from Bristol these days. I did a double-take seeing a brace of Turner's Ambassadeur buses, liberated from their usual role of running a cheap commuter service up the M4 to bringing up minor BAE functionaries in their Sunday Best. Real BAE luminaries, of course, fly directly from Filton to Walney International Airport.
