FORT GEORGE (A388) RFA
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:05 pm
Built as a fleet oiler and store ship under yard No 129 by Swan Hunter shipbuilding, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, U.K. for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
18 December 1987 ordered.
09 March 1989 laid down.
01 March 1991 launched as the RFA FORT GEORGE (A388), christened by the Lady Annie Slater wife of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Sir Jock Slater. She was one of the Fort Class.
Tonnage 28,820 grt, 16,060 dwt., displacement 35,500 full load. Dim. 203.9 x 30.3 x 9.7m. (draught)
Powered by two 16-cyl. Crossley Pielstick type 16 PC2.6 ICE diesel engines, 23,600 hp, twin shafts, speed 22 knots.
Fitted out with a bow-thruster.
Crew 95 and 24 men civilian stores party and 90 men RN party.
Cargo capacity 10,000 cubic metre of oil and 3,000 cubic metre of dry cargo including munitions.
16 July 1993 commissioned.
The requirements for this class were to provide fuel and stores support to the fleet at sea.
Along with RFA FORT VICTORIA, the ship was equipped with two Phalanx CIWS point defense guns during a refit at Tyne in 1999.
In March 2000, the ship was equipped with five Westland Sea King helicopters and sent to Mozambique to help with disaster relief work following devastating floods. In May she accompanied HMS ILLUSTRIOUS to Sierra Leone to support British operations to restore stability to that country. Late in the year, during a deployment in the Mediterranean, the ship helped passengers of the Greek ferry EXPRESS SAMINA which had run aground and sunk during a storm on 26 September.
In September 2009, FORT GEORGE, whilst working with the Type 23 Frigate HMS IRON DUKE, was involved in the largest ever drugs seizure to date by the Royal Navy, when 5.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized from a converted fishing vessel MV CRISTAL in the Atlantic Ocean off South America.
Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010, the ship was identified for withdrawal. From March 2011 she was being stripped of stores and fittings in Liverpool, where she is now laid up decommissioned.
June 2011 decommissioned.
16th January 2013 she was towed by the anchor-handling tug CHRISTOS XXIII from Liverpool bound for the breakers in Aliaga, Turkey.
The passage wil take about three weeks.
After a difficult, but uneventful tow from Liverpool she arrived off Aliaga for re-cycling on 11 February 2013.
11 December 2013 she was broken up by Leyal, Aliaga.
British Indian Ocean Territory 1997 24p sg212, scott196l ( the vessel on the left on the stamp is the HMS ILLUSTRIOUS in the middle RAF FORT GEORGE and the vessel on the right of the stamp is the HMS GLOUCESTER.)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFA_Fort_GEORGE_(A388) The Royal Fleet Auxiliary by Adams & Smith.
18 December 1987 ordered.
09 March 1989 laid down.
01 March 1991 launched as the RFA FORT GEORGE (A388), christened by the Lady Annie Slater wife of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Sir Jock Slater. She was one of the Fort Class.
Tonnage 28,820 grt, 16,060 dwt., displacement 35,500 full load. Dim. 203.9 x 30.3 x 9.7m. (draught)
Powered by two 16-cyl. Crossley Pielstick type 16 PC2.6 ICE diesel engines, 23,600 hp, twin shafts, speed 22 knots.
Fitted out with a bow-thruster.
Crew 95 and 24 men civilian stores party and 90 men RN party.
Cargo capacity 10,000 cubic metre of oil and 3,000 cubic metre of dry cargo including munitions.
16 July 1993 commissioned.
The requirements for this class were to provide fuel and stores support to the fleet at sea.
Along with RFA FORT VICTORIA, the ship was equipped with two Phalanx CIWS point defense guns during a refit at Tyne in 1999.
In March 2000, the ship was equipped with five Westland Sea King helicopters and sent to Mozambique to help with disaster relief work following devastating floods. In May she accompanied HMS ILLUSTRIOUS to Sierra Leone to support British operations to restore stability to that country. Late in the year, during a deployment in the Mediterranean, the ship helped passengers of the Greek ferry EXPRESS SAMINA which had run aground and sunk during a storm on 26 September.
In September 2009, FORT GEORGE, whilst working with the Type 23 Frigate HMS IRON DUKE, was involved in the largest ever drugs seizure to date by the Royal Navy, when 5.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized from a converted fishing vessel MV CRISTAL in the Atlantic Ocean off South America.
Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010, the ship was identified for withdrawal. From March 2011 she was being stripped of stores and fittings in Liverpool, where she is now laid up decommissioned.
June 2011 decommissioned.
16th January 2013 she was towed by the anchor-handling tug CHRISTOS XXIII from Liverpool bound for the breakers in Aliaga, Turkey.
The passage wil take about three weeks.
After a difficult, but uneventful tow from Liverpool she arrived off Aliaga for re-cycling on 11 February 2013.
11 December 2013 she was broken up by Leyal, Aliaga.
British Indian Ocean Territory 1997 24p sg212, scott196l ( the vessel on the left on the stamp is the HMS ILLUSTRIOUS in the middle RAF FORT GEORGE and the vessel on the right of the stamp is the HMS GLOUCESTER.)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFA_Fort_GEORGE_(A388) The Royal Fleet Auxiliary by Adams & Smith.